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FOLLOWING THE HEADLINES:

Making the Case for Using Newspapers in the Secondary Context
Rationale and Approach.
by Nelly Zafeiriadou

the lack of knowledge is darker than the night

(African proverb)

Abstract
This article discusses the issue of using and working with English language newspapers in the
secondary EFL classroom. Starting from a small scale survey on teachers feelings and attitudes
about the issue it attempts to provide a comprehensive rationale for using newspapers as an
effective teaching and learning tool with Greek adolescent students. It also argues for the
necessity to engage students more effectively in active learning while promoting both their
knowledge of the world and their skills as readers and critical thinkers.

Introduction
The reasons behind the choice of this particular subject are personal and pedagogic. A strong
motive has been my personal attachment to the reading of newspapers as a life-long habit and the
pleasure it brings. Another reason is my belief in the value of using newspapers in the secondary
education and in particular with adolescents in their late teens for building the students learning
and thinking skills, growing their knowledge base, stimulating their interest in reading and
developing the tools for good citizenship. A further motive has been my teaching experience in the
Greek secondary context during which after the continuous interaction and rapport with teenagers
the need was created to introduce innovative teaching material closer to my students interests and
pedagogic / psychological needs. This has been an attempt to intervene positively to a learning
context which I have the view that rather underestimates or ignores the contribution that the use
of newspapers could have towards the development not only of fluent learners but also informed,
concerned, and thinking persons.
Although working with newspapers may become a fascinating and challenging experience for
adolescent students and motivated teachers alike it is only within what to my view constitutes a
good pedagogic practice the use and exploration of newspapers in the classroom can meet its
ultimate educational purpose: to contribute to the learners personal growth and to the process of
becoming independent and autonomous personalities.

Description of the learning context

or , the war and peace issue
Speaking from my teaching experience so far I could identify that a common problem EFL
Lykeio teachers very often face with teenage students is the issue of a demotivated and
unwilling class, where most students are unresponsive and avoid interaction with the teacher.

There will be times when no student can answer a teacher's question, but often students do not
answer even if they understand the question, know the answer, and are able to produce the
answer. Furthermore, students often become very reluctant to cooperate or give feedback to the
teacher. To make matters worse this negative classroom attitude is reinforced by the notion that
during the two last grades only serious subjects should be focused on and English is not
among them.
In addition to, the teacher has to deal with a knowledge gap or the mixed ability levels among
the students due to their different social and cultural backgrounds. The majority of the students
that come from urban areas have already taken the First Certificate exams and a considerable
number of them seat for the Proficiency Exams before they graduate. In contrast to the above,
students that come from rural or working class areas usually deprive considerably possibly due
to lacking equal learning opportunities
A final point, common to all the Lykeio teachers is the so called generation gap. Experiencing
a critical period in their life, many adolescents feel a kind of a wall, a barrier between T-Ss
communication. It is not their fault that theyve got this feeling. They are in the middle of
physical, emotional and psychological changes sometimes hard to understand and painful to
sustain. It is primarily our responsibility as educators to understand adolescent
development (cognitive, biological, social, psychological) and seek for channels
of communication.
A question is raised at this point :Under such conditions , how can the teacher react? Can they
rely on the coursebooks only?
Instead of spending their energy trying to impose classroom management and apparently the
selected coursebook I would suggest to seek for new ways and recourses to foster motivation
and establish communication in the classroom ; to think, plan and teach creatively using as
many as supplementary authentic materials in the classroom. And the newspaper can be a
challenging, versatile, inexpensive, and effective supplementary material to use

Is it worthwhile using newspapers with adolescents?

What do teachers believe?
Having conducted a small survey during an in-service training seminar in September 2001
among the secondary school teachers of my area and in an attempt to get a view of the teachers
beliefs and attitudes as to the use of national papers in the target language I asked from the
participants to give a sincere answer to the following question : Would you use English
newspapers in your context? What is your view(s) about it? I have collected some very
interesting comments and the most representatives are the following: (35 Lykeio teachers wrote
their views)
1.

