NEWSPAPER:

New Entertaining Ways to Successfully Prepare and Attractively Provide English Resources
A Note from the Two-day Workshop Conducted by The Jakarta Post Foundation
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Abstract: English-newspaper as a source can be used in a number of varieties to increase students' interests in

learning English. At the same time it challenges teachers to creatively develop their teaching methods in

classrooms and provide more practical materials to nurture group work and students-centered activities.

In the large conference room of SMKN 2 (Public Vocational School 2) Pekanbaru last Friday, March 2, 2012, six

groups consisting of four or five persons were busy reading, chooshby The Jakarta Post Foundation in

cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia and sponsored by PT Chevron Pacific

Indonesia—formerly PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, an American oil company operating in Riau more than 48

years. The workshop was named “Bridge to the Future”. According to PT Chevron representative, the workshop

aimed at giving English teachers a new insight in teaching English by using newspaper as a learning source.

The workshop was officially opened by Mr. Helmi M.Pd. from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Riau

Province on Friday morning, March 2, 2012. Soon after the opening ceremony, two instructors/trainers from the

Jakarta Post Foundation, Trisha and Martina, guided the first session of the workshop. Commencing the session

they divided the participants into six groups, each of which consisted of four to five persons. The session began

with an introduction to the newspaper—this was a brief explanation about parts and sections of a newspaper;

what information is available in each section, where/on what page one can find the section, why it is put on that

page. The briefing seemed simple and unnecessary, but it was the key to completing several group activities

during the workshop: scavenger hunt, role-modeling, interpreting pictures, writing captions, lesson planning, and

TV show.
SCAVENGER HUNT: QUICK AND CRITICAL THINKING

In scavenger hunt, each group was given a list of 19 items to find in The Jakarta Post. They had to complete the

list with the page and section name where the item was located. If the participants had not paid attention to the

previous explanation about sections in the newspaper, they would find difficulties in completing the task.

Scavenger-hunt is actually what is called the scanning activity, one of reading skills taught at schools in which

readers need to find specific information from a passage. The information is usually the answer to the wh-

questions: ‘who, what, where, when, how many, how much—except ‘how”.

Scavenger hunt was a challenging activity. Not only did it call for a good team work—the team had to split job

and responsibility among members who would find what— it also required quick and critical thinking due to time

constraint. One of the tricky questions in the assignment was to find ‘something you can buy for less than Rp.

500 (five hundred rupiah!). What on earth costs only five hundred rupiah today when prices are skyrocketing?

The question seemed ridiculous and impossible. However, had the participants paid attention and remembered

the trainers’ explanation, they would have no difficulties to find the answer in the Rupiah Rate section. In this

section one could see that some foreign currencies cost less than Rp. 500,00.

A PICTURE TELLS A THOUSAND WORDS

The next activity was writing new captions for some news-picture. This activity was more individual than

sociable. Each group was assigned to find several—six to seven—pictures. In newspaper, pictures are usually

complemented with captions. The group’s task was to find pictures, then cut only the pictures and discarded the

caption, pasted them on blank paper as a worksheet, and wrote a new caption for each picture. The group

members discussed every picture, but due to the deadline, they finally completed the task individually; each of

them created captions based on their own opinion.

In my class with my students, I used the picture-caption with a little modification. Instead of leaving the caption

unused, I cut the picture with its caption, but then separated them. The split pictures and captions were then

distributed randomly among students. Students went around the class to find their partners. Those with caption

would read it, those with pictures would listen. If the caption matches the picture, then the two students are

partners.
This activity involves two skills to practice: listening and speaking; and it promote student-student talking time

and interaction. With such number of pictures in the newspaper, teachers would have no difficulties to provide

students with interesting topic. This activity can also be done another way around. The students with a picture

would create short news based on the picture, while the other student with a caption would listen and read the

caption. If the short news and the caption have something in common, then the two students become partners.

ENCOURAGING BEHAVIOR

Teachers, as some participants confessed, seldom pay students with verbal compliments like what the two

trainers did during the workshop. Most school teachers are conditioned to give punishment instead of rewards to

their students since punishments are believed to be an effective way to make students better understands what

education is. To some degree this might be tolerable, but too many punishments will put students in despair and

frustration. The workshop put the teachers in the students’ shoes, and they realized that they should have paid

more compliments to their students to encourage students. The way Trisha and Martina treated the participants

is really worth-duplicating.

Only a few teachers ever realize how hard it is to be an Indonesian student. Teachers often ask them to sit still

and quiet when the teacher gives unclear instructions which do not get across their mind. Teachers frequently

assign their students with lot of homework. Teachers keep telling their students to think SMART: Students Must

Always Respect Teachers; one of the ‘Trojan’ viruses infecting most ‘burn out’ teachers in Indonesia. Since

teachers need respect, they rarely think that students need to be treated humanly. Some teachers would easily

blow their top when students behave slightly improperly during the lesson.

AN EYE OPENER

What teachers bring home from the workshop is priceless. The workshop seems like an eye-opener for English

teachers, especially those who are glued to English handbooks and LKS (Lembar Kerja Siswa- Students’ Work

Sheets). In Riau, students work-sheets are usually provided and produced by a number of publishers in Central

Java—mostly Solo and Klaten. Some of these English work-sheets are published without adequate

recommendation from the Ministry of Education and sometimes contain a number of mistakes and misspelled

words and misuse of proper language; some of which are misleading. What makes things worse is that only a

few teachers realize it.

Having attended the workshop, teachers would hopefully improve their styles in teaching English at school.

Thanks to PT Chevron which provides 1-year subscription to the newspaper for some schools, now English

teachers in Pekanbaru can enjoy reading The Jakarta Post, the exclusive English newspaper usually read only

in four-or-five-star-hotels and some foreign companies operating in Indonesia.

AHMAD YANI
English Teacher - SMA Muhammadiyah 1, Pekanbaru
Jalan K H Ahmad Dahlan no 90, Pekanbaru
0813 7889 8083