Culture & Society Lesson: Newspapers
When I was in secondary schools, I always asked my teachers the ways of improving my English language. The model answer was often ‘extensive reading – especially reading the newspapers’. What kinds of newspapers, however, should students read then? There are only few English newspapers published in Hong Kong. Fortunately, their standards are in general quite high in terms of the contents as well as the language used. Reading English newspapers in Hong Kong is, therefore, regarded as ‘posh’. Nevertheless, a considerable number of students find it difficult to read since most of the news articles are written in formal English. Over the past few years, the popularity of tabloids has risen. With shorter lengths of texts, will students then find it easier to read English newspapers?
Today, we analysed two British newspapers, namely The Sun (tabloid) and The Guardian (broadsheet). With the same piece of information, their contents varied a lot in terms of the use of vocabulary, and the writers’ attitudes and tones. Having supported by facts, figures and quotes from recognised people, The Guardian apparently was written in a more neutral and objective tone than The Sun. Its language used was also more formal, controlled and concise.
Despite the fact that the sentence structure of texts in The Guardian was longer and more complex, it was interesting (and surprising) that we all found it easier to read. It was mainly because The Sun was written in more idiomatic (e.g. direst of straits = very bad situation or big problem) and chatty language (e.g. slang). What the most challenging for non-native speakers was its frequent use of puns and jokes (e.g. Pension potty).
However, it is sometimes still fun to let students read the tabloids. In my opinions, teachers can make good use of either the broadsheets or tabloids, provided that their contents are proper and appropriate enough to suit the abilities of students. For example, I would rather prefer The Guardian as the teaching materials to The Sun because the latter consists of abundant gossips, scandals of celebrities and nudity.
When I was in secondary schools, I always asked my teachers the ways of improving my English language. The model answer was often ‘extensive reading – especially reading the newspapers’. What kinds of newspapers, however, should students read then? There are only few English newspapers published in Hong Kong. Fortunately, their standards are in general quite high in terms of the contents as well as the language used. Reading English newspapers in Hong Kong is, therefore, regarded as ‘posh’. Nevertheless, a considerable number of students find it difficult to read since most of the news articles are written in formal English. Over the past few years, the popularity of tabloids has risen. With shorter lengths of texts, will students then find it easier to read English newspapers?
Today, we analysed two British newspapers, namely The Sun (tabloid) and The Guardian (broadsheet). With the same piece of information, their contents varied a lot in terms of the use of vocabulary, and the writers’ attitudes and tones. Having supported by facts, figures and quotes from recognised people, The Guardian apparently was written in a more neutral and objective tone than The Sun. Its language used was also more formal, controlled and concise.
Despite the fact that the sentence structure of texts in The Guardian was longer and more complex, it was interesting (and surprising) that we all found it easier to read. It was mainly because The Sun was written in more idiomatic (e.g. direst of straits = very bad situation or big problem) and chatty language (e.g. slang). What the most challenging for non-native speakers was its frequent use of puns and jokes (e.g. Pension potty).
However, it is sometimes still fun to let students read the tabloids. In my opinions, teachers can make good use of either the broadsheets or tabloids, provided that their contents are proper and appropriate enough to suit the abilities of students. For example, I would rather prefer The Guardian as the teaching materials to The Sun because the latter consists of abundant gossips, scandals of celebrities and nudity.
Interesting comments about the Sun! Yes it is a tabloid, it is also called a 'Red Top' because the name of the newspaper is on a red background like a few others. There are 2 types of tabloid - a tabloid and a red top. The red tops are ones that include semi-naked women, tabloids tend not to do so. For an advanced class the exercise that you did is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the Sun is the most read newspaper in the UK, it has a reading age of about 12 and is written to be read in a 15 minute tea break. The journalists who work on the Sun are actually better journalists than those working on, say, the Guardian, because they have to be able to convey their story in as few words as possible.
Do you have weekly English language papers in HK? If so you could get you students to read a small article each day. A whole newspaper in one day would be very hard to any student.
TNT
Dawn