News in levels - World news för students of English
The web site News in English provides English news in three different levels.
The Easy English news in Level 1 are for beginners. In this level 1000 most important words in English are used. If the pupils read and listen to Level 1 short news every day, very soon they can know and understand 1000 most important words in English. Level 2 is for intermediate students. In this level, 2000 most important words in spoken English are used. Level 3 is for advanced ESL (English as a second language) students. It is not simple English anymore as in Level 1 and Level 2. In this level, 3000 most important words in spoken English are used. The website also provides opportunities to read about people and their stories, jokes and books. There are also videos to look at and Skype opportunities. The exercises have a common goal for the users: Use English every day and you will be better every day.
For teachers
In the website you can get detailed information how to use the site. The pupils can be able to train the receptive skills including reading and listening and the productive skills including speaking and writing. The website makes it possible to use the ”direct method”. The pupils train to understand English with no translation to their native language. There are recommended exercises including translating, but I think there are other better suggestions to train the skills mentioned above. The pupils get the opportunity to read and hear the same words again and again, and get in this way a good chance to understand and remember them.
For pupils
You can improve your reading and listening quickly when you read easy English news. In the same time you practice your writing and speaking skills.
- You can read all today´s articles and try to understand new words from the content. You can also read the articles from the day before and see if you remember all new words.
- You can listen to all today´s news. You can also listen to news you listened to the day before. Stop the video after every sentence and repeat the sentence.
- There are questions under today´s news you can answer and write into the comments. In the chatroom you can write about today´s news.
- I you choose one person from the SKYPE section you can talk about today´s news and answer questions from http://www.newsinlevels.com/questions/
The opportunity to read short news in different levels I think is the strength of the site. The pupils can work with it on their own level. My recommendation is starting to use the News section with your pupils, and after that you can together with the pupils investigate the other opportunities and areas of use.
Read more: http://www.newsinlevels.com/#
Joanna Waller
Hello Joanna!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting site, going by what you are writing. It is indeed a good thing to be able to read and work with news articles in different levels but with the same content. This makes it a useful site for many school years, as well as provides the opportunity to get different students in the same class something on their level.
I wonder what the lowest age of students who could use this would be? Is it possible to use already in grade two orthree or is it more appropriate for older children? When you listen to the news, is it like a news show, can you see the person talking or is it images or video of what they speak about?
I would also like to know more about the Skype section. Is it other random people that you speak to, is it other students or someone at the website?
All in all I think it seems like a good way to incorporate different subjects and make the English lessons interesting and current. Thank you for the tip!