ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#41 | October 8, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036
This paper is submitted by Ch. Radhika, , M.A,(Lit), M.Phil, (Ph.d) department of English, A.N.U College of Engineering and Technology,Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjuna Nagar, Andhra Pradesh. and Ch. Rajeswari, M.A(Lit),M.Phil. Pursuing Ph.d under the guidance of Prof.R.Saraswathi, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjuna Nagar, Andhra Pradesh..
Abstract
We have witnessed history as we stood the threshold of the 21st century, biding adieu to the last and welcoming a new era altogether. This is an era of globalization where man has witnessed tremendous development in the field of technology. With the world turning into one global village, the modern man has developed the need of a global language. One of the major forces of globalization in India has led to an overwhelming demand for engineers across the globe. The last few years have witnessed an unprecedented rise in the number of skilled professional in India, employed by both local and multi-national companies. With the whole world becoming one global market and result-oriented, professionals are facing new challenges in effective communication every day.
The mass media are a very important component of society. Marshall Michigan says that “today’s media are creating a global village, a community in which people throughout the world see major news unfold and hence participate in the same event.” Their use in a developing country like India is considered most crucial in the challenge to mobilize people for development activities. Our daily lives are so interwoven with the media that we are scarcely aware of their presence and influence. The modern media of mass communication like newspapers is important source of information. The print media use English as medium of communication in order to send the ideas and thoughts of the intellectuals to a large number of audiences. Today, media matter to everyone, to politician, celebrities, managers, advertisers, teachers, parents, doctors, patients and anyone who might depend on them for information or find themselves affected by their images. Print Media stimulate learners by motivating them, and they bring the best teacher. Biagi Shirley (1996) opines that “Media inform, amuse, startle, anger, entertain, thrill, but very seldom leave anyone untouched.” There is no doubt to say that media are a source to the pedagogues and the students with creative and practical ideas.
The object of this paper is to study the role of newspapers in developing one’s language learning ability. In the teaching of language, the role of print media cannot be neglected. The need for the use of technology as a vehicle for teaching language is widely felt. But our concern here is their role in the teaching of language. News papers definitely have a positive role in facilitating learning and teaching in general. Through the news paper a teacher can meet various needs and interests of their students.
The importance of News in Education:
Jacob J.S. say, “Newspaper gives the people the eyes to see themselves, it gives them the ears to hear themselves and hear to the world, it gives people the voice by which they can make themselves heard in the world.”
Information dissemination is the chief function of the newspaper. The newspapers today have the added responsibility of providing instruction. A newspaper fulfills this function of instruction through its enlightening comments and special features. Enlightenment leads to understanding.
Using News papers in Education:
Efforts were made in the U.S.A to integrate the reading of newspapers into classroom activities. The programme is called “Newspaper in Education” (NIE). The goals of NIE are to –
- Encourage reading habit
- Underscore the responsibilities of citizenship
- Foster a daily newspaper reading habit
News paper – an effective tool in teaching and learning
News paper:
Deal with contemporary issues and provide motivation for reading and discussion.
It provides students with a lot of language practice through activities which develop reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
Entertain students and encourage reading English in general both inside and outside the classroom.
Build good reading habits that will last a life time.
Can be cut, marked, clipped, pasted, filed and recycled.
Bridge the gap between the classroom and the ‘real’ world.
Are extremely flexible and adaptable to all curriculum areas and grade levels, and cost effective
Contain practical vocabulary and are the beast models of clear, concise writing.
The quality of language used in them has a great impact on students also.
Find several varieties of English due to its deep penetration into the society. Different columns like “Education Plus” on Mondays; “Young World” on Fridays “Literary Review” in a month enables the students to improve their language competence.
Do’s and don’ts of using a Newspaper language teaching and learning
Do’s
- Allow learners to select an article that interests them.
- Be clear on aims which to practice: Listening / Reading / Speaking?
- Make learners read even outside the class.
- Help learners become better learners.
- Make your tasks authentic. Eg. Underline all the verbs in the past.
Don’ts
- Make a song and dance on headlines, editorial etc
- Assume learners to be interested in British / American / Australian culture.
- Assume what interests you will interest your learners.
- Set simple tasks for your learners with a very difficult piece of text.
Use of Newspapers in English Language teaching-learning process
Newspapers are informal but provide very influential education. They are the cheapest reading material. It can be used to teach areas from the alphabet to sentence structure, grammar, discourse, techniques, style and all the major composition skills including creative writing. Teachers can make use of the photographs, advertisements, articles and pictures in their teaching. They can be easily cut and handled in the classroom for better teaching and learning.