Ive got a very demanding syllabus to get through, so theres no real time for playing
around with newspapers in my lesson ( urban area Comprehensive Lykeio teacher )

2. My students dont read newspapers in their own language, so how can they possibly read
it in English? ( urban area Technical Lykeio teacher)
3. Its alright to use newspapers with students who intend to study Humanities when they
leave school. But reading an English newspaper is too specialised an activity for most of
the students, isnt it?(urban area Comprehensive Lykeio teacher)

4. Ive tried using a newspaper article with my students, but they found it difficult to
understand, and just wanted me to give the right interpretation of it.( Multicultural
Lykeio teacher)
5. I sometimes wonder if Ive really got the gripes with a newspaper article myself- its a bit
daunting then to explain it to a group of mixed- ability students. ( rural area Lykeio
teacher)
6. Whenever I brought a newspaper in the classroom I had to cope with passive and
reluctant teenagers, unwilling to interact ( Technical Lykeio teacher)
7. Its rather difficult to have access to English language newspapers when teaching to a
provincial school. And when you manage to get one at the local news agent it is usually
an old issue ( Lykeio teacher on an island )
8. I would love to work with newspapers in my classroom; I just dont know how to get
started with noisy and disruptive teenagers. ( newly appointed Lykeio teacher)
At first sight , one could say that the teachers beliefs and attitudes towards the use of
newspapers in the adolescent classroom are rather negative and feelings of disappointment and
frustration arise. However, reading between the lines, the Ts statements one could discriminate
some quite interesting points :
Some language teachers may feel trapped in the syllabus they have to cover
and they do not consider newspapers as an effective teaching tool or a too
specialised teaching tool and not for all students
Others may underestimate their students interests and needs or simply make
superficial judgements about their students capabilities
Some teachers seem to be too protective or spoon-feeding their adolescent
students ignoring or neglecting the necessity to foster a language teaching
pedagogy that leaves space for self-expression, learner autonomy and critical
thinking, issues so important at the critical period of adolescence
Sometimes teachers feel rather insecure or overreact towards introducing and
experimenting with new materials in their contexts. They stumble at minor
difficulties that with a little inventiveness could overcome
Losing control looms as our greatest fear; rather than risk overstimulation, we
consciously choose not to stimulate

So, why use newspapers ?

There two issues one can hardly deny here. The one refers to the necessity or not for the use of
newspapers with adolescents when it seems to be so unpopular with the teachers. And the
other refers to the educational approach or how such an attempt could work in practice when
reading a newspaper for personal reasons and reading it in the classroom context are rather
different processes.
As a matter of fact, there are linguistic, pedagogical and psychological arguments that
validate the claim that the use of newspapers is particularly important for adolescent learners
particularly those in their late teens.

I have to make clear at this point that by the use of newspapers in the classroom I refer to and
argue for the use of national, quality newspapers or the broadsheets as they called and are
broadly distincted from the popular newspapers or the tabloids and the local ones. The
reasons are obvious.
Quality or broadsheet newspapers contain serious news, which is supported by detailed and
informed analysis and comment on political, economical, social world events. They are
considered to be informative and objective, keeping news and opinion or comment firmly apart.
The Times, the Guardian , the Observer, the Daily Telegraph, the Independent, ,The New York
Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune are considered to be so.
Tabloids or popular are newspapers whose pages are about half the size of broadsheet ones.
Typically they contain many photographs, attention-grabbing headlines, and sensational stories
often concerning scandals involving personalities in the public eye. They are considered to be
more entertaining than informative in terms of the news coverage. The Sun, the Daily Mirror,
the Daily Express , the Daily Star are among them.
Authentic texts
Newspapers contain a very wide variety of authentic text types and an immense range of
information. They are an invaluable source of authentic materials and their use is in much
keeping with the current thinking and practice. Henry Widdowson ( 1976,1981,) Michael
Breen ( 1985), David Little (1991,97) are only a few among the scholars who strongly argue
for the importance of authentic materials in the language classroom. The use of authentic
materials leads to authentic and purposeful classroom communication.
In addition, newspapers as authentic texts are particularly helpful for those wishing to study, live
and work in an English speaking country.
Availability
English-language newspapers are available world-wide on a daily basis. Some originate from
English-speaking countries, mainly from Britain or the USA, others are locally produced
(Athens news , Kathimerini : the English language edition of the Greek daily newspaper ).
Teachers could share the cost with other colleagues and use the newspapers alternatively or, they
could get a school subscription. They could ask English language speakers living in their area
to pass on to them old issues of newspapers or from occasionally they could ask students to help
share the cost of buying newspapers. Moreover, if the teacher or the school have an internet
connection they could have easy access to the on-line editions of the newspapers.
Varieties of English
Newspapers contain a wide variety of text types and language styles which cannot be easily
found in conventional language-learning materials.(ie. general textbooks) They are a natural
source of many of the varieties of written English that become increasingly important as learners
gradually develop language awareness
Language change
Language is not something static but something alive that continuously changes according to
the times ;newspapers as authentic texts reflect these changes in the language and in so doing
help students and teachers keep abreast of such changes
Enhance motivation
The use of newspapers increases students motivation and participation. Students ,even the most
unwilling ones, get actively involved into the process of learning through meaningful texts
which have a personal appeal to them. A newspaper could offer the ideal basis or the starting

