News
1.- Introduction
In today’s lesson, we are going to talk about the news. We are going to look at common expressions and vocabulary associated with certain news stories. Let’s begin!
2.- Speaking Activity
A. Answer the following questions out loud giving as much information as possible.
1) | How often do you watch the news or read a newspaper? | |
2) | When do you usually watch the news or read a newspaper? | |
3) | When you´re reading/ looking at the news, which types of stories interest you most? | |
4) | Can you remember a recent news story your read/saw on the television? What was it? | |
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3.- Social Issues
Nowadays, we often find re-occurring stories in the newspapers. Here are a few issues that frequently appear:
A. Translate the issues into Spanish. Use a dictionary if necessary.
1) | Crime | |
2) | Education | |
3) | Drug abuse | |
4) | Immigration | |
5) | War | |
6) | Racism | |
7) | Global warming | |
8) | Discrimination | |
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4.- Focus on Pronunciation
A. Listen to your teacher. How many syllables are there in each issue?
Crime / Education / Drug abuse / Immigration / War
Racism / Global warming / Discrimination
(En todas las preguntas, para ver respuesta hacer doble click en recuadro; un click vuelve a recuadro original)
B. Look at the following stress patterns. Place the issues into the correctcategories.
(En todas las preguntas, para ver respuesta hacer doble click en recuadro; un click vuelve a recuadro original)
5.- Focus on Vocabulary: Language of newspapers
Before you listen to a few news stories, we are going to look at some key vocabulary.
A. Match the words to their definitions.
(En todas las preguntas, para ver respuesta hacer doble click en recuadro; un click vuelve a recuadro original)
6.- Learn the new vocabulary!
A. Fill in the gaps with the correct word in the correct form from the list above.
1) | There was of boys waiting for the man outside the shop. | |
2) | The stole more than $5,000 from the lady´s house. | |
3) | We can protect the by recycling paper, plastic and glass. | |
4) | We were very surprised when the headmaster last month. | |
5) | They on the radio that tomorrow is going to be the hottet day of the year. | |
6) | He the house and left without anyone noticing him. | |
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7.- Listening
[Objeto Flash Eliminado] Sonido
You are going to listen to three news stories.
Crime / Education / Drug abuse / Immigration / War
Racism / Global warming / Discrimination
A. Listen. What issue does each story talk about?
1) | ||
2) | ||
3) | ||
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B. Listen again. Answer the following questions.
Story 1
1) | What does Philip Brown do? | |
2) | Why did he resign? | |
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Story 2
1) | When did the burglary take place? | |
2) | What did they steal from the house? (4 things) | |
3) | Did the police catch the criminals? | |
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Story 3
1) | What temperature was recorded in the UK last month? | |
2) | What advice does the scientist give us? (2 points) | |
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Check your answers by looking at the audio script.
Audio Script
Story 1
Philip Brown, a German teacher from the London High School in Soho has resigned from his job after the school announced that it will no longer be teaching German to students. Philip Brown, one of the school’s main German teachers is very angry. He believes German is a very important language and that all students should have the opportunity to choose what they study.
Story 2
A house was burgled on Saturday night by a gang of five people. When Claire Woods arrived home after her sister’s wedding, she was devastated to find her house had been burgled. The television, DVD player, microwave and digital radio were just a few of the things taken. Neighbours saw five people enter the house at about 10pm. The police were called immediately but were not able to catch the criminals.
Story 3
Last month temperatures in the UK reached 43 degrees. This is the highest temperature ever recorded. Scientists are blaming the increase in temperature on global warming. A scientist from University College London claimed, “The more damage we do to the environment the higher temperatures are going to get. We need to be more careful with our actions. We need to recycle more and we need to increase our use of public transport”.
8.- Speaking Activity
It’s now your turn to invent your own news story. It doesn’t have to be very long but it does have to include some of the new vocabulary from today’s lesson.
The issue you have to talk about is:
- Crime
Try and write it first and then practice saying it out loud. Good luck!
Advice – How to improve your listening skills
As a language learner, it is very important to read and listen to the news in English. Not only can the news help you improve your vocabulary, it can also help you with sentence structure and grammatical issues.
Here are a few links that you can access online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/