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The Impact of Using Newspapers on Teaching Language Skills to the Second

Language Learners of English

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Article information Volume 5, Number 2. 154-170 (2019)

Article Received: 23/ 04/ 2019 ISSN: 2395-0595
Acceptance: 30/ 04/ 2019

The Impact of Using Newspapers on Teaching Language Skills to the Second

Language Learners of English

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Lecturer in English,
English Language Centre, King Faisal University,
Al-Hasa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
___________________________________________________________________

Abstract

With the advent of the internet, the twenty-first century readers are very fortunate to
read all newspapers online. People are benefitted in many ways by reading
newspapers. They not only develop humans’ knowledge but also enhance their
language skills. Newspapers play a predominant role in learning a language and it
is more appropriate in case of second or foreign language learners. Moreover,
newspaper reading develops the natural outgrowth of critical thinking. Above all,
there are several newspapers available on the internet today and the readers have
their own choice to select them. There is no hard and fast rule to follow a certain
newspaper, but the aim of the second or foreign language learners must be on
concentrating both on the news as well as developing the language skills which are
the most important ones in learning a foreign language. Since newspapers promote
the second or foreign learners’ language skills enormously, the language teachers
should use English newspapers in their regular classrooms and try to utilize the
important and relevant columns or news to enhance the language skills of the
learners. In this regard, the teachers should encourage the learners to use
newspapers so that they will surely develop their language skills immensely in and
outside the English classrooms.

Cite this article as Rao, P.S. (2019) The Impact of Using Newspapers on Teaching Language Skills
to the Second Language Learners of English. ELT Vibes: International E-Journal For Research in
ELT. 5(2). 154-170.
 ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT
Volume 5, Number 2. 154-170 (2019)
ISSN: 2395-0595

The present paper sheds a light on the impact of using English newspapers on
teaching language skills to the second language learners of English. Hence, this
paper emphasizes the importance of language skills in the classrooms and how they
are useful for the English language learners especially to improve their English.
Moreover, this paper also discusses the importance of English newspapers in the
English classrooms. Furthermore, this paper lays more emphasis on the impact of
using English newspapers on teaching language skills to the second language
learners of English. Lastly, it gives some useful suggestions to the teachers as well
as the learners of English as a second language to develop their teaching-learning
skills.

Key words: English Classrooms, Language Skills, Newspapers, Second Language

Learners of English, Teachers.

Introduction

English occupies a major role in the present global phenomena and a majority of the
world population desire to learn since it occupies its status as an international
language. It is the language that is spoken by most of the people in the world and it
is also the only language used for written communication not only for the internet
purposes but also for writing scientific research papers by voluminous people all
over the world. It is the majority language spoken in all parts of the world and there
are many countries which adopted English as their official language worldwide. In
countries like India and Pakistan, English is used as an official language but it is not
used as the primary language. It means English is used in these countries in
education, business and on official documents but it is not the primary language of
the majority of the residents of those countries. India with a population of over one
billion people is the most populous country with English as its official language,
whereas, Niue with a population of just 1,600 people is the smallest nation has
English as their official language. English has also been designated as the de jure
official language, i.e. it is legally recognized to be the official language in many
more countries.

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There are fifteen countries such as Malaysia, Bangladesh, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain,
Kuwait, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and so on where English acts as the de facto official
language of their countries but not as an official language.

Moreover, a majority of the higher education books are in English and many
students go to foreign countries to pursue their higher studies. A lot of scientific
research around the world is carried out using the English language and more than
85% of the research articles are published internationally in English. Moreover, 90%
of the language used for the internet purposes is English. It is the language useful for
the tourists to visit the whole world and it is also the language used in travel and tour
agencies. Since it is the language of getting employment opportunities, many people
show interest in learning the English language. English is the language widely used
for international business, trade and commerce. It is also the language used to give
training for the employees who work for multi-national companies such as business,
pharmaceutical, software and so on. As many people all around the world have
come to know the importance of English, they are now learning it to develop their
businesses internationally. As there are several advantages of learning English, a
majority of people all over the world are now concentrating more on learning the
English language to excel in their fields.

