joongangdaily.joins.com

Website Review: joongangdaily.joins.com

In short: A great English news site for upper-intermediate or advanced level Koreans. Many of the stories are in English and Korean, so Koreans can quickly check the translation. Even if you’re not Korean, though, you’ll enjoy reading these stories on everything from current events to entertainment. You can also listen to many of them.

For students (in Korea): Check out the Foreign Community tab where you can find many English language events. There are many nice opportunities to go practice your English in the real world.

For teachers: Assign one of the stories that have audio to your students. Ask them to read it for the next class. They can print it off, but should be familiar with the intonation, timing, and word stress while reading.

CNN Student News

Website Review: edition.cnn.com/studentnews

In short: CNN Student News presents the news almost every day in a short video. These are made for teenagers who are native English speakers, but non-native speakers will enjoy them as well. The anchor (news person) speaks quickly and uses some slang and idioms, but students can read the transcript if they need help.

For students: Check out the discussion questions for each story. If you can answer them, then you’ll know that you really understand.

For teachers: Ask your students to follow a topic all semester. At the end of the term, they can present everything they’ve learned.

Website Review: Voice of America

Website Review: voanews.com/learningenglish

In short: Really high quality listening site. Voice of America offers current news stories you can listen to and read. Updated daily, the site presents a lot of material. All of the stories, in eleven categories, are read slowly and without complicated vocabulary or grammar. Some of the stories are just three minutes long. Others are as long as 30 minutes. For hundreds of video news stories (with subtitles), check out Voice of America’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/voalearningenglish

For students: If you’re interested in studying in the U.S.A., check out this series of stories. You’ll learn about scholarships, studying strategies, and more. There are already more than 40 stories in the series.

For teachers: Try putting the students into groups based on what kind news interests them. Then have everyone in the group listen to all the stories in that category for a week before reporting to the class.