www..ca www.cbc.ca//eal/ Learning English with CBC Objectives of the newscast

‐ to develop listening skills at the CLB 4 level

‐ to increase vocabulary among learners

‐ to provide a self‐study tool as well as an ESL classroom resource

‐ to increase knowledge of news stories

Weekly News Newscast for Sept 23rd ‐ 2011

Outline

CLB competencies: Get the gist, details, key words and expressions as required. Infer contextual and situational details. Listening

Identify specific factual details in a listening task. Language skills: Identify the correct definitions for difficult vocabulary items.

Vocabulary Build vocabulary through using word definitions to identify correct synonyms. Identify vocabulary items though context. Language Using vocabulary items to solve sentence jumbles. Activities: Answering questions about facts, details, and inferences in a news story. Matchingstory. words to their definitions. Identifying true and false statements about a news story.

Choosing the correct word groups to match vocabulary items.

Choosing the correct answer to complete statements about a news

News story #1 Before you listen to the first news story, complete this vocabulary activity. It will help you to understand the listening more easily.

Vocabulary Read the definitions below, then put the sentences in the correct order. Words and Definitions candidates: people who are competing to be elected to government campaign: a series of activities (e.g., interviews speeches) designed to get people to vote for someone in an election support: saying officially that you want someone to be win ballot: the final number of votes counted one election. race: competition (political) knocked out: dropped out, defeated

1. to candidates all of the listened We speak. We listened to all of the candidates speak. 2. exciting campaign is This very! ______3. always same support the I party political. ______4. 53% won the of the friend votes My in ballot. ______5. begin The will month political next race. ______6. day was of the I first competition on knocked out the. ______

Now listen to the first news story from the audio file

Listening Activity: Short Answer Read and answer the questions below. The first one is done for you. Answers are on the last page.

1) Which party is having a leadership contest? The Provincial Conservative Party 2) Who got the second highest number of votes last weekend? ______3) What percentage of votes did Doug Horner get? ______4) How many candidates were knocked out of the competition? ______5) When is the next vote? ______

News story #2

Before you listen to the second news story, complete this vocabulary activity. It will help you to understand the listening more easily.

Vocabulary Match the words with their definitions. The first one is done for you. Answers are on the last page.

Answer Word Definition h 1. criminal a) when a person must stay in their own home instead of going to prison 2. introduced b) actions or plans to make something better 3. bills c) when a person is allowed to leave prison early with suprevision 4. sentencing d) descriptions of laws that the government wants to make 5. detention e) shown to people for the first time 6. federal f) full of too many people 7. parole g) deciding what kind of punishment a person will get for breaking a law 8. house arrest h) a person who has done something illegal 9. measures i) national 10. overcrowded j) being forced to stay in a prison or facility by the government

Now listen to the second news story from the audio file.

Listening Activity: True/False

Decide whether the statements below are true or false. Write your answer in the blanks.

The first one is done for you. Answers are on the last page.

1. False The changes to criminal justice laws have already been made. 2. ____ There are more than 10 new bills. 3. ____ There will likely be changes to youth sentences and parole in Canada. 4. ____ The Federal Justice minister thinks that Canadians want to feel safer. 5. ____ Some groups think the changes will cost too much money.

News story #3

Before you listen to the third news story, complete this vocabulary activity. It will help you to understand the listening more easily. Vocabulary The words below are from the first news story. Choose the group of words in the box below that best matches those words. The first one is done for you. Answers are on the last page. Answer Word Related words c 1) officials a) force make demand 2) high tech b) hand in give present 3) proposed c) inspectors bureaucrats administrators 4) droppings d) suggested recommended intended 5) fines e) specific individual single 6) require f) spit spittle slobber 7) submit g) feces dung poop 8) saliva h) science technology mechanics 9) particular i) fees charges penalties Now listen to the third news story from the audio file. Listening activity: Multiple choice Choose the best answer to complete the sentences. The first one is done for you. Answers are on the last page. 1. There are more reasons to clean up after a) Alberta. your dog in ____ b) Petach Tikvah. 2. Owners who don’t clean up after their dogs a) having more police officers in parks. will be caught by______b) having better technology. 3. Owners who don’t clean up after their dogs a) getting fines. will be punished by ______b) getting DNA testing. 4. Dog owners will have to ______a) give saliva samples from their dogs. b) give sample of droppings from their dogs. 5. DNA samples can tell ______a) who owns a particular dog. b) which droppings are from a particular dog. Appendix

Transcripts of Weekly news stories

SEPTEMBER 3RD WEEKLY NEWS STORIES TIME

Introduction Hi, this is Don Bell. You’re listening to Learning English with CBC news for 0:00 September 23rd. Story 1 There are three candidates left in the Provincial Conservative leadership 0:11 contest and they are trying hard to be the winner, in the last week of the campaign. Last weekend, got 41% of the vote with strong support from all parts of the province. is in second place with 18% of the vote in the first ballot. Doug Horner is in third place with 14% of the vote. Alison Redford and Doug Horner say the race is not over. Three candidates were knocked out: , Rick Orman and . These three all now support Gary Mar. PC members will vote again on October 1st. Story 2 Big changes to Canada's criminal justice laws have been introduced by the 1:09 Conservative government in Ottawa. The laws will include nine bills with changes to drug laws, youth sentencing, detention of refugees, parole and house arrest, and anti-terrorism measures. Federal Justice minister Rob Nicholson says Canadians want to feel safe in their homes and in their communities. But justice groups say the changes are expensive and will send more people to overcrowded prisons. Story 3 Dog owners in Edmonton and have to make sure they clean up after 1:53 their dogs. But dog owners in the Israeli city of Petach Tikvah have even more reason to carry a plastic bag when they walk their pets. City officials are going to use high tech to identify pet owners, who don't pick up after their dogs. Under a proposed new law, DNA testing on dog droppings will help to find owners and to give them 200 dollar fines. The law would require owners to submit saliva samples from their dogs so DNA samples from the street can be matched with a particular dog.

Answer keys

News story 1

Vocabulary: 1) We listened to all of the candidates speak. 2) This campaign is very exciting! 3) I always support the same political party. 4) My friend won 53% of the votes in the ballot. 5) The political race will begin next month. 6) I was knocked out of the competition on the first day

Listening: 1) The Provincial Conservative Party 2) Alison Redford 3) 14% 4) three 5) October 1st.

News Story 2

Vocabulary: 1) h 2) e 3) d 4)g 5) j 6) i 7) c 8) a 9) b 10) f

Listening: 1) False 2) False 3) True 4) True 5) True

News Story 3

Vocabulary: 1) c 2) h 3) d 4) g 5) i 6) a 7) b 8) f 9) e

Listening: 1) b 2) b 3) a 4) a 5) b