The Use of Authentic Materials in the Classroom

Language instruction involves five basic components such as learners, teachers,

materials, teaching methods and evaluation. Teaching materials have become so
important in language learning because they not only influence the procedures and
content but also the effectiveness of learning. The most important task of the
teachers need to undertake is to select the suitable course book as well as additional
materials since authentic materials highly motivate the learners in learning a
language, particularly, English. The use of authentic materials in the classroom leads
students to several academic and social benefits such as increasing the learners’
cultural awareness and motivation. The use of authentic materials also encourages
the learners to bring the sense of reality and authenticity to the English language
classrooms.

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Teachers can find authentic listening viewing materials from TV programmes like
cartoons, comedy shows, quiz shows, TV commercials, songs, new clips,
documentaries, etc. and from the rich source of DVD and VCD. In addition to this,
the teachers can also find authentic printed material also from magazines and
newspapers which are filled with full of news articles, sports reports, lyrics to songs,
advice columns, astrology column, etc. To teach English, the teachers can also make
use of maps, telephone books, university catalogues, tourist places catalogues,
tourist brochures, train, bus or flight schedules, candy wrappers and so on to teach
English in the classrooms. Moreover, the technology revolution brought tremendous
changes in the field of education and the use of authentic materials has become
easier with the advent of the internet and the teachers can find both listening and
printed authentic material online. It paves the path for the teachers to access and
download all the available unlimited materials that are educational, entertaining and
informative with their disposal in large amounts for the English language
classrooms. Let us discuss the advantages of using authentic materials in the
classroom.

The Advantages of Using Authentic Materials in the English Classrooms

Authentic materials are the real world materials carefully prepared and adapted to
teach English which include novels, films, newspapers, brochures, pamphlets,
magazines and so on. Nunan (1999) defines authentic materials as, “Any spoken or
written materials which are not for pedagogical purposes”. Using authentic materials
is a natural way of learning a language as it is used by the real language users. There
are certainly many advantages of using authentic materials in the English language
classrooms. Firstly, they have a positive effect on the learners’ motivation,
especially the lower level learners, than the artificial materials. When authentic
materials are used, learners’ concentration, persistence and enthusiasm with the
learning task is automatically increased. As Brinton(1991, cited in Oura, 2001)
asserts, “Authentic materials relate more closely to learners need, for they build
connection between the language classroom and the outside world”.

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This concept implies that authentic materials serve as a arbitrating artifact for
conceptualizing language learning. Secondly, authentic materials offer a wide range
of language genres, styles, registers, context of written and spoken discourses so that
learners can enrich the knowledge of linguistic resource by the material. In most of
the textbooks, there is a little chance for spoken or written discourses. Due to the use
of repetitive structures and perfect form in the textbooks, the learners do not get an
opportunity to use language in real-life situations. In this connection, the teachers as
well as the learners of English as a second or foreign language can use newspapers
as authentic materials since they are entirely different from that of they learn in their
everyday classrooms. Moreover, authentic materials are useful for learners to apply
the language structure that they have learned from their textbooks. Authentic
materials available on the internet are updated from time to time and are more
engaging and stimulating. Therefore, the teachers of English can exploit these
materials in various ways and on different levels of the learners. Thirdly, authentic
materials provide rich cultural content. Since language and culture are inseparable
and inextricably intertwined, language teachers should integrate the target language
culture with students own culture and other varieties of culture so that the learners
will have a better understanding and respect to other cultures. In motivating and
promoting cultural aspects and developing language skills among the learners,
newspapers play a predominant role.

Using authentic materials in the English classroom has several more advantages
both for teachers and learners of English. The learners get exposure to the real
language. Using authentic materials is a natural model since the language input is
richly exposed to become the learners the better listeners or readers. Moreover, they
have a positive effect on the motivation of the learners. They also provide authentic
cultural information and they are more related to the needs of the learners. Above
all, they also support the most creative approach to teaching. The learners can
improve their vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar while using the authenticate
materials in the classroom. Whereas, authentic materials are useful for teachers to
learn and teach English teachers’ learning such as linguistic knowledge, language
skills, intercultural understanding and so on. With the authenticate materials, the
teachers themselves learn many new things and them they use the materials to teach
English to the second or foreign language learners.

