Breaking news English

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

Keep you abreast of the current affairs!- Breaking News English

What is this?
This is a website full of learning English materials, you can find a variety of English lessons which is based on current news. To begin with, seelct one from the recent news articles, you will discover a large amount of teaching resources in the next site about 'print', 'listen', 'read', 'grammar', 'spell' and 'words'.

Let me show you the steps.
1. First, select the news articles by clinking the heading

                      

2. There is a variety of activities you can choose from, click on one of the acitivities below

3. You can simply choose 'Sentence Jumble' from the activities

4. In the example of Sentence Jumbo, students need to listen to the recording and then match the sentences together. Then, students have to choose a sentence from (A), (B), or (C) each time and make a grammatically correct sentence which is as the same as the original text.

5. Students need to type in the sentences which are shown in the blank and click Check to see if it is correct

Teachers can allow students to take notes during listening. To make the most of it, students are asked to group in pairs or three of them in a group to give out ideas. Students learn how to have better ideas of flow in generating language, and communication skills in collaborating ideas. Students need to discuss the text, exchange their opinions and competition create tension to see which team is the fastest in completing the game.

In this way, situation genre is linked, it is important as we learn things in genre. If we come across one word, we will suddenly remember others, since it triggers our schemta.

Why is the content good for language learning?

1. encourages autonomous learning
2. triggers our schemata

Limitations

1. it takes long time for teachers to select materials
2. teachers needs to be selective, more time will be consumed in choosing materials
3. too many things in the website, it makes ones difficult read
4. the content of the articles is for intermediate level or above, teachers need to be careful in   choosing the right materials for students

A real teaching example of this website

1. girls and women recession: idea of flow generating the language
2. sentence jumbo: everyone in pairs give out ideas/ 3 of them in a group to give ideas  
3. vocabulary builder: students listen first and then give them out, teachers can allow students to take notes