ESTUDIO CASO REAL -UD 6 - TEXT 3

DEFINE USING YOUR OWN WORDS

Factual programming: programming based on actual, real facts

Skills building: the development of specific abilities, in this case education-

related abilities

International issues: non National questions, problems, topics

Media technologies: technologies related or applicable to media sphere

YOU ARE NOW A TEACHER

Your target is a 2nd year ESO group. How would you introduce them to the most
important British mass media? (try to be creative)

I would start this activity by showing students various examples of British mass
media I have collected in advance (e.g., newspaper, radio, internet, TV (a
picture), magazine, etc.) and let the students name each one. I would tell the
students that while each medium has its own name, together they are called the
mass media and explain that media is a plural word and the singular word is
medium.
I would ask the class what are the characteristic of each media and write their answers
on the board aligning the name of the medium and the characteristics of it under
its name.
Then I would ask students to look at the board and tell what these various media have
in common and guide their answers to the fact that the media all tell stories or tell
us about the world; what the media have in common is that they are filled with
messages. Then we would look at each medium listed on the board and discuss
what makes it different from the others. All these media are alike in some ways
but each one has its own unique characteristics.
Then I would tell the student that together we are going to come up with a definition
for mass media. The main definition of mass media is that they are forms of
communication that contain messages that are intended for everyone, for a mass
audience. That means that everybody can watch TV and see the same thing or
read the same story in the newspaper. Then I would ask them what the mass
media do for us. Mass media generally have three purposes: to inform, to
entertain and to sell products; I would write on the board these characteristics in
the mass media column and ask students to give suggestions for what kind of
programs or stories inform and also for examples of those that entertain or sell.
Finally I would divide them into groups and ask them to make (for homework) a
research about the most important communication media of the UK (newspapers,
radio and magazines) and prepare a short presentation .
TRANSLATE INTO SPANISH

Sustaining citizenship and civil society

The BBC provides high-quality news, current affairs and factual programming
to engage its viewers, listeners and users in important current and political
issues.

Promoting education and learning

The support of formal education in schools and colleges and informal knowledge
and skills building.

El apoyo a la ciudadana y a la sociedad civil

La BBC ofrece noticias de alta calidad, actualidad y programacin basada en los
hechos para involucrar a sus espectadores, oyentes y usuarios en asuntos de actualidad
y polticos importantes.

Promocin de la educacin y del aprendizaje

El soporte a la educacin formal en escuelas y colegios y la construccin de
conocimientos informales y de habilidades.

GRAMMAR

The BBC will build a global understanding () How can we express future in
English?

There are many forms to express future in English:

1. When we know about the future we normally use the present tense.

We use the present simple for something scheduled or arranged:

We have a lesson next Monday.
The train arrives at 6.30 in the morning.

We can use the present continuous for plans or arrangements:

Im playing football tomorrow.
Were having a party at Christmas.

2. We use will to talk about the future:

When we make predictions:

It will be a nice day tomorrow.
Im sure you will enjoy the film.

To mean want to or be willing to:

I hope you will come to my party.
George says he will help us.

To make or talk about offers and promises:

 I'll see you tomorrow.
Tim will be at the meeting.

3. We use (be) going to:

To talk about plans and intentions:

Im going to drive to work today.
They are going to move to Manchester.

When we can see that something is likely to happen:

Be careful! You are going to fall.

4. We can use the future continuous instead of the present continuous or going to for
emphasis when we are talking about plans, arrangements and intentions:

Theyll be coming to see us next week.

I will be driving to work tomorrow.

THINK OUT OF THE BOX

Do you think English language mass media should be considered an important

part of the English Language class for ESO and Bachillerato? Why? Include 3
Websites that can be used in class to show the different characteristics of British
and /or American media.

I believe that - considering culture globalization, the wide use of the English language
for international communication, the increasing role of the Internet as a tool for
getting information and communicating, a wide distribution of American films, TV
programs and computer software all over the world, and the growth of international
tourism - the role of audio/visual mass media news in language learning MUST be
taken into consideration. Mass media news programming in English is not only a vast
language learning resource which provides meaningful opportunities for non-
reciprocal listening but a vital and immediate alternative source of information. The
pedagogical and informative aspects of news broadcasts in English may therefore
often and dramatically intersect. Many studies have provided empirical evidences of
the role of exposure to news from mass media on speaking fluency.
The two main categories for assessing the pedagogical value of mass media news are:
a) content and b) the linguistic difficulties.
Content is described as whether the news is specialized or universal. Universal
contexts are likely to be more comprehensible than specialized contexts. As for the
linguistic difficulty, it consists of acoustic (speech-rate, pause phenomena, hesitation,
stress and rhythmic patterning), lexical/syntactic and text-type difficulties.
Accordingly, audiovisual texts (i.e. the union of spoken and visual texts) - in other
words the combination of words and pictures - has primacy in the process of decoding
and is likely to be more comprehensible for language learning.
Furthermore, there is also another issue about the pedagogical value of mass media
use in class: it used to be thought that the mass media touched people and
changed them directly. This was known as the bullet theory (also known as the
hypodermic theory) of mass communication. This theory gave media an all-
 powerful role in the communication process, while people were passively
pierced with media messages and powerless to do anything to stop media
indoctrination. Further investigations revealed, however, that most audience
members are much more active. They may receive new information from the
media, but process that information through their own internal beliefs and
through the opinions of others in their social networks. In adolescents this critical
cognitive processes are still being developed. The teacher can help students cope
with the media better by encouraging them to think critically about the media
environment they encounter every day.

As for web resources on US/UK media I consider interesting the following links:

1) http://www.slate.com/articles/life/shopping/2004/04/sweet_and_lowdown.htm
l
2) http://top10links.com/cat.php/News:Newspapers:Tabloids
3) http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/Differences_Between_American_and_Britis
h_Advertising
4) http://www.slideshare.net/guestacdf8f/the-mass-media-of-great-britain
5) http://www.globalissues.org/article/163/media-in-the-united-states
6) http://chandiraj.blogspot.it/2009/12/media-system-in-united-states-and-
north.html