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Also, authentic materials bridge the gap between the classroom and the outside
world and they also develop intercultural understanding of the learners. Thus, we
can say that using authentic materials is a more creative approach to the teaching of
English. The teachers should make use of the authentic materials as alternative
materials in their classrooms in order to increase the language awareness of the
learners and improve the quality of teachers’ language teaching. At this juncture, it
is worth to quote Gebhard (1996, cited in Oura, 2001), “There are unlimited sources
for teaching materials. For many people who live in countries in where English is a
foreign language, it is simply a matter of searching creatively”.

The importance of Using Newspapers in English Language Classrooms

Since newspapers provide latest news and information by generating news every
day, they refresh the knowledge of both teachers and students in the classrooms.
Moreover, the news or information is beautifully written in detail by using the
terminology that is understood by a majority of the readers. Furthermore, a variety
of news such as politics, games and sports, business, education, entertainment,
science and technology, literature, poetry, national and international issues, etc. are
discussed or written with utmost care in newspapers. Stories unfold as
journalistsextract more information to reconstruct what has happened. One can
proudly say that newspapers are the only record of the world’s happenings and there
is no further alternate for it. Since English has attained the international status, a
majority of newspapers are published internationally in English.

The teachers of English can use newspapers as authentic materials in the English
classrooms when they teach the second or foreign language learners since the
information is updated every day. Moreover, newspapers expand the curriculum of
the English language teaching with a bottomless volume of material to practice as
contextual for learning activities. The teachers can make use of newspapers to
discover novel ways in teaching English especially to the learners of English as a
second or foreign language by adopting various activities in their classrooms.

As newspapers offer an exceptional fascination for teachers, they remain as living

textbooks that live up their name. The English teachers can use newspapers to
enhance the skills of reading, writing, listening and writing in addition to the other
skills of science, math and social studies.
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Using newspapers in the classroom, the teachers can develop critical thinking of
their learners excellently. Newspapers come alive with information, whereas, the
textbooks are several years updated by the time the learners get them into their
hands. Newspapers are more useful to expand the curriculum with an
infinitequantity of information that is useful as background for learning activities.

Newspapers are the best teaching aids that are easy to carry for teachers to use them
as authentic materials in the English classrooms. There are various ways and
purposes for using newspapers in the English language classrooms such as to
transmit culture and reflect changes in the language. The learners understand the
cultural meaning well by reading the newspapers widely. Moreover, newspapers are
also useful for the learners as well as the teachers to reflect changes that take place
in the language and they keep up pace with such changes. Newspapers are
linguistically up-to-date and provide latest information with precious linguistic data
and are used for a wide range of language styles and text types which are very rarely
found in the prescribed textbooks. Newspapers also provide many variations in
written English that is more important for the learners to learn the language with a
variety in their written English as the learners get progress in their studies.
Sometimes, the teachers can use newspapers as supplementary material examples in
academic writing, text analysis, semantics, stylistics and so on while analyzing
various kinds of texts. Since there is a wide range of choice in topics and subjects in
newspapers, the learners are motivated and get interested in reading them.
Moreover, the learners’ curiosity will arouse as the actions are related to their real-
life events. Doing activities based on newspapers in the classroom can engage the
learners in their activities dynamically.It not only makes the learners enjoy doing the
activities but also encourages their further reading. As newspapers are an invaluable
source of authentic materials, the teachers of English should use them in their
regular classrooms to explore and expand the knowledge of the learners’ English
language skills.

Newspapers have become a great resource for English teachers and they are used as
teaching materials to develop the language skills of the learners. So, teachers of
English can use newspapers effectively with a wide range of levels from elementary
level to advanced level for either using as authentic materials or interpreting them.

