Understanding Newspaper Headlines
Understanding Newspaper Headlines
Understanding Newspaper Headlines
Newspaper Headlines
Take a look at any newspaper or magazine headline and you
are likely to find incomplete sentences full of action packed
verbs. Headlines live in a linguistic bubble all by themselves
because they ignore grammar conventions such as the use
of helping verbs and so on. Of course, this means that
newspaper headlines can be confusing to students. This is
because newspaper headlines are often incomplete. For
example:
Difficult Times Ahead
Under Pressure from Boss
Mustang Referral Customer Complaint
This lesson focuses on helping make sense of the strange
forms used in newspaper headlines. You may want to review
some of the most common grammar exceptions found in
newspaper headlines before you take this lesson into class.
Aim: Understanding newspaper headlines
Activity: "Translating" newspaper headlines into more
understandable English
Level: Intermediate to higher levels
Outline:
Find some headlines in old newspapers or on
the Internet and cut them out. There should
be at least two headlines per student.
Pass out one of the headlines to each student.
Give them a few minutes to think about the
meaning of each headline.
Ask students to read their headlines aloud
and give an explanation of what they think
the article in question concerns.
As a class, brainstorm on possible structural
meanings behind the "strange" grammar
Understanding
Newspaper Headlines
Many students have difficulty understanding newspaper
headlines. This is because newspaper headlines are often
incomplete sentences (i.e. Difficult Times Ahead). Here is a
guide to the most common exceptions found in newspaper
headlines.
Noun Phrases
Headlines often contain a noun phrase with no verb. A noun
phrase describes a noun (i.e. around strange, exotic people).
Here are some examples of noun phrase headlines:
Under Pressure from Boss
Unexpected Visit
Overwhelming Response of Voters
It's useful to ask yourself questions such as: From what?,
About what?, From whom?, To whom? etc. when reading
these type of headlines. By asking yourself these questions,
you can begin preparing yourself for the article. This practice
helps the brain prepare itself by starting to think about
vocabulary related to the subject. Here's an example:
Unexpected Visit
The questions I can ask myself are: From whom? Why was
the visit unexpected? Who was visited? etc.
these questions will help focus my mind on vocabulary
related to relationships, travelling, surprises, important
reasons for visits, etc.
Noun Strings
Telling others
about the News Lesson Plan