The daily news broadcasts, in whatever language you are studying, provide an
ever-changing listening resource for you to use. Nowadays such broadcasts are
available through a wide range of media. in To improve your listening skills
in German, for example, it is important to take advantage of the resources such
as news broadcasts that are available to you and, in particular, to make use
of web-based listening resources in audio or video format.
In these activities you will explore and practise using news-centred resources
available on the internet for improving your listening skills in German.
Aktivität 1: Audio und Video-Nachrichten im Internet
There are several websites that are designed for listening and which focus
on the news in German. In this activity you are going to evaluate two German
websites that can be used to improve your listening skills.
Compare the following two websites, which allow you to listen
to the news in German. Identify the particular features of each website by
selecting options from the drop down lists below. Then check your answers
and decide which website you prefer.
An advantage of digital listening is that it is easy to replay small sections
as often as you want, enabling you to pay close attention to particularly
useful words and phrases in the language you are learning. If you are linking
to resources on the internet through your own laptop computer they can also
be accessed by you at any time or in any location.
Aktivität 2: Online Nachrichten hören oder ansehen
You are now going to practise using one of the websites from the previous
activity to improve your listening skills in the language you are studying.
Open the news grid below and complete it while watching/listening
to a pre-recorded news broadcast in German on the internet. Study the example
first if you would like guidance on what to do.
Follow these instructions if you have not done this activity before:
Select a bulletin and watch/listen to it once filling in as many details
as you can in the news grid
Watch/listen to the bulletin again pausing occasionally to fill in
any missing details and/or correct others
Watch/listen to the whole bulletin a final time without pausing to complete
the grid
Find an online or newspaper of the same date as the news programme,
e.g. www.welt.de, www.tagesschau.de
Find the news stories that were featured in the programme, comparing
and amending the details if necessary
News Grid (doc, 44KB). You may wish to print this document.
Make a list of useful words and phrases that you have
learnt during this listening activity in the box below. Then copy and paste
these into your vocabulary organiser so that you can learn them.
When you have completed this activity, save a copy of your completed news
grid and the Nachrichten template in your e-portfolio for future reference
and use.
Adapted from material provided by Kirsten Söntgens, University of
Southampton
