NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM

Using the News to Supplement Cultural Lecture Material: A Look at Learner
Beliefs
CHRISTOPHER ADAM LEAR
Nanzan University

Abstract
Engaging students in a lecture course taught in their L2 can be a daunting task. Issues such as
selecting materials, pacing, including relevant and thought-provoking content, providing
discussion topics and time, and using appropriate means of assessment all plague teachers whenplanning content-based lecture courses. News articles help alleviate some of these challenges.
Students can spend their own time researching the topic in the news and then come to class toshare it in small groups. However, using news articles written for native readers can be a strict
barrier for implementation. This paper introduces the use of region-specific news sources as a selfstudy and warm-up discussion activity and explores university student beliefs about the ease of theactivity, their enjoyment, and their perceived value. Data was collected by use of a 6-point, 15item Likert scale and three open questions. Students overall held positive beliefs about the activity
and reported that it aided in improving their reading and summarizing skills.
Introduction
The challenge of integrating real-world, authentic English in the language classroom has always
been a challenge for EFL teachers. Finding ways to accomplish this without oversaturating and, in
doing so, demotivating language learners is one goal many language teachers have. Additionally,learner ability-appropriate content which also piques learner interest and increases engagement
while building motivation is the cornerstone of successful material selection.
Linguistically speaking, to achieve authentic language input, L2 learners are exposed toauthentic materials including radio, songs, films, dramas, comedies, streaming media from Internet
sites like Youtube, and news from the target culture in the target language. While even a decadeago some of these materials would have had a more limited selection, with the spread of online
streaming sites like Netflix and Disney+ for TV-related media, Apple, Spotify, and Youtube Musicfor songs, and many news media companies and newspapers making their content available online,

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
accessing a variety of materials is no longer a barrier for the average person. This ease of accessto materials opens up new avenues educators have to approach authentic material generation.
Literature Review
News articles create an opportunity to bridge this gap and at the same time expose EFL students
to new ideas and different cultures. To be understood by a wider audience, news articles are often
written in the most precise and direct way possible to prevent misinterpretation and increase
accessibility (Blatchford, 1973; Brinton & Gaskill, 1978). Additionally, although often plagued by
low-frequency vocabulary, news agenda and topics similar in theme will use specific vocabulary
items and structures, thus making it beneficial as a repeated activity due to the increased
opportunity for vocabulary recycling. This makes a strong case that if one was to incorporate
unedited news articles in their class, repetition of the activity would be a more effective means of
implementation.
Regardless of this, while literature on authentic material usage is plentiful (Yadav & Jha,
2019), literature specifically focusing on news articles in the EFL/ESL classroom is quite limited(Molgen, 2014). Topics of existing literature range from using news media such as recorded
television or radio broadcasts (Brinton & Gaskill, 1978; Bahrani & Tam, 2011), material selection(Bell, 2003), and using a news-based curriculum (Molgen, 2014). Although requiring significant
preparation, Brighton and Gaskill (1978) suggested using news media for listening activities toincrease learner motivation and enthusiasm. Bahrani and Tam (2011) showed an improvement oflearner listening performance of students exposed to news recordings over those who weren’t.
Content is equally important when choosing suitable materials based on the learners’ level.
Identifying which articles require background knowledge (exogenous) and which can beunderstood without any specific prior knowledge (endogenous) help instructors plan and prepare
additional scaffolding when appropriate (Bell, 2003). Finally, news articles have shown to be asafe medium for introducing controversial or sensitive topics in which students have shown to holdan interest (Molgen, 2014).
Therefore, to get a more well-rounded idea of the potential of using news with EFL students
has, it is key to also look closer at students being asked to engage with the materials. This study
aims to explore learner beliefs about a warm-up news article activity for a content-based lecture