point for tasks and activities in which teenagers being usually in the mood to challenge and
dispute the norms, could see the point to participate and devote their time. A newspaper is not
a coursebook which has been imposed to them by any kind of educational authority. Newspapers
and press in general have been established as the expression of freedom , of free will and
diversity, concepts that are so popular among youngsters. Moreover, the enormous variety of
subject-matter in newspapers means that any one newspaper will invariably contain something of
value or of concern to every student-reader. Therefore, a newspaper could be much more easily
acceptable in the classroom than often a coursebook is.
Skills integration
Adult readers of newspapers integrate reading with listening and speaking to a remarkable
degree and in an entirely natural, unconscious way when the stimulus is a newspaper. This
suggests that newspapers ought to be seen to some degree as the incidental stimulus to a wide
range of communicative, integrated activities.
Multi-level teaching material
While reading newspapers, we exercise skimming and scanning skills of a very high order. We
typically either know what we are looking for ( task-based reading ) or we continue reading a
particular feature for just as long ad it remains interesting (reading for meaning). It is difficult to
think of materials more naturally suited to teaching authentic reading skills in a second or
foreign language, particularly when we know that these learners are usually slow and often
inefficient readers. With a newspaper in the class we have materials that we can allow our
students to use class time to read without feeling guilty about it.
Reading skills and vocabulary development
Newspapers use seems to contribute to students reading skills particularly vocabulary
development and comprehension. A significant greater vocabulary is required to read with
comprehension national newspapers and through the proper instruction of a teacher students
enrich their vocabulary through a variety of texts that appeal to their interests.
Establishing the reading habit
It is important that the confidence and sense of familiarity educated people feel when they read a
newspaper in their own language is carried over into the English language classroom. If the
students expect at the outset to be able to become familiar with the materials in front of them,
they are already half-way to success. When reading inside the classroom is encouraged by the
sensitive teacher through varied and stimulating activities and in a relaxed and non-judgmental
environment it becomes a pleasant and positive experience; a life-long habit that follows the
students outside the classroom.
Cultural value
Newspapers bridge the gap between the real world and the classroom. Apart from the fact that
they give us general information and thus extend our knowledge and deeper understanding of
the world they also give cultural information. They open a window to the culture of the target
community. Culture permeates language through references to people, customs, traditions of a
community but at a deeper level this is achieved through the socio-cultural meaning of language.
Language and culture are inextricably linked.
As Claire Kramsch (1998) points out in her book Language and Culture