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Among these newspapers, some are easy for learners to read and use, whereas,
others are quite difficult for learners. Therefore, the teachers of English can select
the newspapers according to the level of the learners and design materials to develop
their learners’ reading comprehension, writing skills, vocabulary, grammar, reading
and interpretation of charts, maps or diagrams, critical thinking skills and so on. As
teachers get more information from the newspapers, it is their duty to check and
organize the relevant materials that are more appropriate for the learners to learn the
English language in the form of doing activities. Moreover, the English teachers
should adopt the material that is more suitable for mixed-ability classrooms and also
take into consideration of the length of the news item or article, the compactness of
material, the intricacy of language, the content and subject-matter and the level of
the learners. Since we live in the technological era where there are drastic changes in
the field of mass media communication, the teachers as well as the learners of
English can access infinite number of newspapers and magazines that are published
all around the world. Hence, the internet has become a worthy and major resource
for the English language teachers in choosing the suitable newspaper materials that
are useful in teaching the English language learners. Therefore, the language
teachers have to utilize the advantages of using the newspapers in the English
classrooms and develop the language skills of the learners tremendously.

The Impact of newspapers on Teaching Language Skills

Unlike the prescribed textbooks, newspapers provide the latest information every
day and the teachers as well as the learners of English get a chance to enhance their
language skills enormously. Newspapers are useful for the teachers to teach the
language skills of English to the learners effectively. The learners of English find
variety of news items and various columns related to infinite fields. Instead of
adopting material from international newspapers, the teachers can try with the local
English newspapers and later they can refer to the international ones. Since the
topics in the local newspapers that are published in their cities, they will have more
impact on the learners than those that are published by the American or British
press. The learners develop their reading, writing and speaking skills using the
newspapers in the classroom.

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By using the newspapers, the learners will have a good practice of how to
comprehend the material, how to find the central idea, how to compare readings,
how to compare the same news published in different papers, how to increase
vocabulary, how to ask questions, how to frame sentences, how to write a good
summary, how to ask a ingenious question and so on. Moreover, the learners will
also certainly employ several critical thinking skills since they interact with the
authentic material that is available in the newspapers.

While the teachers of English adopt material for their learners, they should mainly
concentrate on the needs and interests of the learners so that the learners’
motivational levels will be raised. Furthermore, the teachers should adopt these
materials according to the learners’ difficulty level. So, the materials used in the
classroom should be appropriate for the learners in terms of language level and the
teachers should also prepare tasks according to the level of the learners. When the
learners find the material is too difficult to understand, then they may be
discouraged and they do not show any interest on the given material. Hence, it is the
responsibility of the teachers to select the materials from the newspapers to create
interest among the learners and involve them in doing the tasks in a congenial
atmosphere.

Though collecting the relevant material from the English newspapers is quite a
difficult task for the teachers of English, it is worth doing so because English
newspapers are published every day and the usage of English language in
newspapers is entirely different from the prescribed textbooks. The language used in
the prescribed textbooks is fixed and it lasts for a long time, whereas, the language
used in the English newspapers is always new with latest topics and current events
that appear with a variety of usage. Though it is time consuming for the teachers to
prepare suitable material for their learners, the learners participate in the activities
with more enthusiasm once the tasks are assigned. Collecting materials is an
ongoing process and the teachers collect materials from newspapers such as
headlines, weather reports, short stories, short articles, advertisement, pictures,
biographies, etc.

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The English teachers should be very cautious while organizing material that is
adopted from the newspapers and arrange the material under specific groupings such
as headlines, titles, advertisements, etc., otherwise, under topic cinema, sports,
relationship, titles, level of learners, etc. Illustrations and photographs are of
immense use for English language teachers and they have to use these in their
regular classrooms. Even the teachers of English as well as the learners find it
difficult to make use of the material adopted form the newspapers, the material will
be more beneficial for the students since it is authentic. The role of the teachers of
English in selecting the newspapers plays a crucial role in developing the language
skills of the leaners. Thus, the teachers should select the newspapers that create
interest among the learners so that the learners are highly motivated and interested in
reading them without skipping anything. While designing the tasks also, the teachers
have to pay special attention on grading the tasks, but not the material. There is a
well-known maxim in language teaching which says, “grade the task – not the
material”. Tasks have to be designed to suit the level of the learners and then the
learner participation will be highly appreciable. Even if the material in the textbooks
is more difficult, the teachers should prepare tasks that are more convenient and
explicable for the learners to perform well without any further difficulty. The
primary key of successful completion of the tasks involves mainly on the
involvement of the learners in pre-activity, techniques adopted while-activity
preparation, in the selection of materials and in carefully designing thetasks.
Therefore, the teachers of English should concentrate more on the preparation of
tasks while using the material from the newspapers even if it is a painstaking and
time consuming process.

