TV news speaking activity

By Katy Miller

In our oral English class we did "TV English news". Each group had twenty minutes to prepare a news item, with interviews and people acting out scenes in the background. They were really very open-ended - I just said "make a TV news item", and they were fantastic. One group did something on the environment, another did an item about the spring outing we were taking that weekend (belated), another group did one of the news items they'd read in the reading session, etc. I was the anchor woman.

It was great fun and I was impressed with the job they did. One group even made a microphone with the name of the TV station on it, out of a paper cup and a pencil. Another group had booms made from rolled-up paper. One group interviewed "people on the street" - went up to people from other groups and got their impressions. One of the most fun classes we've had so far. It's fun because the time limit is real: I told them the news would air at 9.30 because it's the 9.30 news, and then started announcing the news even though a couple of groups weren't quite ready. They improvised the rest.