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Newspapers

The use of authentic material, such as news articles, in the ESL/EFL classroom has turned the newspaper into a powerful tool for encouraging participation and effective sharing of opinions and knowledge, since it covers a wide range of current topics.

In addition, online newspapers provide a unique opportunity of getting inmediate issues of interest to students. You can look up the ones you are interested in by using these newspaper searchers: Newspapers24, Internet Public Library, Newspapers.com, Onlinenewspapers.com.

If you are decided to use British papers, perhaps this classification may help you: UK Newspapres Revealed. Once you have made up your mind, the portal British Media Online will be your site. For those who prefer the American style, a suitable index can be found at USA Newspapers Online or at Top 100 US Newspapers.

To have a grasp of some of the many possibilities involved in teaching specific linguistic issues through online newspapers you should take a look at these lesson plans and teaching ideas:

- Breaking News English. (Excellent! – EFL / ESL English lesson plans, podcasts, handouts and quizzes)

- BBC Learning English.

- Using English Newspapers in the ESL/EFL Classroom.

- Facilitating Discussions of Newspaper Articles in the ESL/EFL Classroom.

- How to Effectively Use News Articles in the EFL Classroom.

- Creating ESL/EFL Lessons Based on News and Current Events.

- Using the 5 W’s of Journalism in the ESL Reading Classroom.

- Newspapers in the EFL ESL Classroom.

- Journalism glossary.

- Idioms found in the news.

- Useful vocabulary about the Press.

- Analysing Newspapers.

- Newspaper vocabulary with games, quizzes and puzzles.

- Working on news stories.

- Treasure hunt: Online news.

- Webquest: Today’s news.

As difficult as it may be to understand news articles in English, non-native speakers often find it even harder to make sense of newspaper headlines. In order to make them easier, the following resources can be used:

 - Words seen in headlines.

- Understanding headlines.

- Understanding Newspaper Headlines.

- Teaching EFL/ESL using headlines.

- Gaps and guessing: hitting the headlines.

- Guessing the nearest meaning in headlines.

- Headline completion.

- Newspaper headlines. (Online test)

Related Posts:

• June 1, 2009 -- Do you enjoy reading… news?
• June 15, 2009 -- Geographical Media
• October 18, 2009 -- TeacherTube