The republic of uzbekistan uzbek state world languages university english faculty III

The Disadvantages of Using Newspapers . Most learners find newspaper articles are difficult, especially for foreign readers who may be unfamiliar with the culture and politics of the target country. Not only does a lack of awareness of the social context cause difficulties, but the language itself can also cause students despair. This fact can be found because newspapers have language expressions that cannot be understood by students. Roy Pearse stated “there are other useful expressions which are often metaphoric and sometimes border on the cliché. They are used very frequently and are essential for students to know, e.g. go/be on strike, and break the deadlock. Work out an agreement, streamline, play a role, rate prospects, lay off workers, boycott, suffer a setback, agree to terms, peace talks, peace settlement, cease-fire”.⁷
For the first time, students will be discouraged when they read headlines and paragraph headings because they will probably mean nothing to students. On the other hand, may be ambiguous. “They are often compounds of nouns, needing a tree diagram to make the meaning clear. For example titles like ’30 year old murder witness doubt’ or ‘Rail Crash Track Check Report’ may not be anything to students”.⁸
All the problems above come from the language of newspapers. Other disadvantages are unavailability of English newspapers in small cities. Those English newspapers are only produced in big cities like Jakarta; moreover, English newspapers from target countries are still limited in Indonesia.⁹
“ Newspaper DOs and DON’Ts
Do...
 Use English language newspapers produced for the local community if you are teaching in a country where English is not an
official language. Many large cities will have a newspaper in English. The topics within these papers are likely to have more of an
impact on the learners than topics that are specific to the British or American press.
 Allow learners to select an article that interests them, work on it and report back to other learners.
 Be clear on aims. Is it reading or speaking you want to practice? Or both?
 Get learners to read outside class as much as possible.
 Make your tasks as authentic as the material. Tasks like “underline all the verbs in the past” are of limited value and should be used
sparingly. Think about what people do when they read newspapers in their own language.
 Help learners to become better learners. Reading is a great way of acquiring language. If you can get your learners to regularly dip
into English newspapers then their reading skills, writing skills and vocabulary will improve. Talk about reading and
comprehension of English texts with your learners as well, and share strategies that they use when reading. How often do they use
a dictionary for example? At the end of a course, do they feel they are reading faster or better?