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In this Teaching Tip topic, Phil will examine
the importance of teaching current events
in the English language classroom,
and how to facilitate two current event
activities using Voice of America resources.
Welcome, Phil!
Hello, everyone! My name is Phil and thank you
for joining me for my Teaching Tips!
Current events are a very important
topic in today's world, and with so many
changes happening across the globe it is
important that your students are aware
of what's happening in their classroom and beyond.
Before we begin, let's look at our goals.
Today, we'll explore the importance
of teaching current events in
the English language classroom and how
to facilitate two current event activities
using Voice of America resources.
So, what do we mean when we say "current events"?
Current events are defined as events
in the present concerning important people,
places, things, or ideas.
Now, why are current events important to your English language classroom?
They are important because they build
language ability and vocabulary, offer endless
topics that connect to all areas of curriculum,
keep students aware of events happening
locally, nationally, and internationally,
promote critical thinking, motivate students to
have further discussions, and can inspire
students to become active in their communities.
So, where can you access current events?
Some of the main sources are the internet, newspapers,
magazines, television, radio, social media,
and podcasts. But, today I want to talk
about Voice of America, specifically the
Learning English branch, and how to use
their current event resources in your classroom.
Voice of America is a multimedia source
of news for English learners around the world.
It produces content for digital television and radio
platforms in more than 40 languages to
over 200 million people a week.
The Learning English branch has many
resources including news articles which
cover a wide range of current event topics.
Every article comes with an audio version
of the story as well as definitions for difficult
vocabulary words.
Now, I will show you two different VOA Learning English
resources and give an example of how each
can be used in your ESL or EFL classroom.
One great feature we have at VOA is
called This Day in Photos where each day
pictures of current events from around
the world are posted on our website.
These can be great activities to use in your
classroom too. One effective activity is
to have your students try to predict
what is happening in the photo.
Let's try to do one together!
Analyze this photo and think about these two questions:
What do you think is happening in this photo, and why?
If you were to give this photo a title
what would you call it? And you may
want to pause this video while you think
about your answers.
Okay, now I'll give you the actual
description of the photo and let's see how
close your ideas were for question number one.
A worshipper spits water on a sword as he
takes part in Hei Neak Ta, or procession of the spirits,
which marks the end of the celebration
of the Lunar New Year for the Chinese
community in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Okay, now let's look at our second resource
and activity, this one is called News Words.
These are one-minute videos that
introduce a new vocabulary word in the
news and show a brief news video of the
word in context.
Let's watch part of the video right now.
Welcome to the Voice of America's News Words.
This week's News Word is about housing built
in a shipping port. Practical. Urban rigor is the name
of a new, low-price type of housing for
students at the University of Copenhagen.
Practical means "fit for actual use."
It refers to the doing or using of something
instead of theories and ideas.
One activity that I like to use this for
in class is to have your students create
their own News Word video or presentation.
So, how does this work?
First, create a list of vocabulary from current events.
For example, let's use the word "practical"
like we saw in the video, then give groups
of students one vocabulary word.
Have them find a news article that uses it.
In this example, they could use "Students
Live in Floating Shipping Containers"
by Deborah Block.
Then have your students create presentations
where they define the word and read part of
the news story that uses the word.
There are many more resources on the VOA
Learning English website that you should
definitely check out. Some of these include
Learning English TV, Let's Learn English,
People in America, Every Day Grammar, News Stories,
and the Learning English Word Book!
Summing up, today we examined the importance
of teaching current events in the English language
classroom, and I also showed you how to
facilitate two current event activities using
Voice of America resources.
Thanks so much for joining me and good luck
using these great resources in your classroom.
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