Learning Process
Newspapers are the essence of language learning and teaching. It develops the basic skills of the student (LSRW). Instruction through newspapers introduces variety and element of ‘play – way’. It’s the best aid of the teachers in the learning process.
Activities using the Newspaper
Listening:
- The teacher read the newspaper loudly with correct stress and pronunciation. The students listen to the news with proper attention. After that the student has to read the same piece of article with correct accent. This activity shows how well they are listening to the article.
- Select any piece of article from the newspaper and the teacher has to read out that article. Then the students have to reproduce the same without changing the meaning of the article.
Speaking
Group work or pair work
1. The Photographs / pictures are cut out. Then the other member is to comment on it.
a) Describe the picture: The students have to describe the picture like there is a man or woman crying……….
b) Speculate the news: The students have to understand the news and speculate like “it could be or it may be or might be……
2. Role – Play
a)Making students enact and start a conversation while drinking a cup of tea in the morning.
3. News show and tell
Make the learner select a topic he/ she will read the news, he peer teaches the new vocabulary and gives a report of the topic.
Reading
Skimming and scanning can be well taught using newspapers. G.C. Ahuja and Prameela Ahuja said: “There is no greater asset to the reader of today than highly developed skill in skimming. Skimming enables a person to select quickly content which he want to read and discord that in which he is not interested or which is inconsequential to his purpose.”
1. Skim the newspaper
The students can be motivated to skim the newspaper and tell each group the news they remember.
2. News quiz
A quiz can be conducted after giving them time for reading.
2. Matching Heads to Leads
Separate the headlines from the stories. Make the students identify and match the topic sentences to the main headlines in the news items.
Writing
1. Letter to the editor: The students can be encouraged to respond on one of the letters or on a news items.
2. Writing catchy headlines: Making the learners write catchy headlines and to a news item, compare and contrast with the original one.
3. Editorial cartoons: These deals with politics and current events. A discussion can be organized and an essay can be written on the subject matter.
4. Question & Answer: Some reader write question and question and other readers are to answer them in spoken / written form.
Vocabulary
The teacher read the selected news item loudly. The students listen to the news with proper attention. The teacher instructed the students that while they are listening to the news paper article they need to pick up as many words as possible except pronouns and write the meanings and antonym for those words. It works to improve the vocabulary of the student. When I was working in K. L. University the students wrote 100 words and they felt this activity very interesting and useful.
Learning Tenses through Newspaper
Ask the students to write 5 sentences for each tense. Words in the present, past and future tenses and also ask them to check with the other groups and finally ask them to read out in the class.
Learning Grammar through Newspaper
Ask the students to search for particular suffix or prefixes, compound words, particular metaphors similes, adjectives, adverbs.
Give a selected topic from the newspaper to the student and ask them to find out the vowels, consonants and diphthongs. Finally ask them to write phonetic transcription of those words. This kind of learning makes them to involve with the group and work actively.
Conclusion
Thus the print media recognized as the useful tool to teach English language in the classroom. Newspapers can be integrated into classroom and leisure time activities as well. Newspapers help both teachers to make teaching and learners to learn and get wonderful practice. It not only gives thousand words but it also helps students improve their thinking and observation skills, it promotes imagination. Media can help with many issues such as: motivation, clarity, recycling, drafting, revising, editing, variety, mixed-ability classes, giving life and color to classroom procedures and methods, thus at the same time helping the students improve accuracy and fluency. Present day news papers like The Hindu we can see different columns like “Education Plus” on Mondays; “Young World” on Fridays “Literary Review” in a month enables the students to improve their language competence. The Hindu News paper started E+clubs in colleges to instill interest among the students not only to learn communication skills but also make them to come out of the fear of speaking in English. Application of this model would help teachers to be geared up to the challenges of 21st century teaching-learning.
References
Chauhan,S.S.(1997) Innovations in Teaching Learning Process. New Delhi: Vikas publication.
G.C.Ahuja and Prameela Ahuja. (1979) How to increase Reading Speed. New Delhi:Sterling.
Prabhavathi, K. (1992) Teaching of English. Guntur: Sushil Publications
Vanaja, M. (2004) Educational Technology. Hyderabad: Neelkamal Publications
Vernon, s. Gerlact and Donald P. Ely (1980). Teaching and Media- A Systematic Approach. London: Prentice Hall
Vinod S. Dubey. (1989) Newspaper English in India. New Delhi: Bharathi.