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
course where students were tasked with finding an article from a pre-selected list of news sources,
reading and summarizing them, and then sharing them in small groups at the beginning of class.
MethodParticipants
The participants for this study came from one, second-year and two, third-year, year-long lecture
courses, focusing on Oceania culture for the second-year students, and European culture for thethird-year students. The courses were taught at a private university in central Japan. Courses lasted
15 weeks, meeting once every week for a duration of 90 minutes, and were conducted in English.
The total number of participants was 70 students, both male and female, however, the ratio of maleto female was not investigated. Participants belonged to the British and American Studies
department and could generally be described as holding positive beliefs toward the usage ofEnglish in the classroom. In terms of ability, students generally had a CEFR level of B1 and B2,
allowing them to understand the lecture content, assigned reading materials, and media shown inclass, with a few outliers in the A2 and C2 levels. Students were not streamed for these courses.
Implementation of News Exposure
The main theme of the three courses was to introduce physical and geopolitical geography, history,
economy, traditions, cultural events, and the way of life for each respective region. To achieve this,the courses set out goals for students to achieve by the conclusion of the semester. The goals wereas follows:
1. Listen to and understand lectures about the main themes
2. Conduct independent research on two topics and give two 5-minute presentations about
each
3. Read news articles or watch news media from the country and summarize them
4. Discuss the news in small groups for 10 minutes
5. Create a note diary, including notes from each lecture and summaries of each news
media
For the goals related to news media, students were tasked with finding a news article or othermedia related to the region being studied and summarizing it in preparation for class each week.
Students were given a list of possible sources to select from. These sources were chosen to either

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
represent different areas of the respective region, or to provide students with various perspectivesof the respective region (Table 1). Students were encouraged to investigate sources and topics
which interested them most in the hope that it would help maintain motivation and keep students
engaged. Additionally, students had to use a note diary handout to record their article summary(Appendix A) that was used to help students prepare for the in-class discussion and was collected
at the end of the semester as a way for the teacher to check their work.
Table 1
News Sources Provided to Students to Use for the Activity
Oceania culture course

European culture course

Sydney Morning Herald: http://smh.com.au/

The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com

New Zealand Herald: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/

BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/world/europe

Hawaii News Now: http://hawaiinewsnow.com/

CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/EUROPE/The Guam Daily Post: http://www.postguam.com/

Iceland News: https://www.icenews.is

Fiji Sun: http://www.fijisun.com.fj/

Ansamed: https://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/

Samoa Observer: http://samoaobserver.ws/

Eurasianet: https://eurasianet.org
Al Jazeera: https://aljazeera.com/topics/regios/europe.html

For the first 10 minutes of each class, students were divided into random groups of two to three
and asked to share the articles which they had summarized and discuss the content with their groupmembers. This activity was chosen for several reasons: (1) students were able to begin class byengaging with their classmates in their L2, essentially putting them into “English mode”, (2) byhaving the knowledge that students would be expected to share the article with their classmates,
there was added pressure to complete the task each week, (3) it was the expectation of the lecturer
that by having students engage with each other first, they would be more receptive to the daily
lecture, (4) by having student-centered discussions, they could have more opportunities to engage
with topic-specific language, which was expected to give them increased confidence during otherdiscussions and their presentations, and finally (5) by summarizing and sharing the news, students
could be exposed to a wider range of information about each region not covered in the lectures.
During these 10 minutes, the teacher would then walk around the room, listening to the various
discussions and intermittently joining the conversation by asking one or two questions. After 10
minutes, the class would continue with that day’s lecture.

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
Data Collection
Students were given a single 15-item Likert scale questionnaire near the end of the second semester(Appendix B). The 6-point Likert scale ranged from 1 representing “Strongly Disagree” to 6
representing “Strongly Agree”. Questions were based around three primary categories of interest:
enjoyment of the activity (six items), ease of the activity (six items), and value of the activity (three
items). Seven of the questions were designed to have a negative counterpart. For example, thequestion “I look forward to hearing about my group members articles” had the counterpart “hearing
about the news from my group members is boring.” Additionally, the questionnaire contained threeopen questions. Both the Likert-scale and open questions were written in English only, but for the
open questions, students were instructed that they could use either English or Japanese whenanswering. The open-question responses were coded organized based on the content. Reponses arelisted in order of dominance.
Findings & Discussion
Likert Scores. When prompted with statements reflecting the ease of various parts of the activity,
student’s beliefs were shown to be neither strongly in agreement nor disagreement. When given
the statement “finding a news article is easy” (Figure 1, next page), students gave it an average of
4.33. Of the three aspects of ease investigated, finding the article was the highest ranked by
students. One possible reason for this could be the skills required to accomplish the task. Students
only needed to assess the obvious qualities of each article, such as content based on the title, length,
and complexity of vocabulary, when deciding which one to read.
Students were also given prompts about the ease of reading a news article (Figure 2, nextpage). With an average value of 3.67, students remained only slightly in agreement with thestatement. This could be attributed to the difficulty of the material, as it was not specificallydesigned for language learners but rather native speakers, thus challenging the lower-level students
more.

