Saturday 10 March 2012

Breaking News English

The front page








General information and functions for language classroom

Although it seems to focus on reading skill (from its explicit article 'Breaking News English'), it contains mp3 listening and grammar exercises are embedded. All exercises are built up in logical sequence: before, during and after reading/ listening to the news.

The link: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

It is an up-to-date website, the recent news' articles and exercises are updated.

Suggested activities to do with this technology    

1. Reading comprehension
2. Reading test (since the material can be printed as PDF file)
3. Listening practice
Sample of exercise; listen and fill in the gap
4. News reading game (competition among groups of students or pair works)
5. Comparing news between this site and other commercial newspaper's site (i.e. BBC)

Advantages

The advantages of using this site is the students practice not only reading skill, but also catch up with daily news. They will find its usefulness and up-to-date article.

Since all of the exercises are written in logical sequences, so that the teacher does not have to reorder again and also can print out as a PDF file. Therefore, before using this material, the teacher only have to check the difficulty level of the passage, and select some interesting exercises which suits for the students.

Lastly, this site promotes authentic reading material where the contents are about daily events. It is worth noting that in real life, students will have experience reading or catching up news on the internet. Hence, this site is a good source to build up their critical reading skill.

Disadvantages and some limitations

There are two major considerable points to concern before using; one is the plain design template and another is the difficulty level of the text.

First and foremost, it is clearly seen that this webpage is full of text, and no visual aids (except some unrelated adverts!). Therefore, the students might get bored or overwhelmed by the text. Moreover, external links and ads are mixed, thus it is difficult to differentiate between the actual site and the irrelevance adverts.

Lastly, it is important to note that the language is quite difficult. I suggest, pre-intermediate or intermediate students are suitable and they also need to learn critical reading strategies alongside of the lesson.

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