The Newspaper-a Frequently Updated Teaching-Material : A study about the potential of newspapers as a source of teaching-material for second languagelearners in the English Classroom

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the way in newspapers are used for the teaching andlearning of English. In particular, the way teachers say they use newspapers in the Englishclassroom and the way newspapers are perceived by their students. The information wasobtained through semi-structured interviews with both students and teachers at an uppersecondary school in a city in the south of Sweden. From the results of the interview and fromthe study of the related literature, two detailed lesson plans were constructed; one to suit agroup following a vocational programme and one following a social science programme, (auniversity preparatory programme). One of the most interesting findings from the interviewswas that students were more interested in working with older, print newspapers rather thanonline ones. This was taken into consideration when the lesson plans were constructed. Thestudy concluded that newspapers can be an effective tool for the teaching/ learning of English,particularly for those willing to take the time to collect and prepare the necessary material.