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
Figure 1
Ease of Finding News Articles

30

19 (27%)18 (26%)20
15

11 (16%)9 (13%)

8 (11%)

105

25 (36%)23 (33%)25

8 (11%)

10 (14%)4 (6%)

3 (4%)

2 (3%)

0
Strongly Disagree(n=70)DisagreeSlightly Disagree

Finding a news article is easy.

Slightly Agree

Agree

Strongly Agree

It is difficult looking for a news article.

Figure 2
Ease of Reading News Articles

30
24 (34%)21 (30%)25

27 (39%)24 (34%)

20
15
10
5
0

7 (10%)

12 (17%)9 (13%)

8 (11%)

3 (4%)
0 (0%)
Strongly Disagree(n=70)

3 (4%) 2 (3%)
DisagreeSlightly Disagree

Reading another culture’s news is easy.

Slightly Agree

Agree

Strongly Agree

It is difficult to read another culture’s news.

Finally, students were prompted on the ease of summarizing the articles (Figure 3, next page). This
received the lowest rank of the three, averaging 3.25. Students slightly disagreed with the statement,
which was anticipated as summarizing was the most intensive task of the three, requiring

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
comprehension, advanced lexical and grammar knowledge, and the ability to simplify complex
issues.
Figure 3
Ease of Summarizing News Articles

30
26 (37%)25
19 (27%)17 (24%)2020 (29%)17 (24%)15 (21%)1510
5

8 (11%)

8 (11%)

5 (7%)
2 (3%)

3 (4%)
0 (0%)

0
Strongly Disagree(n=70)DisagreeSlightly Disagree

I can finish summarizing the article quickly.

Slightly Agree

Agree

Strongly Agree

I have problems summarizing the article.

The next category students were prompted about was the enjoyment of various aspects of theactivity. One aspect investigated was the enjoyment of reading news from foreign sources (Figure
4, next page). On average, students valued this at 4.13 and, in conjunction with the ease of reading
the article results, revealed that although students might find something challenging, they could
still get enjoyment out of the task.
Students were also given statements about their enjoyment of sharing their articles with
their group members (Figure 5, next page). The average score was just slightly under the averagescore for reading the articles, 4.10. This was quite surprising as it was believed by the teacher thatstudents preferred the more social activities in class. Yet, the questionnaire results showed thatstudents had near equal enjoyment of both aspects of the activity.

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
Figure 4
Enjoyment of Reading News Articles

30

28 (40%)27 (39%)25
20
14 (20%)15

13 (19%)8 (11%)10
5 (7%)

5
0

18 (26%)17 (24%)6 (9%)
3 (4%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

Strongly Disagree(n=70)DisagreeSlightly Disagree

I like reading the news from other cultures.

Slightly Agree

Agree

Strongly Agree

Reading another culture’s news is boring.

Figure 5
Enjoyment of Sharing News Articles(n=70)
30

28 (40%)27 (39%)25
20

17 (24%)16 (23%) 16 (23%)

14 (20%)1510
3 (4%)

5
0

8 (11%)

6 (9%)
2 (3%)

0 (0%)
Strongly Disagree

DisagreeSlightly Disagree

I enjoy telling my group members about my articles.

Slightly AgreeAgree

1 (1%)
Strongly Agree

I dislike sharing my news with my group members.

For the last aspect of enjoyment students were questioned about was their enjoyment of hearing
their group members talk about the news (Figure 6, next page). This received the highest average,
4.46. This could be attributed to the fact that students did not have any specific task to perform
while listening to their group members and could focus more on the social aspect of the activity.

