Improving Reading Comprehension Skills in ESL Classes through Newspaper Articles

Abstract: Newspapers offer good chances of reading practice for ESL learners of different proficiency levels.Since newspaper articles are authentic in terms of language they use, experiences they report, and culture they reflect they may attract ESL learners‘ attention with their headlines,content areas,and pictures.On the other hand, they are difficult to handle for exactly the same reasons. To start with, we had beter take a close look into the nature of reading comprehension. Traditionally, in the study of second language comprehension, it has been the text (language to be comprehended) to blame for failures to comprehend not the reader or listener.Failures to comprehend a well-formed text passage have been attributed to some unknown language elements like words and gramatical rules.But today it is believed that it is not the text but the previously acquired knowledge that makes the comprehension possible.Immenual Kant claimed as long ago as 1781 that ‘new information,new concepts,new ideas can have meaning only when they can be related to something the individual already knows‘(Rumelhart:1980). One of the obvious reasons why a reader fails to understand a text is that the schema involved is culturally specific and does not exist for the reader.If the implicit culture content knowledge presupposed by a text interacts with the reader‘s own background knowledge of content, that text is easier to read and understand than rhetorically and syntactically equivalent text based on a less familiar and more distant culture (Anderson: 1979).

Introduction

Newspapers offer good chances of reading practice for ESL learners of different proficiency levels.Since newspaper articles are authentic in terms of language they use,experiences they report,and culture they reflect they may attract ESL learners‘ attention with their headlines,content areas,and pictures.On the other hand,they are difficult to handle for exactly the same reasons. To start with, we had beter take a close look into the nature of reading comprehension. Traditionally, in the study of second language comprehension, it has been the text(language to be comprehended)to blame for failures to comprehend not the reader or listener.Failures to comprehend a well-formed text passage have been attributed to some unknown language elements like words and gramatical rules.But today it is believed that it is not the text but the previously acquired knowledge that makes the comprehension possible.Immenual Kant claimed as long ago as 1781 that ‘new information,new concepts,new ideas can have meaning only when they can be related to something the individual already knows‘(Rumelhart:1980). This previously acquired world knowledge is often called background knowledge ,and knowledge structures as schemata. Comprehending a text involves and interactive process between the text and the reader‘s background knowledge about that topic.When we read we try to map the information input in the text against our existing schema or schemata concerning that piece of information.If there is a missmatch the reader is forced to revise his/her interpretation to make this new information compatible with the previous information to make the whole text cohere (Carell:1983). The background knowledge involved in reading comprehension is of 2 types:

a) Formal schema

b) Content schema

Formal schema is genre knowledge, background knowledge of the formal, textual organizational structures of various discourse types such as, differences in genre, structure of recepie, tales, arbituaries etc.

Content schema is the background knowledge of content area of a text such as history of needle making, nuclear centers in Iran, Turkey‘s Cyprus policy etc. (Widdowson: 2007).

A succesful reader is usually equipped with both of these knowledge sturctures and thus can constitute and efficient interaction between linguistic knowledge and worl knowledge.One of the obvious reasons why a reader fails to understand a text is taht the schema involved is culturally specific and does not exist for the reader. If the implicit culture content knowledge presupposed by a text interacts with the reader‘s own background knowledge of content, that text is easier to read and understand than rhetorically and syntactically equivalent text based on a less familiar and more distant culture(Anderson:1999). Examples: Would you please have a quick look at these four articles.

The Tylenol Tragedy

The Tylenol tragedy has touched off a wave of renewed concern this October about pint-size Smurfs, E.T‗s, and Wonder women accepting candy from strangers. As the 31st approaches, city officiasl in dozens of towns across the country have banned trick-or-treating altogether, or restircted it to daylight hours.

-Can you put these four articles in order from the easiest to the most difficult?

It is clear that  readers lack the neccessary background knowledge to be able to understand the Tylenol Tragedy. What background information do we need to be able to understand this article?Halloween is celebrated on the night of October 31.On that night ghosts and witches walk the earth.Children dressed in costumes may do the spirits‘ ―tricks‖ for them.To protect their homes,neighbors must give the chilren ―treats‖ of cookies or candy. From these examples we can draw this conclusion:Some background knowledge about British and American Culture in general and their newspapers and magazines in particular will be of great help to understand and appriciate what we read.First off all, our students should know that there are two types of newspapers, i.e., quality and tabloid.

Quality newspapers are also known as broadsheets or heavies and they are considered to be

informative and objective.They present the reader with serious news with details and comment on political and economic issues and social and world events.Tabloids, on the other hand, are considered to be more entertaining than informative and they contain many photographs,attention grabbing headlines, sensational stories and scandals(Sanderson:1999).

