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Writing activities
1. Letter to the editor
Material: A series of recent newspapers in English
Direct learners to the letters to the editors page of the newspaper. Ask them to read some of the letters and discuss
in pairs which ones they find most interesting/ controversial/ easy to understand. Feedback on this as a class. There
is often one or more letters in the letter to the editor section that can spark discussion or a controversy.
Now ask learners to write their own letter to the editor. They can respond to one of the letters on the page, or they
can write about a recent news item. They must write between 25 and 75 words. When they have finished, ask them
to compare letters with a partner and try to peer correct any big mistakes. Circulate and monitor. Then post the
letters to the editor around the class. If someone responded to an earlier letter then they should copy and cut out
the original letter to which they are responding.
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Speaking activities
1. What's this?
Materials: photos cut out of various newspapers (not necessarily English newspapers)
Cut out some photos from the newspaper of recent news items which are familiar/ relevant/ of interest to your
learners. Put the learners in pairs. Demonstrate the activity by holding up a picture and doing the following:
Describe what is in the picture (there is there are a man is talking two women are walking.)
Speculate about what the news story could be (it could be it must be he might be)
Ask learners to do the same with their picture in pairs. As a follow up they could write the caption for the photo on a
separate piece of paper. Collect the captions and photos. Redistribute them to the learners, who now have to find
the photo to match the caption.
2. Newspapers as a prompt
Material: Some recent newspapers (in the learners L1)
You can always use newspapers as a prompt to start a discussion on a given topic. Just as you would show a picture
of something to prompt discussion, do the same with a newspaper article. If your aim is discussion and speaking
skills, then why not use a newspaper written in the learners L1 to prompt discussion? Learners will be able to skim
an article much quicker in their own language, especially at lower levels. If it is an issue that is local (and therefore
unlikely to be covered in an English newspaper), then all the more reason to do so.
A variation of this would be to ask the learner to read something from the newspaper in their own language and
explain it to you in English (of course this works best in small classes, or one to one classes).
3. Newspaper as a prop
Material: A newspaper (any language)
You can use a newspaper in class without learners having to read it at all. For some role play speaking activities give
out props. For fidgety learners, having something to hold while they are speaking can help!
For example, role play a conversation between two people over a coffee in the morning. To help them get started,
give them the following options to start a conversation:
A (reading a newspaper) Can you BELIEVE this?
B What is it?
A This is an outrage. Listen to this
A Are you listening to me?
B (reading a newspaper) Hmmmm?
A I was saying
For a more typical TEFL type activity try the following:
4. Roleplay the news
Choose an interesting article or story from the newspaper and make enough copies for every pair of learners. There
are often human interest stories in the newspaper which adapt themselves well to role play (Man finds long lost
brother; Lottery winner buys a house for pet dog etc.). Ask learners to first read the newspaper and then
improvise a short role play. Role plays from newspapers are often conducted one of two ways: 1) one learner plays
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the journalist and the other plays the protagonist of the story; the journalists does an interview, or 2) learners each
take the role of a person in the story and act out the story, or something that happens before or after the story.
Reading activities
1. What's in the news today?
Materials: English language newspapers
Distribute the newspapers, one for each group of two or three learners. Tell them they have a time limit with which
to skim through the newspaper. When the timit limit is up, ask two groups to get together and report to each other
everything they remember that is in the news. They must do this in English, and cannot refer to the newspapers
(this is important, because otherwise you may get one or two learners who bury their heads in the paper and dont
participate!). Do feedback as a whole group. This is a combined reading and speaking activity, although the time
limit forces learners to use the reading skill of skimming.
Newspaper show and tell
2. Materials: English language newspapers, enough so that each learner has one (or a section of one)
Give each learner a newspaper and tell them that for homework, you would like them to take the newspaper home,
choose an article and prepare a report on it to classmates. The report must be no longer than five minutes, and
should include peer teaching on new vocabulary that the learner encounters in their article. This encourages
reading outside the classroom, as well as dictionary use. Set up a schedule and have the last five minutes of every
class devoted to news reports by a learner or learners and make this project part of your class routine.
Do it yourselves newspaper quiz
Materials: One newspaper, or section of a newspaper for each group
Give each group of four or five learners a newspaper and a piece of paper. Tell them that they have ten minutes to
make a quiz based on that section of the newspaper. Suggest different kinds of questions, e.g. How long has X
been Where is ? How many people? What happened in ? Who is? Who won? How much didpay/cost?
In groups, learners write six questions. Circulate and monitor, checking the grammar and spelling in the questions
(and making sure that questions are not too difficult!)
When the groups are finished, they pass the paper and the questions to another group. Set a time limit for new
groups to do the quiz. Repeat the process if you have time. Do feedback and check the answers to the quizzes. This is
good to practise the reading skill of scanning for information.
Why do all the work making a class for a news story when it is right there for you? You can download a free lesson
based on a news story every month at onestopenglish.com. There are different lessons for elementary, intermediate
and advanced learners for each news story. Take a look at the archive for some great pre-prepared materials.
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