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NEWS OPEN SESSION

MAP IT

Let's Organize a Mind Map about the Swine Flu. What KEY WORDS can you relate to this disease? It is a good idea to organize vocabulary this way according to the topic of the news because it will help you to prepare the vocabulary you might find in any piece of news.

This page saves your activity in a JPG file that you can later on print and save in a bank of words.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO BUBBL.US

A PANDEMIC

Here are some pictures from different news reports about the flu. Take a look at them.

This is a news report about the Swine Flu from a podcast.

Here you can take a look at the transcription.

Download the Word Document.

WIDEN THE PERSPECTIVE

It is important to pay attention to different media talking about the same piece of news. In this case, we used pictures, however it may be a good idea to look for audio excerpts, Internet reviews, blogs. This helps you identifying and organizing sub topics you may encounter about the same issue.

LISTEN TO IT SEVERAL TIMES

Like with most listening exercises, it is necessary to listen to the audio file several times taking notes on the information you hear. For this reason, it iscrucial you do the pre-listening activities suggested above because it will be easier to make connections and get the main ideas and the most important details about the news story.

Remember it is an exercise, and like physical exercise, you need to be consistent to see the results you are looking for.

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?

Listen to the newscasters discuss the news and identify the topics they make reference to and their perspective. Do you agree with what they say? Are there any other possible points of view to analyse this piece of news? Who might offer a different approach about it? What would this person say?

Here you can take a look at the transcription.

Download the Word Document.

A PARALLEL ACCOUNT

This video shows one of the many ideas provoked by this pandemic. It is an account of the paranoia generated after discovering important disease outbreaks. For many years, this has been subject to discussion but nothing official has ever been pronounced yet. What do you think?

In some cases, the information you get is only in Text. However, you can always make it a listening exercise just by going to the Text to Speech website that will allow you to get the audio version of the news report you find. Copy the text from the page you find, paste it in this page and click on Say It. It is important to pay attention to the rhythm, intonation, and vocabulary pronunciation so you benefit from this useful activity.

THINK CRITICALLY

When we are using News to study it is important to analyze the nature of the piece of news we are reading or listening to. These are three questions you can use to approach this type of analysis:

Who created this message?
Why is this message being sent?
How might different people understand this message differently?

DISCUSS IT

In the following link you find some expressions you can use to participte in discussions and indicate whether you agree or not with your interlocutor's opinion. CLICK HERE

GETTING TO KNOW RSS FEEDS

RSS (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss_feed

For a more complete description, click on here.

CONNECT TO THE WORLD

By using RSS Feeds, you can be up to date on information you consider relevant. You can improve your vocabulary, your reading and listening skills, and also your knowlege about the world.

You don't have to go to different pages in order to find the information you need. Everything is organized in one single space.

GETTING TO KNOW PODCASTS

A podcast is a series of digital media files, usually digital, audio, or video, that is made available for download via web syndication (RSS).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss_feed

GET THE MOST OUT OF PODCASTS

Nowadays, podcasts are an important tool media have to bring you updates on the latest events via audio. However, its functionality has allowed teachers, companies, and professionals in general to create spaces to enhance communication and widen their outreach. Thus, it is possible for us to have English lessons, lectures, and other resources to improve our lifelong learning experience.

Here are some of the benefits:

o You can make it flexible in order to you work in your own time.

o You can evaluate your own progress when it comes to your listening skills.

o You can enhance your fields of interests or expertise. Some of them have transcriptions that you can use to reflect on your understanding.

o You can capture informal knowledge because podcasting is available to everyone. You can be a podcaster yourself.

o You can create your own personalized learning environment by subscribing to the ones you like or need.

EXPANSION

These are some websites you can use to get some current news and study English.

NEWS IN SLOW ENGLISH

This page was created for Spanish Speaking people who are learning English. You have some grammar explanations and pronunciation and vocabulary exercises.

SEMANA

One of the most prestigious magazines offers the news about Colombia in English.

COLOMBIAN NEWS IN ENGLISH

An excellent source of news stories taking place in our country.

CNN STUDENT NEWS

The CNN news network adapted the information to students like us. Some pieces of news include transcripts for you to follow.

RCN NEWS IN ENGLISH

RCN has created this space for foreigners who want to get informed about the news in our country, but we can use this page to study.

CNN NEWS

The most popular network in the world delivers the news for you.

FOX NEWS

News from an Emergent but very important network in the United States.