Here is a list of British and American newspapers

British newspapers

The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, The Guardian and The Times are known as the quality

newspapers,appealing mainly to the upper and middle classes.

The Daily Telegraph is right-of-centre in its views and contains reports on national and international news.

Financial Times contains a comprehensive coverage of industry, commerce and public affairs and is read mainly

by proffecional and bussiness people.

The Guardian is the only ‗quality‘ newspaper with liberal/left -of-centre politics.As well as a wide coverage of

news events, it also reports on social issues, the arts education etc.

The times takes a middle-of-the-road-view, claiming to represent the views of the establishment and is especially

well-known for its correspondence column.

Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Star and The Sun are popular,tabloid newspapers-they are

smaller in size and contain more photographs and appeal mainly to the working and middle classes.

Daily Mail and Daily Express take a right-of-centre viewpoint on most issues.

Daily Mirror usually supports the Labour party.

The Sun and Daily Star are well-known for their pin-ups.The Sun has a larger circulation than any other daily newspaper.

The Observer is a serious national Sunday newspaper and is read mainly by the professional middle classes.

American Newspapers

The Newyork Times is a serious daily newspaper read on a national scale covering national and international news.

The Wall Street Journal is a business/investment daily newspaper but it also carries news of national importance.

The Washington Post is a serious daily newspaper with full coverage of Congress.

International Herald Tribune is a daily newspaper produced in Paris and sold in most countries of the world. It covers American and international news and contains advertisements and reviews.

Magazines

Newsweek is a weekly American news magazine which covers American and international news and a wide range of topics.There is also an international addition.

Punch is a weekly British satirical magazine which is well-known for its cartoons.

Time is sold all over the world and contains articles on US and world news as well as general articles on culture, medicene etc.

Newspapers especially tabloids use some tabloidese/journalese e.i. some short sensational and often exaggerated and ambiguous words in their headlines.Here is a list of words of this kind.

A) The Vocabulary of Tabloids

Headline word Meaning

ACCORD       agreement

AID                 help

AXE                cut, destroy, take away

BACK             support

BAN               prohibition

BAR                exclude, prohibit

BID                 attempt

BLAST           explosion

BLASE           fire

BLOW                        injury

BOOST                       help, incentive

CLASH                       dispute

COUP                                     revolution

CURB                                     restraint, limit

CUT                            reduction

DEAL                                     aggreement

DRIVE                       campaign, effort

ENVOY                      diplomat

EXIT                           leave

GEMS                         jewels

GO-AHEAD              approval

GUNMAN                  man with gun

HALT                                     stop

HAUL                         large quantity first stolen and later discovered

HEAD                         lead, direct

HELD                         retained, kept in custody

HIT                             affect badly

JET                              aeroplane

JOBLESS                   unemployed

KEY                            essential, vital

LINK                          connection

MAN                           representative

NET                            total

ORDEAL                   painful experience, drama

OUST                          push out, drive out, replace

OUTPUT                    production

PACT                          agreement, treaty

PAY                            wages, salary

PIT                              coal mine

PLEA                          request for help

PLEDGE                    promise

PLUNGE                    step fall

POLL                          election, public opinion survey

PRESS FOR               demand, ask for

PROBE                       investigate

QUIT                          leave, resign

RAID attack, robbery

RIDDLE mystery

ROW argument, dispute

SCARE public alarm

SPLIT divide

SQUEEZE shortage, scarcity

STORM angry reaction, dispute

STRIFE conflict

SWITCH change, deviation

SWOOP sudden attact or raid

TALK discussion

TOP exceed

VOW promise

WALKOUT strike

WED marry

Newspaper headlines also use different grammaticl structures.

B) The structure of headlines

1-Articles and verb ‗to be‘ are frequently omitted, e.g. PET PLAN APPROVED, MAN HELD.

2-Simple Present Tense is used for present and past events,e.g.WOMEN DRIVE BETTER THAN MEN

CLAIMS REPORT; DYNAMITE KILLS 52(meaning killed),US VISIT TESTS THE POPE AS POTENTIAL

WORLD LEADER.

3-Present Continuous Tense is used to describe something that is developing, e.g. RAIL CHAOS GETTING

WORSE.

4-The infinitive is used to refer to future, e.g. POPE TO VISIT US.

5-In passive sentences the auxiliary is omitted and past participle is used,e.g. HIJACKER ARRESTED.

