• On using on-line newspapers for teaching
• On using CRYPTIC PUZZLES for language teaching
• The Star Wars Project
• Homepages of other universities

HOW NEWSPAPERS ON THE INTERNET CAN BE USED FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING?

Students of English want to be able to use the language they have acquired in the same way English people use it. As a result, they want to be able to read and understand English newspapers. The students who have passed the exams with good marks may be disappointed when they start to read newspapers, for the British newspapers have a style of their own: "the newspaper English". Our aim was to help teachers with some ideas and exercises based on newspapers that improve the students' reading and writing skills -to prepare them for reading comprehension tests. With reference to the newspaper articles, their vocabulary will also be extended, and they will learn more about the given culture. With the help of the Internet many newspapers became available for the students, they only have to be exploited. Here are some sites that we found useful:

• Teaching the English Newspaper Effecively by K.Kitao -review exercises
  
• Creating a Classroom Newspaper -reading and writing exercises at three levels with worksheets and content related activities.
  
• Newspaper Glossary -vocabulary of newspapers, definitions
  
• Newspaper writing style
  
• Useful newspaper links -links to many newspapers, news and weather forecasts
  
• More useful newspaper links
  
• Even more useful newspaper links
  
• Content related questions about an article in USA TODAY -discussion generating questions about interesting topics based on an up- to-date article in USA TODAY that can also form the basis of a writing assignment
  

These sites were collected by Laura Furcsa and Bernadett Gyorgy (Gyorgy Attilane).

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What is a Cryptic Puzzle?

• it looks just like a normal crossword puzzle, that is, like the definitions you find in a crossword
• but here 1 clue = 2 clues, because it contains the normal definition of the answer, most probably a synonym or a circumscription, AND a 'cryptic definition', which you have to transform with some kind of a wordplay to get the same answer as given by the normal definition
• besides these two parts, the definition usually also contains a third clue telling you which kind of wordplay it is based on.
  

Clear?

Probably not, so let's see an example.

This is a Cryptic Puzzle based on anagram, that is the rearranging of the letters of a word to get another word:

CONFUSED STARER IS DETAINED BY COPS.

Here 'detained by cops' is the synonym of the answer, 'starer' is the cryptic clue, and 'confused' refers to the anagram, it tells you that the letters are confused. So if you rearrange the letters S-T-A-R-E-R in the appropriate way, you get arrest, which means 'detain by cops', doesn't it ? :-)

any clearer?

Let's then see some types of wordplay that can be used to code the answer.

Apart from anagram, you can also have

reversal

when you have to read the cryptic clueword backwards to get the solution. In this case the clue referring to reversal can be 'backwards', 'upside down', 'wrong way' and the like. Example:


Put those streetcars backwards to get wise.


where 'streetcars' is the cryptic clue, a synonym of which you have to reverse to get a synonym of 'wise'. Try and find it out. If you give up, you'll find the answer at the bottom of the page.

hidden

when the answer is actually hidden inside the clue, incorporated within one of its words or cross-secting a word-boundary. Typical clues are 'within', 'inside', 'in', 'among', 'hidden', 'contains'. An example for cross-secting:

Do not disturb - only within high speeds.

where 'high speeds' is the synonym of ...?

sound-alike

when the answer sounds like the cryptic clue-word. Clues are obviously things like 'sounds like', 'I hear', 'audience', 'eavesdrop'.

Sounds a little like a person working under the surface.

double definition

when the definition gives both meanings of a homophone. Here usually no clue refers to the coding.

Porcelain country.

beheaded

when the answer gives another meaningful word without its first letter as well:

A one-unit-long curve on a face without the head.

I hope you've got to like Cryptic Puzzles!

Make up your own, or visit PFSS - the Dragon Fire - Cryptic Crossword!

Answers: 1.) trams backwards reads smart 2.) disturb only gives turbo 3.) little is synonymous with minor, which sounds the same as miner 4.) China 5.) the unit is mile, while the curve on the face is smile. :-)

Written by Juli

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USING STAR WARS SITES TO TEACH ENGLISH

1. Watch Start Wars in class with the students in English.


2. Discuss in small groups and then the whole class together (How did they like it? What was it that they liked most/least? Who was their favourite character? Do they think that it's just another science fiction movie or is it somewhat different? Did they like this new version better than the original? Why? etc.)


Turn on the computers. This is going to be a detective game. Students in pairs go to the first link in the detective game.


3. Read the page, fid Wampa, and got to the planet's link mentioned there (Hoth).


4. Go to Rebel Base. Find R2D2 and go to the place mentioned in his description, Before you go to this link, though, read the text carefully, because you will need the information later.


5. Go to the test that R2D2 devised. Have fun! "This is a test that only true members of the Aliance can pass." Don't forget to submit your results and check your answers! If you do not know the answer, search the web for it... :-)


6. Students (stil in pairs) having gathered enough information about the characters, write a short essay about the life of one of the characters before the story starts (preferably about the character they said they liked the most). Part of this assignment can be given as homework.


7. Follow-up activity: students share their stories with each toher, discussing them in class.

(Designed by Agi and Anna)

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INFORMATION ABOUT HOMEPAGES OF OTHER HUNGARIAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES:

György Bessenyei Teachers Training College (Nyíregyháza)

The only information you can get about this college by looking at its website is the phonebook of the BGYTF, the Guide to entrance exams and the description of their Botenical garden.

Janus Pannonius University Of Arts And Sciences (Pécs)

What I find the best about this website is the homepage of Joe (József Horváth) and the CALLer, which is an on-line report on a CALL material developing project conducted at JPU, Pécs. Joe's Internet Book contains course materials and a selection of links that can be interesting for students of English. It also contains descriptions of exams, eg. multiple choice test (the ideal solution included as well), essays, English Department News service, a students' newsmagazine, interesting articles and useful ideas for future teachers as well. The CALLer contains links, on-line CALL materials, and a search project.

Juhász Gyula Teacher Training College (Szeged)

This site does not only contain some useful information about the college, but it also gives a description of its departments and relationships. You also have access to homepages of students and employees.

Lajos Kossuth University (Debrecen)

Unfortunately the website of this university does not contain any specific information about the English department, but it contains very nice pictures about the university in winter and features websites of different student organizations at the university (I really liked the page of chemist students). It also contains general information for today's and future's students.

Károly Eszterházy Teacher Training College (Eger)

This site has a wide range of information, eg. description of Eger and its county, pictures about the town, photographic archives, students' newspaper, etc. Unfortunately the website containing info about different departments is under construction.

Attila József University (Szeged)

What I really liked about this site was the Employees' homepages. Although some of them are quite plain, you can find brilliant ones as well (just check out Attila Béres's). This site also contains information about Szeged, about the university (pictures, departments, news). However it lacks any homepage of the English department.

Dániel Berzsenyi Teachers Training College (Szombathely)

You can see very nice pictures about the town, but unfortunately the homepage of the English department is still under construction.

The University of Veszprém (Veszprém)

What I liked most about this website was the sensitive map of the university. You should really check it out.

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