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
Figure 6
Enjoyment of Listening to Group Members

28 (40%)302520 (29%)20

13 (19%)150

9 (13%)

7 (10%)

105

27 (39%)24 (34%)4 (6%)

4 (6%)

3 (4%)
1 (1%)

0 (0%)
Strongly Disagree

DisagreeSlightly Disagree

Slightly Agree

Agree

Strongly Agree

I look forward to hearing about my group members articles.

(n=70)Hearing about the news from my group members is boring.

Figure 7
Perceived Value of the Activity30

22 (31%)26 (37%)20
10

2 (3%)
1 (1%)

1 (1%)
4 (6%)

28 (40%)27 (39%)22 (31%)
17 (24%)14 (20%)10 (14%)5 (7%)

5 (7%)

Slightly Disagree

Slightly Agree

12 (17%)11 (16%)2 (3%)

1 (1%)

0
Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Agree

Strongly AgreeThis activity helps me better understand other cultures(n=70)

I have learned a lot about other cultures’ news from this activity.
The in class sharing activity is a waste of time.

The final category included in the questionnaire focused on the amount of value students placedon the activity (Figure 7, above). For this category, there were two, specific positive questions andone, general negative question. Students showed a strong disagreement of the negative question“the in-class sharing activity is a waste of time”, giving it an average of 2.14. Additionally, students
responded positively to the questions “this activity helps me better understand other cultures” and“I have learned a lot about other cultures’ news from this activity”, giving them averages of 4.47

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
and 4.32, respectively. Although having minimal teacher input by design, students were able tosee the value in the activity and benefit from it in relation to course content.
Short Answers. Students were asked to respond to three open questions in either English or
Japanese, however, a majority of responses were given in English. They were not required toanswer these questions and some respondents chose not to give a response or did not answer all
three questions. The three questions were as listed below:
1. What do you like about the news article activity?
2. What would you change about the news article activity?
3. Do you have any other feedback about the news article activity?
Responses to these questions were coded into five categories based on common themes among
them: knowledge about other cultures, activity enjoyment, criticisms, skill improvements, andwants and desires. The responses are presented verbatim.
Knowledge about Other Cultures. Overwhelmingly, students often commented on being able toknow more about the world outside of Japan while also mentioning that the activity helped expose
them to reading materials they otherwise normally would not read.
“I could know what the world is happening. Also it became custom to search world’s news
story.” -Participant A
Additionally, some students identified the added benefit of the activity being continuous, as
opposed to being infrequent, for example, as how the bi-semester presentations might be viewed.
“I can get latest information as I'm searching the news. I can know what is happeningaround the world, especially in Europe.” -Participant B
This response reinforces the goal of supplementing lecture material by using the news to explore
avenues not covered by the lecturer. In this case, the respondent was able to learn more about
current affairs happening in the region they were learning about in class.
“I can deepen my knowledge by knowing about other countries’ culture. I think it’s a good
opportunity since normally I couldn’t know about other cultures without taking a course
like this.” [translated from L1] -Participant C

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Some students recognized that this was a unique feature that only this type of course could provide.
This type of activity was likely not used in the students’ general English courses, so it provided
the opportunity of giving the students something different, unique, and possibly memorable.
Activity Enjoyment. Several students gave responses expressing their enjoyment of the activity.
One common belief held by students was the enjoyment of the social aspect of the activity.
“I like learning new things with my classmates. My classmates choose interesting articles
every time, so I enjoy sharing news with them.” -Participant D“I enjoy it as a kind of warm-up activity. I enjoy talking with my classmates.” -Participant
E
Often, the students took advantage of this activity to speak English with their group members.
They would use this time to greet their classmates and share summaries of their articles. Some
respondents even commented on how they liked this activity as a warm-up activity.
Criticisms. Students did have several, similar criticisms when it came to the activity: including anactive listening/dictation aspect, stricter time for better efficiency, and stricter time for better focus.
First, some students wanted an area in their journal to also include notes taken of their groupmembers’ shared summaries.
“I want some spaces to write some memo about other's articles.” -Participant F
Since there was no dictation component during the summary share, it could not be verified whether
students were paying attention to and comprehending their group members’ summaries. One of
the most common criticisms students held was in relation to the time of the activity. Some studentssuggested each group member have a limited amount of time to share their article, forcing them toidentify and share only the most important parts of their article and to avoid “make [sic] others
bored.”“I think its better to have a limitation like 1 minute so that I have to summarize that simply.
I also have to pick important parts of the news. A long summarize may make others bored.”-Participant G