.through all its verbal and non-verbal aspects language

symbolizes cultural reality

expresses , embodies and

In addition to that, newspapers offer a short-cut to acculturation. For those learning the
language in an English-speaking country newspapers are probably the best single source of
information about the host culture and about the most important people in the host society. A
familiarity with newspapers will make it easier to understand radio and television programmes
and vice-versa.
Educational and personal empowerment
Newspapers can serve as a tool for educational and personal empowerment. They provide
information and information is power. In the age of the media domination when adolescents
seem to be more vulnerable due to the critical period they experience when character and
personality are formed if students constantly tend to depend on someone else to give them the
information they need ( ie. TV news) they will remain more dependent and therefore weaker in
their adult life than others who are capable of retrieving and judging their own information. In
order for students to become more independent and increase their active learning they must be
able to find, evaluate and communicate information independently. Lykeio graduates of the 21st
century the majority of which carry on with their studies at a College or University level have to
become independent and self-reliant seekers , gatherers and interpreters of information. This last
potential of newspapers to facilitate the development of these lifelong skills should not be
ignored. ( Gardner &Sallivan 1997 )
Citizenship development and global awareness
Reading newspapers with adolescents contributes to their citizenship development and global
awareness. Quality newspapers through the guidance of a teacher -mediator have the potential
to move the reader beyond localism, regionalism and nationalism to a greater sense of
international awareness and cultural understanding.
Critical thinking.
Exploring newspapers at deeper levels and with the instruction of the teacher as a facilitator and
coordinator of the teaching process fosters students critical thinking. If we accept the simplest
definition on critical thinking offered by Beyer ( 1995) that
Critical thinking means making reasoned judgements
and his view of critical thinking as a
disciplined manner of thought that a person uses to asses the validity and quality of
something using criteriathen critical thinking skills can only be developed if students are
exposed to stimulating information and to a blend and balance of widely differing opinions most
likely to be found in newspapers.
Moreover, I would like to argue for the need to train adolescent students to read between the
lines challenging the ideological assumptions as well as propositional knowledge in written
texts and that language teachers as educators should guide readers to an awareness of
ideological content simply because it is so often presented as obvious. I have in mind the word
of Scholes (1985)
In an age of manipulation when our students are in dire need of critical strength to resist
the continuing assaults of all the media, the worst thing we can do is to foster in them an
attitude of reverence before texts

The pedagogic approach

Introducing and exploring newspapers in the Lykeio classroom makes the case for a different
pedagogic approach to establish and innovative teaching practices to follow. It raises the issue
for Humanistic approaches to adopt in language teaching which emphasise the development
of the whole person and the cognitive development too and also addresses the necessity for
collaborative classroom teaching practices to follow. These approaches and practices seem to
have four general characteristics. The first two capture changing relationships between teachers
and students. The third characterizes teachers' new approaches to instruction. The fourth
addresses the composition of a collaborative classroom.
1. Shared knowledge between Teacher and Students ( Ts- Ss)
2. Shared authority between Teacher and Students ( Ts- Ss)
3. New pedagogic roles are established in the classroom:
Students are not passive receptors but collaborators and active participators in the learningteaching process.
Assessment moves from a traditionally teacher practice to students responsibility ; students are
guided to self-assessment
Teachers act as mediators facilitating, modeling and coaching new forms of interaction.
Creative dialogue, exchange of ideas and uninhibited thinking in public is encouraged in a
culturally tolerant and non-judgmental learning context.
1. 4. Heterogeneous groupings of students are encouraged so that the feeling of cooperation
and acceptance of the otherness is developed. This is particularly relevant when the learning
context is culturally diverse.
However, I have the view that for the implementation of such a pedagogic approach what is
mostly needed to establish is a change of teachers' attitudes towards students, pedagogy,
and themselves as teachers. The fundamental issue, which most teachers tend to ignore, is
the capabilities of their learners. If teachers continue to disregard learners' views and
opinions, or suppress them without ever giving them the opportunity for self-expression,
then students would not be able to train and use their thinking skills. Teachers should
facilitate and encourage creative and critical thinking by viewing their learners differently
from what they had presumed. They also need to change their pedagogical views, to adopt
a more flexible attitude towards their teaching and not be too concentrated and dependent
on textbooks and their schools' aspirations, which are usually exam-oriented. What is more
important is the aspirations of the learners and how teachers could exploit the potentials of
their learners. Teachers need to move towards a change of the view of themselves. They
are not providers but educators who constantly think of what could be done to encourage
creative and critical thinking in their learners.