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Grammatical
Structures
Vocabulary Summarizing

Scanning Reporting

Speak about
Skimming pictures

Reading
Comprehension Newspapers Presentations

Fig: The impact of Newspapers on the learners of English as a Second or

Foreign Language

Newspapers have a great impact on teaching English language skills to the learners
of second or foreign language. The teachers of English can use the newspapers to
develop their learners’ language skills by adopting several techniques and
approaches that are more suitable for the second or foreign language learners. While
adopting the material from the newspapers, the teachers should take utmost care and
the preference should be given to the importance and usefulness of the selected news
item and the learners’ interests.At the initial stages, the teachers have to select the
newspapers that are in easy and simple language so that the learners participate
actively in the given tasks with high motivation and a lot of enthusiasm.
Furthermore, the burden of the teacher also reduces since the learners can
understand the language easily. At this juncture, the teachers of English can ask the
learners to go through the newspaper carefully and find the topics of their interest to
check the knowledge of the learners’ reading skills. Here, the teachers can take the
opinion of the students in selecting the topics and then the selected topics are given
to the learners. The learners work on the given task in groups and give responses to
the questions.

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Here the teachers can use material taken from the newspapers to improve the
learners’ comprehension skills, vocabulary, grammatical structures, etc. The
teachers can also use newspapers to improve the learners’ reading skills, especially,
skimming and scanning skills. Here, the teachers ask the learners to go through the
newspaper quickly to find out the important events and the learners go through it
and find the events. This activity certainly develops the learners’ skimming skills.
Likewise, the learners are given freedom to select a particular topic of their own
interests and they are asked to go through it thoroughly to answer some
comprehension questions based on the given news item. In order to answer the
questions accurately, the learners have to concentrate more on the given task. This
kind of task will undeniably enhance not only the learners’ scanning skills but also
their critical thinking skills.

Newspapers are also very important to develop the writing skills among the second
or foreign language learners. The teachers can divide the classroom into groups and
give a newspaper to each group and ask them to write a summary of it. Then the
learners work with their peers in the group and complete the task within the
stipulated time. Once the task is over, the teacher invites the group leader to present
it to the whole class. This activity enhances the learners’ writing as well as
presentation skills. Later, the English teachers can also use thesome news itemsto
write reports also. Furthermore, they are also useful in writing descriptions about
some cartoons, comics, great personalities and some important pictures that appear
in newspapers. The teachers can also take a small paragraph by changing the order
of the sentences and ask the learners to arrange the sentences in the logical order.
Then the learners work in groups and arrange the sentences in an order and it
develops the learners’ logical thinking. Also, the teachers can take a news article
where the information is scrambled and give those paragraphs to the learners and
ask them to arrange in order.

The talented teachers can use the newspapers to develop the learners’ speaking skills
by taking some news articles. The teachers can give the learners some articles
without headlines and involve the them in participating in the discussion to guess the
relevant headline for the given articles. The learners get a chance to express their
opinions in a free and independent environment where they can suggest a number of
captions for the given article(s).

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So, activities of such kind will develop their speaking skills where the learners
participate in the discussions without any preparation. Moreover, the teachers can
also show a picture to the learners and ask them to say some relevant information
about the picture. The learners come up with new ideas and try to describe the
picture. Furthermore, the teacher can also use a heading and ask the learners to give
a talk about the topic for 30 seconds. The teachers can also use some techniques
such as brainstorming activities that involve the learners to participate and speak out
their own thoughts, ideas and opinions.

Above all, using newspapers in the English classrooms by the teachers of English
has several advantages and there is a great impact of the newpeapers on the learners
of English as a second or foreign language in developing the language skills.
Therefore, the teachers of English should use the newspapers as their authentic
material since there is a variety in getting touch with language every day since the
newspapers are produced daily.

