They must listen, comprehend, digest, and respond. Freshmen, in particular, often find it difficult to get up enough courage to speak before a small audience, even though they may be fully prepared for the material they are going to use. On the other hand, the listeners, who usually are very poor in listening comprehension, also are very anxious as they try to understand the report. Most freshmen feel that giving Today's Report is really very demanding and challenging when they give it for the first time. With the passage of time, students are offered more chances to face their classmates and speak.
Every student gives the report approximately four to five times each semester.
This and other learning activities enable them to get over timidity and improve their listening and speaking skills. Today's Report inculcates a spirit of hard work and competition, for the students are constantly reminded that what they have achieved is far from perfect. Because Today's Report provides everyone a very good opportunity to show what has been learned, the students make every effort to do a good job. Today's Report has been used for nearly 10 years and is very popular with our students. It has been and will continue to be an inseparable part of our Comprehensive English course adopting the balanced activities approach.