#2 Breaking News English

www.breakingnewsenglish.com

What is it? What does it do?

Breaking News English is a well-established current affairs based site operated by Sean Banville.   I've used it many times in my short career, most frequently on summer courses in the UK with teenagers of mixed nationalities.  I find it accessible, topical and a full of ready-made lessons ideas which are easy to print.   It is currently part of a group of 8 sites, which include Listen A Minute and ESL Holiday Lessons.  A the time of writing, there are 1,508 lessons on the constantly updated database.  Sean trawls the newsosphere and uploads a new lesson plan every 3 days or so.  The plans always follow the same style, running to a downloadable 13-page PDF.  In addition, he personally records and makes the mp3 (example) and transcript available for every news story, which is then used a basis for many of the activities.

Relevance to language learning?

Example news item: 
Online activities, the mp3 and printable handouts are available for this lesson at http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com

Breaking News English breaks down each news story into warm-ups, before reading/listening activities, gap fills, post reading/listening activities, survey work (where the students generate questions to interview other students) and questions for discussion.   The principle is that a text can be 'attacked' from every direction using every macro skill (speaking, writing, listening, reading).  
This variety of activities can increase the likelihood of the retention of the new or unfamiliar vocabulary learned, as plenty of practice is given using it. 

It also contains sections which encourage meta-talk. This is a classroom dictation activity where learners are required to reconstruct a short text by listening and noting down key words, which are then used as a base for reconstruction.  This is also known as 'dictogloss', which uses multiple skills in a number of different activities for a task to be completed. 

I've used the site for single lessons, especially as a basis for topical discussion, and when I've been generally short of time in lesson planning.  I used it, for example, as the basis of a lesson on 'cause and effect' following the story of an Icelandic ash cloud delaying travel.


I've also used it as inspiration for a 2 week project on 'Breaking News' with teenagers in which we would look at the headlines of the day, vocabulary and grammar around news reporting and geting students to create their 
own stories, which were later filmed.

How can it be used?

The lesson plans are extensive and there is far too much contained in them to do everything.  The most appropriate activities for the class should be chosen - ones you think will work - such as one warm-up activity, either a gap-fill or a synonym check etc.  It depends on the needs of the learners and how relevant 'topical discussion' is for the class.  It is aimed around Intermediate (B1/B2) learners.  It is excellent for getting students to speak, or getting to know each other in the early part of a course.

Each topic probably has new or unfamiliar vocabulary for the students which can be worked with.  Also useful are the comprehension activities which check understanding of the how certain words are used in the text, or the activities on expressing opinions, which can ultimately lead to a discussion where two larger groups take sides.  Prediction tasks can also be used to generate ideas simply from news headlines.    

In addition to the extensive plan, there are underused quizzes at the top of the news item, such as the text reconstruction activity, called 'No Letters'.  This is a fabulous interactive element which actually engages the students, as long as students are paired up at a computer screen.  The collaborative activity can be done as a post-listening task, or as a way to check the 'meaning'.  Students can be asked to remember 10-20 'meaningful words' with a partner first or 'braintstormed' for vocabulary. I've not used this 'hidden gem' before, but can see its potential.  Scores are kept for correct answers and this is adversely affected if incorrect words are given. You could even add a 'competitive' element by timing it and see which pair gets the highest score.  

In addition, there is a 'sentence jumble', which is designed to gets students to remake the text, taking chunks of the original.  This is known as click-ratio interaction.  The activity flows and a running score is kept. Again, a competitive element can be added, especially for younger learners, with students talking out loud, much like a shouting dictation, in which they have to concentrate on their input, not being distracted/helped by others.

What limitations are there?

In some ways, there are no limitations to the content.  Indeed, this is just one of a number of Sean's sites, which are aimed at different levels, some of which are topic-based not by topicality, although BNE is also searchable in this way.  

The only reservation is that the same format is repeated for each news item.  I found that I didn;t want to repeat the same kind of activities over and over again with my learners.  Of course, there is so much content that different types of activities can be used each time.   It might, however, get a little repetitive for some students if the teacher relied on the site too much.

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