Breaking new English---fun to learn English

Breaking new English (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/) is a website that teachers can use this website to teach English or add some extra materials for students to do after school. This website provides many tasks for teachers to choose and also this website provides a teaching plan for teachers to consider. This website will update every 3 days, and the materials are related to our daily life. It is a best material for teacher to motivate students to learn English.

How to use:

1.     Teachers can use this website to practice students’ listening skill. Since the articles are not long and the vocabulary is not difficult for senior high school students. Thus teachers can download the MP3 file and play it for students to practice their listening skill.

2.     Teachers can use ‘missing word’ to motivate students to remember new vocabulary. It is boring to remember words without any tasks. Thus this task can motivate students to remember new words, and in this situation, students can easier remember the meaning and usage of new words.

3.     Teachers can use ‘sentence jumble’ to motivate students how to organize an article. This task can motivate student to rewrite this article. After doing this task, they will have a better understanding of this article.

4.     Teachers can print the handout that this website provides. In this handout, teachers can find many tasks about reading, gap-filling, group work tasks and so on. Teachers can use these tasks to check whether students understand this article or not.

Advantages:

1.     This website can motivate students to learn English, even after school. Since the materials that provided by this website are up-to-date and related to our daily life, the most important thing is these materials are very interesting. Thus it is easier for teacher to attract students’ attention and motivate them to learn English.

2.     The tasks that provided by this website are not very difficult. Therefore, students will not lose their interest to do these tasks. If they work in pairs, they will find some joy when they do these tasks.

3.     Teachers can use the handout that provided by this website in their English language learning lessons. Since the handout is complete from warm-up part to homework part, also the structure of this handout is very clear and the tasks are very suitable for students to do.

Disadvantages:

1.     The tasks that provided by this website only can be used in class or regard as homework for students to do. These tasks cannot be regarded as test for students. Since these materials are online, students can find the answers online, it will cause students to be lazier.

2.     The handout provides so many tasks, but it does not provide enough explanation of the article or new words. Therefore, if teachers want to use this handout, they need to add the explanation of the new words or the article before their lessons.

3.     Some tasks need use computers. Thus students must in computer room or they need to take their own computers to school. It is impossible in China. We have computer room, but it is difficult to control students when we use computer room to teach English. And if students take their own computers to school, teachers will not be more attractive than their own computers. Thus they will not listen to teachers rather than play their computers.