Peter Grundy
Newspapers
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First published 1993
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ISBN-13: 978-0-19-4371926
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Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the help of many others, particularly Zack Alassani, Bill Harris, Stan Hetherington, Richard Hondy, Tomoko Kato, A M Mango, Chitra Narshi and John Simelane, all MA in Applied Linguistics students at the University of Durham, who, together with a long-suffering group of language learners, collaborated with me during a memorable week of experimental, mixed ability language teaching which relied exclusively on newspapers. I am also grateful to successive generations of EAP students at Durham, who tolerated my enthusiasm for newspapers on socialization courses, and to the PET ‘Britain Today’ teachers at Pilgrims in 1989 who provided valuable comments on my ideas.
When this project was at an early stage, I received a long letter from John Morgan, which contained several characteristically brilliant ideas that I have since tried for myself and included in this book. I am also indebted to my colleague, Arthur Brookes, for many fruitful discussions and insightful comments, and in particular for the Appendix which he generously donated to this book.
When I first approached OUP with my ideas, Alan Maley wrote several thoughtful letters which have had a shaping role in this book, as has OUP’s anonymous reader of my sample submission, which was both encouraging and corrective, and OUP’s two further anonymous readers of the first draft of the book whose suggestions for improvements were gratefully received and acted on.
At OUP Anne Conybeare and Julia Sallabank worked hard to improve the manuscript and tidy up what was formerly a less exact text.
‘My friend from overseas’ (Introduction, page 5) and the ‘colleague from overseas’ (Introduction, page 10) have probably forgotten their apparently casual comments, so I will allow them the luxury of remaining anonymous.
All the faults in the book are mine.
The publishers and author would like to thank the following for their kind permission to use articles, extracts, or adaptations from copyright material. There are instances where we have been unable to trace or contact the copyright holder before our printing deadline. We apologize for this apparent negligence. If notified the publisher will be pleased to rectify any errors orpmissions at the earliest opportunity.
‘Chips are down for jobs’ from Meet the Press by J. Abbott: Cambridge University Press (now out of print).
‘Euromania haunts language of food’ by George Brock: TT 25.5.91: © Times Newspapers Ltd. 1990/91.
‘£35,000 for boy of six labelled a brat’, ‘He’s too Cosi with my girl’, and ‘Return by ear mail’: the Daily Mirror.
‘Ban on migrant cheats’ and ‘Bible-basher’: the Sun.
‘Bible-basher’: the Daily Star.
‘Skyway robber steals half a million’: © the Daily Telegraph.
Photograph on page 47: Sally and Richard Greenhill.
Photograph on page 87: Graham Alder.
Picture on page 48: Philippa Parkinson.
The author and series editor
Peter Grundy has taught in schools in Britain and Germany, and has worked in higher education as a teacher trainer. From 1979 to 2002 he was a lecturer at the University of Durham, where he taught pragmatics and applied linguistics to undergraduates and MA courses in ELT. He spent 1994–6 on leave from Durham in Hong Kong where he taught EAP and language teaching methodology at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is currently Associate Principal Lecturer at Northumbria University. He has taught on many summer schools and specialist courses in the UK and overseas stretching back over nearly thirty years. He is author of Writing for Study Purposes (with Arthur Brookes), Language through Literature (with Susan Bassnett), Beginners (in this series), and Doing Pragmatics.
Alan Maley worked for The British Council from 1962 to 1988, serving as English Language Officer in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, and China, and as Regional Representative in South India (Madras). From 1988 to 1993 he was Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust, Cambridge. From 1993 to 1998 he was Senior Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature of the National University of Singapore. He is currently a freelance consultant and Director of the graduate English programme at Assumption University, Bangkok. He has written Literature, in this series (with Alan Duff, OUP 1990), Beyond Words, Sounds Interesting, Sounds Intriguing, Words, Variations on a Theme, and Drama Techniques in Language Learning (all with Alan Duff), The Mind’s Eye (with Françoise Grellet and Alan Duff), and Learning to Listen and Poem into Poem (with Sandra Moulding).
Foreword
Newspapers have long provided a valuable resource for language teachers and learners alike. So much so that many published courses use real or simulated newspaper articles, and most schools (and many teachers) maintain files of articles organized thematically or on the basis of their language content. (And which of us has not been rescued from lack of preparation by the providential article culled fresh from the morning newspaper?)
Language learners find newspapers motivating because they offer interesting, relevant, topical, and varied information. Equally importantly, for many, they provide one of the more obvious keys for opening up the foreign society, its preoccupations, its habitual ways of thought, and its prejudices. For these very reasons newspaper material is among the most challenging the learner is called upon to face.
Language