Conclusion

This paper has shed a light on the impact of using English newspapers on teaching
language skills to the second language learners of English. First of all, this paper has
emphasized the importance of language skills in the classrooms and it also illustrates
how these language skills are useful for the English language learners especially to
improve their English enormously. Then this paper has also discussed the
importance of English newspapers in the English language classrooms. Later, this
paper has put more emphasis on the impact of using English newspapers on teaching
language skills to the second language learners of English. Finally, this paper has
also given some valuable recommendations to the second or foreign language
teachers and learners of English to improve their teaching and learning skills.

It is absolutely true that newspapers play a vital role in the development of language
skills and it is more apt to English language because there is a variety in the
presentation of news and the language. Likewise, the news which we see in the
newspapers change every day and there is no scope for the repetition of the same
news and the monotonous style of the language use. Furthermore, there is a variation
in the usage of vocabulary, grammatical structure, style of writing and so on.

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Therefore, the English newspapers are an added advantage for the second or foreign
language teachers as well as the learners to enhance their language skills. Thus, the
teachers of English should adopt some useful and interesting materials from the
newspapers in order to engage the learners in learning the language skills effectively
and efficiently. Since the learners learn the language skills when the material chosen
for this purpose makes them interesting and inspires them in learning the language
skills in an organized manner, the teachers of English should be more cautious in
selecting the materials and try to adopt them according to the needs and interests of
the leaners. Moreover, the material chosen should be related to the latest or burning
topics that are going on in the society or the most famous ones.

Since the second or foreign language learners play an active role in learning the
language, teachers should adopt modern techniques, approaches and methods in
their classrooms such as learner-centred approach, collaborative learning approach
and so on. The teachers of English should involve the learners to acquire the
language skills by encouraging them to participate in the form of group work and
pair work while performing the tasks assigned to them. Additionally, the teachers
should always stimulate and inspire the learners to participate in the classroom
activities enthusiastically and energetically by using the material from newspapers
so that the learners will certainly obtain the language skills and perform well in their
future whenever they are needed. Hence, the responsibility is on the shoulders of the
English language teachers to develop the language skills of the learners using the
best and the most interesting material adopted from the English newspapers while
teaching English to the second or foreign language learners.

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13. Hegde, S. and Malagatti, S. M. (2010-2011). Educational coverage in dailies and

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25. Ram, N. (2011). The Changing Role of the News Media in Contemporary India.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author, Parupalli Srinivas Rao, has a vast

experience of teaching English at various levels. He
has been specialized in ELT and has authored 10 books
and published several research papers related to ELT
in various international journals. He has attended
several national and international ELT conferences and
also presented some papers in them.

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 ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT
Volume 5, Number 2. 154-170 (2019)
ISSN: 2395-0595

He has also attended many webinars organized by renowned British based

international ELT training institutions such as Cambridge English, Oxford
University Press, Macmillan English, Pearson ELT, English First, IATEFL, British
Council and American based Ed Web (USA) He has been on the Editorial board for
twenty well-reputed international journals. He has also done several prestigious
projects including a project done for the National Council for Teacher
Education(NCTE), Government of India and another one for King Faisal University,
Saudi Arabia. He has attended several in-service training programs in ELT. He has
taught English in India, the Republic of Maldives and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for
27 years. At present, he is working as Lecturer in English at English Language
Centre, King Faisal University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He is very much
interested in research activities and preparing study material for Undergraduate and
Master’s Degree courses. He is also a member of ELTAI, the prestigious
organization for English language teachers.

The author did his M. A. (English) from Osmania University in 1991. He also
completed his PG Diploma in Teaching English (PGDTE) from CIEFL / EFL
University and later he did B. Ed., M. Ed. and M. Phil. from Osmania University,
Hyderabad. In 1999, he did PG Diploma in Functional English from Andhra
University. He did Cambridge CELTA in London, UK, in the year 2008. He also
completed two regular onsite ELT courses, namely, Pronunciation for Language
Teachers and Teaching Grammar in Context from University of Edinburgh in
Scotland in 2008. He also completed TEYL (George Mason Uni.), TGC (World
Learning) and TYSE (Uni. Of Oregon) from the U.S. At present, he is pursuing his
Ph. D. in ELT.

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO Page 170

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