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
Similarly, several students also commented that the sharing time should be shorter to keep groups
who finish early on task.
“I guess that spending time for this activity is a little bit long, so students tend to starttalking with friends or doing other things… We can lessen time to do this, I think.” Participant H
Classes have a limited amount of time, and time management is a key aspect to being an effective
educator. In this quote, it becomes apparent that students were also aware of this and preferred
their time not to be wasted. One final criticism that students shared was the need for more guidance
when searching for news articles.
“If there is one theme ever week, I would be motivated to find them.” -Participant I
Several students noted that they wanted the teacher to specify a topic for them to focus on whensearching for an article. This could indicate that either the teacher could give more structured
instructions at the beginning of the semester and gradually give students more agency, or
periodically give them a topic that corresponds with the lecture of that day.
Skill Improvements. With any class activity, the goal is always to help students improve in someway. Students recognized this and gave the most responses about how the activity helped improvetheir skills.
“I could get a lot of perspective and information about culture. And we can improve oursummarising, reading, or speaking activity through this activity.” -Participant J“It's sometimes difficult to summarize some news about other countries but can improve
the skill to summarize the thing and think simply.” -Participant K“I can read the news article faster than before.” -Participant L
By having students read authentic news articles, they were exposed to a writing style they likely
were not accustomed to. Through this exposure, they were able to become more accustomed tosearching for foreign news sources and reading the material. Additionally, since students were
tasked with making weekly summaries of their news articles, they were able to practice thischallenging skill. Through this practice, students could increase their confidence when completing

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
this portion of the activity. If students had more experience with reading foreign news sources,
they may have attempted to incorporate those sources into their own reading habits in the future.
Wants & Desires. Finally, students gave feedback on what they wished the activity would help
them improve. It may have been unclear to students whether, or by how much, their summarizing
and sharing skills improved. Therefore, some students responded with the following quotes:“I would like to summarize the news more clearly.” -Participant M“I want to explain more easily to listeners.” -Participant N
Although students were completing these tasks on a weekly basis, in some cases, students could
not notice their ability improving. Therefore, they desired some measurement by which they could
clearly see improvement in their skills. It could be reasoned that this is related to their criticism
about time management and their concept of what is and is not a valuable use of class time.
The final desire expressed by one student relates to a reluctance to challenge themself. In
it, they explained that, although they wanted to attempt more challenging articles, they insteadchose articles or content that may have appeared easier, more familiar, or more relatable. Thus,
students may desire to challenge themselves, but need that extra push by an external force (i.e., ateacher’s command, peer pressure during a group activity, or a change in self-motivation) to makethe attempt. This suggests that a slightly more structured approach from the teacher could help
give the motivation a student like this required.
Conclusion
Authentic materials do play an important role in the language classroom. With such a plethora ofmaterials available, news articles can provide a near limitless supply of real-world content withwhich higher level language learners can challenge themselves. The use of articles for this course
was multifaceted: learning about culture from authentic sources, using authentic materials,
diversifying news habits, increasing confidence when reading an English news source, andproviding students with a warm-up to discuss their homework. Based on this, there is evidence
that this activity not only provided students with these opportunities, but that students held positive
beliefs toward the activity. Almost all students agreed to some degree that the activity aided inunderstanding cultures from which the newspaper originated. Several students commented about
the activity expanding their habits when accessing news. Many students explicitly stated that the

