Newspapers and magazines are a wealth of information on every topic imaginable, just waiting to be discovered. However, they can sometimes be tough to read, especially for ESL learners who are working with a limited vocabulary. The Times in Plain English is an online newspaper that takes current articles and provides simple, more understandable versions, perfect for learners.
Bigger is better.
This is a common notion in society today, and it surely can be the case in the journalistic world. When you sit down at breakfast with a newspaper, you might wonder exactly what the article is talking about. Writers seem to assume that using a larger vocabulary makes the article more credible or worthwhile. They might think that if they include as much supporting information as possible, it will make the story better. These writers sometimes forget that most people read the paper in order to understand what's going on in the world around them, not to become literary experts.
The Times in Plain English is an online news site that takes articles from various "Times" sites (NY Times, LA Times, etc) and draws out the main ideas and important points to create very basic, easy-to-read articles. This version of the Times doesn't change the accuracy of the information, but the way they present it is much more straightforward. Short, concise sentences combined with common vocabulary make this site a good source for everyday news. There are sections for politics, health, education, finance, and other areas of interest. Each article links back to the source article, for those wanting to read the original.
How can you use this site with your learners? There are several ways.
First, if your learners are looking for a news source with which to practice their English reading skills, they shouldn't look any further. The Times in Plain English is easy to browse through as a website, and learners shouldn't have any trouble finding and reading articles of interest to them. Similarly, they might read it out of necessity, as most news sites in languages other than English are unlikely to focus on Boston-specific news.
Second, if you're looking for an interactive way to teach grammar using the articles from Plain English, you might consider using a Cloze Test. My co-writer Tatyana, in a previous post about Cloze Tests, gave instruction on how to create and use the tests. It's a very worthwhile read.
For those unfamiliar with Cloze, the simple explanation is that you start with a body of text and remove select words from the text. Given a word bank containing the removed words, the learner must fill in the blanks. This tests their understanding of the text. It's most effective when used with text containing very few "fluff" words. If you remove words that don't add much meaning to the text, your learner will get confused. It's for this reason that The Times in Plain English is a very good fit for Cloze Tests - the language is simple and meaningful. There's even a free Cloze Test generator available that allows you to paste a body of text and set different criteria for word removal.
Stay tuned for more literacy resources like this!
Happy tutoring!
Kris
Kristofer Pieper
Programs and Social Media Intern, English At Large
Tufts University, Class of 2016
ENGLISH AT LARGE
Literacy and Learning for Life
Join the conversation
Bigger is better.
This is a common notion in society today, and it surely can be the case in the journalistic world. When you sit down at breakfast with a newspaper, you might wonder exactly what the article is talking about. Writers seem to assume that using a larger vocabulary makes the article more credible or worthwhile. They might think that if they include as much supporting information as possible, it will make the story better. These writers sometimes forget that most people read the paper in order to understand what's going on in the world around them, not to become literary experts.
The Times in Plain English is an online news site that takes articles from various "Times" sites (NY Times, LA Times, etc) and draws out the main ideas and important points to create very basic, easy-to-read articles. This version of the Times doesn't change the accuracy of the information, but the way they present it is much more straightforward. Short, concise sentences combined with common vocabulary make this site a good source for everyday news. There are sections for politics, health, education, finance, and other areas of interest. Each article links back to the source article, for those wanting to read the original.
How can you use this site with your learners? There are several ways.
First, if your learners are looking for a news source with which to practice their English reading skills, they shouldn't look any further. The Times in Plain English is easy to browse through as a website, and learners shouldn't have any trouble finding and reading articles of interest to them. Similarly, they might read it out of necessity, as most news sites in languages other than English are unlikely to focus on Boston-specific news.
Second, if you're looking for an interactive way to teach grammar using the articles from Plain English, you might consider using a Cloze Test. My co-writer Tatyana, in a previous post about Cloze Tests, gave instruction on how to create and use the tests. It's a very worthwhile read.
For those unfamiliar with Cloze, the simple explanation is that you start with a body of text and remove select words from the text. Given a word bank containing the removed words, the learner must fill in the blanks. This tests their understanding of the text. It's most effective when used with text containing very few "fluff" words. If you remove words that don't add much meaning to the text, your learner will get confused. It's for this reason that The Times in Plain English is a very good fit for Cloze Tests - the language is simple and meaningful. There's even a free Cloze Test generator available that allows you to paste a body of text and set different criteria for word removal.
Stay tuned for more literacy resources like this!
Happy tutoring!
Kris
Kristofer Pieper
Programs and Social Media Intern, English At Large
Tufts University, Class of 2016
ENGLISH AT LARGE
Literacy and Learning for Life
Join the conversation
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