ABSTRACT
Peter was teaching an adult class of 19 recently arrived immigrants and refugees to Australia. They had intermediate proficiency in English and a variety of language and educational backgrounds. The curriculum goal for the course that term was for students to be able to produce a written report of 100-200 words. The curriculum does not mandate topic content and so Peter had to decide what content he would use to teach students how to write a report and also what topic they should use for their own reports. He was dismayed “at students’ frequent lack of knowledge and interest in world events, news, and current affairs” outside of their own area of interest (usually events in their home country). He thought that using the Internet to access content might motivate his students to learn about world events. He therefore “maintained a constant news focus during the term in general listening/speaking/reading exercises and encouraged discussion/ awareness of current affairs in the classroom.” However, while initially almost half the class chose a topic stimulated by a recent news item they had read or listened to (e.g,. World Trade Center Twin Towers, aircraft “black boxes,” land mines, “Big Brother TV series”), only five actually wrote on a topic that was both related in some way to a news item they had read and outside of their existing knowledge. Others wrote on a city in their home country or on an Australian animal or other miscellaneous topics. On reflection after the course, Peter decided that one of the problems was the serendipitous nature of news items. Students’ ability to choose a suitable topic was constrained by what news there was on the day they had to search the Internet websites for news that could stimulate a report. (Norton, 2002)
Task: Reflect
1. Although Peter’s students produced appropriate written reports, they were not all on the topic of news that he had asked for. How would you handle this if these were your students?