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
activity helped improve their skill of reading foreign news. Lastly, students found the article shareto be the most enjoyable aspect of the activity.
Students do value their time and, even though they may not always directly vocalize it to
the teacher, are constantly assessing what they do in the classroom and how it benefits them. Whilethe use of news as a medium for ESL instruction does have its challenges (Moglen, 2014), it still
can be used effectively as a discussion tool. Based on student feedback, providing periodic themes
or topics for students to search for when choosing an article could help those who rely too muchon the familiar. In addition, limiting share time would encourage students to be more concise in
their summaries, forcing them to identify only the most important points in an article. However,by shortening the share time, the overall in-class activity time decreases. Therefore, one possible
way to mitigate the reduction in time could be by adding a question-and-answer component tokeep group members engaged and on task for the full warm-up time and which could then beincorporated into the weekly diary entries. Finally, for students who need extra support, it might
be worthwhile to have a more scaffolded approach in whereby they are provided a selection ofeasier articles at the beginning of the year that gradually get more challenging (or are given
complete agency) by the end of the semester to give a greater sense of progression.
The use of news articles is not a universal tool for language teachers. This can be seen in
the lack of literature on the subject. Despite this, for motivated English majors, it has shown to
be a well-received means to help bridge the gap between classroom and real-world English.

BIO DATA
Chris Lear has been in English education since 2007. After completing 5 years as an ALT in the
JET Programme, he went on to get his master’s in linguistic science from Nanzan university. He
has been a lecturer at universities in Nagoya, Japan since 2015. He is currently a language
instructor at Nanzan University. Peer feedback and virtual reality implementation are his areas ofresearch.

References
Bahrani, T., & Tam, S. S. (2011). Technology and language learning: Exposure to TV and radio
news and speaking proficiency. Kritika Kultura, 17, 144-160.

NUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
Bell, D. M. (2003). TV news in the EFL/ESL classroom: Criteria for selection. TESL-EJ, 7(3).
Retrieved from http://www.tesl-ej.org/ej27/a2.html
Blatchford, C. (1973). Newspapers: Vehicles for Teaching ESOL with Cultural Focus. TESOL
Quarterly, 7, 145-153.
Brinton, D., & Gaskill, W. (1978). Using news broadcasts in the ESL/EFL classroom. TESOL
Quarterly, 12(4), 403-413.
Moglen, D. (2014). Tuning In: Using the News for Content-Based ESL Class. The CATESOLJournal, 26(1).
Yadav, L. K., & Jha, S. K. (2019). A Brief Overview of Authentic Materials in ESL/EFL
Classrooms. International Journal of Innovations in TESOL and Applied Linguistics, 4(4).

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APPENDIX A
Weekly Notes
Name__________________________
Newspaper:

Class 2 Notes

Article Date:

Summary

Newspaper:

Class 3 Notes

Article Date:

Summary

Newspaper:
Article Date:Class 4 Notes

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SummaryNUFS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
APPENDIX B
This survey is to better understand your opinions of the news article activity in your cultureclass. Read the statements below about the news article activity and check the answer that best
describes your opinion.
In this part we would like you to tell us how much you agree or disagree with the following
statements by simply circling a number from 1 to 6. Please do not skip any of the items.
Strongly
disagreeDisagreeSlightly
disagreeSlightly agree

Agree

Strongly agree

1

2

3

4

5

6

(Ex.) If you strongly agree with the following statement, write this:Waking up early is annoying.

1

2

3

4

5

6

1.

Finding a news article is easy.

1

2

3

4

5

6

2.

I look forward to hearing about my group members articles.

1

2

3

4

5

6

3.

Reading another culture’s news is easy.

1

2

3

4

5

6

4.

I dislike sharing my news with my group members.

1

2

3

4

5

6

5.

I can finish summarizing the article quickly.

1

2

3

4

5

6

6.

Reading another culture’s news is boring.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7.

This activity helps me better understand other cultures.

1

2

3

4

5

6

8.

It is difficult looking for a news article.

1

2

3

4

5

6

9.

The in class news sharing activity is a waste of time.

1

2

3

4

5

6

10.

Hearing about the news from my group members is boring.

1

2

3

4

5

6

11.

I like reading the news from other cultures.

1

2

3

4

5

6

12.

It is difficult to read another culture’s news.

1

2

3

4

5

6

13.

I enjoy telling my group members about my articles.

1

2

3

4

5

6

14.

I have problems summarizing the article.

1

2

3

4

5

6

15.

I have learned a lot about other cultures’ news from this activity.

1

2

3

4

5

6

For the questions below, you may answer in English or Japanese.
What do you like about the news article activity?

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What would you change about the news article activity?

Any other feedback about the news article activity?