Introduction
Ask any new ESL/EFL teacher (or, for that matter, a seasoned teacher) what comes to mind as an authentic reading activity for their learners and almost certainly one of the first things they will say is “using a newspaper”. There has been much use and abuse of newspapers in the ELT profession. This article takes a fresh look at newspapers and suggests what to do, and what to perhaps AVOID doing.
Why do so many teachers like using newspapers? Well, to start with, newspapers are much more current than course books. There is also a lot of information in newspapers which make them an excellent springboard for lessons. Finally, there are lots of different kinds of texts in newspapers (narratives, stories, letters, advertisements, reports…)
So what do teachers do with newspapers? One of the problems with newspapers is that they are often used as an up-to-date course book activity. The teacher applies the same pedagogical principles and exercises that are in the course book. Two major problems tend to emerge from this approach: