Using Magazines in the EFL Classroom

Using Magazines in the EFL Classroom

Using magazines in the EFL classroom is a good way to expose our pupils to a real context through a wide variety of texts and content. We might sometimes think this kind of resource is only useful when students have reached an advanced level of English; however, we can use them with all kinds of levels, from a PreA1 to a C1, it will all depend on the activity you design. Magazines, and newspapers, provide a simple method for incorporating brief informational readings into classroom lessons🕮.

 

This time, I will share what I did with my B1+ students. I had always seen the bunch of magazines in one of the bookcases we have in our teacher's lounge and I had always had the idea to do something with them. You may understand that our hectic life plays tricks on us and makes us forget what we think on doing. Nonetheless, this morning while toasting my bread, I said to myself 😏, "I will definitely twist my lesson plan today and carry out the project I have in mind!". I grabbed a magazine per student and went straight to my classroom to adjust the PPT I was going to display (Yes, like some teachers, I did it while having my toasts😁!). I had thought of doing a Scavenger's hunt👀.

To prepare my students for the Scavenger's hunt, I provided them with the scrambled lyrics to a song. I played the song and had them unscramble it. Afterward, I asked them to identify the different sentence patterns in it. They did well and I knew they were ready to work on their own.

Oh! By the way, there is something I have also discovered in this class, my students feel less stressed if I have them write their tasks on colored sheets of paper. They know they are being assessed, but this strategy has helped them feel at ease. Therefore, the extra resource you will need is some recycled colored paper. I tend to fold it depending on the number of items I will assign. You do not need to give them the whole page, you may also cut it into two halves.

Coming back to the main activity, I provided them with a magazine, a half of a colored sheet of paper and displayed the instructions so they had no doubts on what their task was. I also advised them a couple of times not to write or doodle anything on or in the magazine. It's important to remind our students to be careful with the resources we lend.

My students worked very well during the activity, some of them were hesitant on their answers but I told them there is always a chance to improve after having made "a mistake". To make this activity more meaningful, I also asked them to look for five words which were new to them. They looked for their definition in an oline dictionary and after they needed to paraphrase the meaning and provide an example on their own. This was probably my favorite part of the activity since I loved to see their reactions as they were discovering the new words. One of my students had a blast with the adjective "potbellied", one word that also caused a strong reaction was "emaciated". I loved to see that they were not just doing their task but sharing what they had discovered with their peers and listening to them discussing their findings was the best part of this task😍

Incorporating this resource in your EFL class will make a positive impact and your students will probably be encouraged to keep on reading on their own. Access to these kinds of resources is not limited anymore since we can find good magazines online. Also, if you want to get this material in its printed version, and in a cheaper way, you could explore thrift stores in your cities. They usually have books or magazines in very good conditions.

I just invite you all to try this fun and engaging strategy to bring literacy through literature to your EFL classroom 📖💖:)

Peace out ✌!