6-A series of nouns are blocked together and used as adjectives, e.g. SOCCER BOY RAIL VICTIM.

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How to Use them in the Classroom.

Teachers can use headlines and articles in several different ways:

a- matching the articles and headlines

b- Finding the synonyms of some headline words in the article.

c- Making appropriate headlines for articles.

d- Putting sentences into headline forms.

e- Finding out different meanings in the ambiguous headlines, etc.

A- Explain two different meanings of the following ambiguous headlines.

1-Kids make nutritious snacks

2-Squad helps dog bite victim

3- Miners refuse to work after death

4- Hospitals are used by 7 foot doctors

5- Panda mating fails; veterinarian takes over

6- Lung cancer in women mushrooms

7- Eye drops off shelf

8- Teacher strikes idle kids

9- Juvenile court to try shooting defendant

10- Stolen painting found by tree

11- Drunken drivers paid $1000

12- Local high school dropouts cut in half.

13- Include your chilren when baking cookies.

B- Find the word(s) in the article which have the same meaning as the underlined word in the headline.

C- Match the following headlines and articles.

1-Actress weds 2-Mother‘s plea for son fails

3-Job row may 4- Bush ban on pupils

hit chilren‘s after attack

hospital on crew

5- £1 million 6- Crime profit

heroin haul tops £166m

7-Young wife‘s bid

to beat fear

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Newspaper articles

As for articles, newswpapers make use of various articles in different genres such as News in

Brief,Home News,Business News,Technology and Science,Comment, Editorials,Letters to the Editor, Motoring

News, Televisition, The Arts, Sport, Advertisements,Features, Travel Plitics, Movies, Theatre, Arbituaries,

Health, Books, Education, Home-Garden, Real Estate, Fashion-Style, Automobiles Magazine, etc.

Teachers may bring these genres in to the clssroom for the students to develop various reading

strategies, for different genres require different strategies. For small adds, for instance, students can be asked to

match the headlines and the adds or to answer some skimming and scanning questions. For comments and

editorials they may be asked to make inferences or to discuss the writer‘s view, etc.( Sharma: 2007,

Bakhshandah: 2009).

Now, let‘s do a sample reading lesson using a newspaper article. Could you please take a look at the

article in yor hands?

A-

1- Which newspaper is it taken from?

2- What kind of article is it? What is its genre?

3- How are editorals differrent from other types of articles?

4- Are all priests men? Do you know any women priests?

5- In Turkey, do we have any women imams?

B- 6- What is the passage about? Look very quickly through the article. Do not worry about the detail

or vocabulary you don‘t know.You only need to get a very general idea of the contents

C- Now read these questions and find the answers

7- According to the editorial why did some women demand for priesthood?

What was the real incentive?

8- How would ordination of women put off Christian re-unification?

D- A follow up activity

9- Could this article be published in a left-of-center nespaper? In Turkey? If so would meaning

change?

--- Questions in (A) are pre-reading questions and aim to activate students‘background knowledge about

this topic and thus help them make predictions about the content of the text.

--- By the question in (B) it is intended to develop readers‘ skimming skills by finding the gist of the

article.

--- Questions in (D) aim to make the students comment on the topic and may be used as a follow-up

activity.

--- Furthermore questions in (B) and (C) have been used to spesify a purpose for reading.

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References:

Anderson, N. (1999). Exploring Second Language Learning:Issues and Strategies. Boston: Heinle&Heinle.

Bakhshandch, E. and et all. (2009). Listening, Vocabulary and Translation Skills through News and Media.

Tahran: Rahmana Press.

Carrell, P. L. (1983a). Background Knowledge in Second Language Comprehension. Language Learning and

Communication 2.

Carrell, P. L. (1983b). Some issues in studying the role of schemata, or background knowledge, in second

language comprehension. Paper presented at the 17th Annual TESOL Convention, Toronto Canada,

March, 1983.

Grabe, W. and F. Stoller. (2002). Teaching and Researching Reading. New York: Longman

Rumelhart, David E. (1980). Schemata: The building blocks of cognition in theoretical issues in reading

comprehension, Rand J. Spiro, Bertram C. Bruce, and William E. Brewer (Eds.) Hillsdale, New

Jersey: Lawrance Erlbaum Associates.

Sanderson, P. (1999). Using Newspapers in the Classroom. Cambridge University Press.

Sharma, P. (2007). Reading the news.Thomson ELT.

Swales, B and John M. (2007). Genre Analysis English in Academic and Research Setting. Cambridge

University Press.

Widdowson, H.G. (2007). Discourse Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.