News Summary

News Summary is a simple activity with a home-study component to encourage students to increase their out-of-class exposure to Chinese-language media. It also has the benefit of increasing student awareness of diverse global perspectives in Chinese.

• This activity can be divided into two components, depending on the particular competencies that you would like to focus on or that students need to work on:
  • 听力练习 (listening practice)
  • 阅读练习 (reading practice)

• Regardless of which competency is being practiced, the process is roughly the same.

Outline

• Assign students the task of selecting from a list of international podcasts or news feeds (see below for list of links) at least 3 that they will follow.
• Encourage students to keep a log/journal of their listening or reading, and to summarize at least 1 story (from a podcast) or article (from a news feed) per day.
• After one week, have the students choose 3 or more of their favourite stories and report back to the class sharing their prepared summaries.
• This can be a way of working on/developing presentational skills.

Listening Practice - 听力练习

• Provide students with the list of international broadcast organization podcasts in Chinese (available here).
• Ask students to choose at least 3 podcasts that interest them from the list, and follow them regularly.
• Students should keep a log of which podcast episodes they have listened to, and try to summarize the important or interesting parts of at least one episode per day in their own words.
• After one week, students should choose their favourite 3 episodes and present a summary of the podcast and why it was important/why they enjoyed it to the rest of the class.
• Allow time for Q&A after each presentation.
• Example:
  • Follow the RFI, NHK and SBS podcasts for a week and describe the top 3 stories for that week in France, Japan and Australia.
  • Follow-up questions: Were there any differences in coverage or focus among these three broadcasters? What is something you learned about each of these three countries that you did not know before?

Reading Practice - 阅读练习

• Provide students with the list of international news feeds in Chinese (available here).
• Ask students to choose at least 3 podcasts that interest them from the list, and follow them regularly.
• Students should keep a log of which podcast episodes they have listened to, and try to summarize the important or interesting parts of at least one episode per day in their own words.
• After one week, students should choose their favourite 3 episodes and present a summary of the podcast and why it was important/why they enjoyed it to the rest of the class.
• Allow time for Q&A after each presentation.
• Example:
  • Follow the Voice of Russia, KBS and Hélán Zàixiàn news feeds for a week and describe the top 3 stories for that week in Russia, Korea and the Netherlands.
  • Follow-up questions: What are examples of stories you read during the week that you would not have seen in your own country's news media? What are some similarities?