Conclusion
With this article I attempted to present the case for exploring English-speaking newspapers
as a teaching tool in the Greek EFL upper secondary classroom and in a humanistic and
collaborative learning context. My aim was to argue for an educational venture which though it
may seem a risky one, however under the instruction of an innovative and motivated teacher
mediator becomes a fascinating experience. It is my belief that newspapers have a significant

role to play in language teaching in particular during the critical period of adolescence. The use
of newspapers can be justified linguistically, psychologically, and pedagogically as it develops
students linguistic and communicative skills, it increases their motivation for active learning
and active involvement into the learning process and the most significant of all it fosters
students, critical and thinking skills consequently paves their way to their personal growth and
continuous development towards becoming free thinkers , mature personalities and informed
and concerned future citizens of a state.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beyer, B. K. 1995. Critical thinking. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational
Foundation
Counihan, G. 1998. Headline Completion. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IV, No. 8, August
1998. http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/
Gardner, J. N. & B. Sallivan .1997. The National Newspaper as a Tool for Educational
Empowerment. The New York Times College Program for Professors and Students
http://www.nytcollege.com

Grundy, P. 1993. Newspapers. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Hedge, T. and N. Whitney. 1996. Power, Pedagogy and Practice. Oxford: Oxford University
Press
Kitao, K. 1996. Teaching the English Newspaper Effectively. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol.
II, No. 3, March 1996.
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/

Littlewood, W. 1996. Autonomy: An Anatomy and a Framework. System, Vol.24, No.4

pp.427-437, 1996
Nunan, D. 1992. The Learner-Centred Curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Sanderson, P.1999. Using Newspapers in the Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
Scholes, R. (1985). Textual power: Literary theory and the teaching of English. New
Haven: Yale University Press.
Snell, J.1999. Improving Teacher-Student Interaction in the EFL Classroom: An Action
Research Report. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 4, April 1999.
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/

Tinzmann, M.B , B.F. Jones, T.F. Fennimore, J. Bakker, C. Fine, and J. Pierce. 1990.What Is
the Collaborative Classroom? NCREL, Oak Brook
Tudor, I. 1996. Learner-centredness as Language Education. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press

Williams, M. and R. L. Burden. 1997. Psychology for Language Teachers. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press

Newspapers of the World on the Internet

Excite, DirectHit: Hyperlinks to world's newspapers on internet
Click on this Internet Keyword to go directly to the Newspapers of the World on the Internet Web site.
1000, http://www.actualidad.com/

Campus Newspapers on the Internet

List hosted and maintained by The Daily Beacon at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
http://beacon-www.asa.utk.edu/resources/papers.html

IPL Reading Room Newspapers

Excite: the Internet Public Library Central America Middle East North America South America South
Pacific United States Or browse by title Search the IPL Online Newspapers Collection
DirectHit: the Internet Public Library Online Newspapers Africa Algeria | Benin | Egypt | Ethiopia | Ivory
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Google: ... To the lobby of the Internet Public Library.
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Excite, Infoseek: Australian newspapers on the Internet
Google: ... National Library of Australia Australian Newspapers
840, http://www.nla.gov.au/oz/npapers.html

E&P Directory of Online Newspapers

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Magazine, Television, Radio, Syndicate, City Guide and Association Web sites. Please go to the new ...
575, http://www.mediainfo.com/ephome/npaper/nphtm/online.htm

Newspapers online - British English Papers - National and Local press in Great Britain: England, Wales,
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press on line. 1,000 Daily, Weekly, Sunday, local papers, regional and national news portals, magazines
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The New York Times on the Web
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African American Newspapers and Other Printed Media--Sorted By State
This is your connection to many African American newspapers across the United States. Over 200 listings
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Latin American Newspapers
Nearly 220,000 full-text articles selected from newspapers in Mexico City and ten states (Baja California,
Chiapas, Chihuahua, Jalisco, Michoacan, Morelos, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Veracruz). On 6 disks
covering June 1991 through December 1993
http://gort.ucsd.edu/news/cdmicro.html
UK Online Newspapers and International English Language Newspapers
UK Newspapers Online and Foreign/Worldwide Newspapers with English Versions; French Presidental
Election Links
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American Newspapers and Magazines - Online
Read newspapers and magazines from the United States. No subscription required.
http://broadcast-live.com/newspapers/american.html