A news story mini-presentations
news and current affairs vocabulary/ arts and media vocabulary/ extended speaking
Without saying anything, listen to your partner speak for as long as they can about one news story that they know about. If they talk about any of the topics below, tick that box. The person who is speaking shouldn’t look below, but just say anything they like about the story. When they can’t think of anything else to say, ask them questions to find out more about the story, including topics that below that you haven’t ticked. They then turns doing the same.
Topics to tick off and ask about
- What happened
- Location/ Place it happened
- People involved
- Time it happened
- Causes/ Reasons why it happened/ Background to the story
- (Past, present and future) consequences/ effects
- Comparisons to other events
- Importance
- Reporting on it/ Coverage of it (by the tabloids, broadsheets, right-wing press, etc)
- (Your/ Other people’s) reactions to it
- Memorable images, quotes, etc
- If it is controversial or not, and why
- If it or something similar is likely to happen again or not, and why
- If it is a well-known story or not, and why
- If it is the top story/ front page story or not, and why
- When, where and how you first heard about it
- Things you still don’t know about it/ Things you’d like to know more about it
- The most interesting/ most disturbing/ most important/ most… aspect(s) of the story
- Why you chose this story to talk about
- How long this story will be remembered/ talked about
- Other stories that were happening at the same time
- The best and/ or worst news source(s) for this story
- What commentators and people you know think about this story
Discussion
After everyone has spoken about at least one news story, discuss these questions:
Why did you choose that story to speak about?
What kinds of news stories are you generally most interested by and least interested by?
Which kinds on the next page do you particularly like or dislike?
What could make you more interested in topics that you are usually not so fascinated by?
Do you closely follow news stories about nature and the environment? Why/ Why not?
What could make news stories about the environment and nature more interesting (to you and people generally)?
Use this list to continue your discussion of kinds of news stories:
- Analysis/ Opinion (editorials, columnists, commentators, etc)
- Anniversaries of important events
- Breaking news/ Rolling news
- Business/ Economics/ Money/ The world of work (stock market figures, etc)
- Crime/ Court trials
- Deaths of famous people/ Obituaries
- Entertainment/ Arts and media
- The environment/ nature (weather, natural disasters, global warming, etc)
- (Debunking) fake news/ fact checking (conspiracy theories, etc)
- Front-page news/ Lead stories
- Good news stories/ Feelgood stories/ Inspiring stories (heroism, etc)
- (Celebrity) gossip/ People’s private lives
- Health and fitness (health scares, pandemics, etc)
- Investigative news/ Scoops
- Local news
- Opinion polls
- (Domestic/ International) politics (elections, referendums, etc)
- (Financial/ Political/ Sexual) scandals
- Science and technology
- Society/ Social issues
- Sport (sports results, transfers, etc)
- Terrorism
- War
Read summaries of two news stories. Which would make the better lead story for a news programme?
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