Newspapers No Place to Learn Grammar

NEWSPAPERS are no good instruments in teaching English to one who is learning it as a second or a foreign language, especially at the seminal stages, putting forth loads of problems in comprehension.

It is true both in direct-method teaching where medium of teaching English is itself none but English and in grammar-translation method where learners memorise lots of grammatical rules by translating classic excerpts from and into native languages with the help of a difficult-to-carry translation dictionary. Or it does not even hold good in the communicative process of language teaching where the learners use the target language to communicate in a reality-simulated atmosphere.

As for Bangladeshi English dailies, they are very much prone to writing an outmoded style; and they more often than not use words which instead of striking rather puzzles the readers let alone if the readers is a new language enthusiast.

Journalese, as they style of newspaper is called, is unique on its one. From the very beginning of a news piece, the headline, to the end of the report, everything of language therein is perplexing, of course to language learners.

Giant waves down the funnel — runs a headline in a daily newspaper. Not knowing what the news item relates to can present a serious obstacle on way to understanding.

Headlines can pose much more difficult even for the grown-ups. When Professor Sir William Craigie, a British linguist of report, was invited to join the staff of the Department of English in the University of Chicago, with a view to directing to compilation of The Dictionary of American English, his acceptance was announced by an article in The Chicago Tribune on October 18, 1924, which bore the headline — Midway signs Limy prof to dope yank talk. Very much puzzling even to a native English speaker.

As regards the first headline, you need to put the first two words into proper classification to get the meaning, whether the words “giant” and “waves” are nouns or adjectives or verbs. This was a story of a storm when giant waves got through the tunnel of a ship, causing troubles to the crews and also to the news readers.

The second one is a bit complicated. Because you have to know that “limy” is a slang for British sailor and “yank” for the Americans. It was intended to tell you that Midway appointed the British professor to diagnose (interpret) American speech.

Newspaper headlines abide by rules which is a different grammar, very different from ordinary English style. They are the short titles above newspaper articles, lending to difficulties in understanding them. Short words are used to save space which indulges in using unusual words — New price curbs proposed — curb meaning “restriction”; and some words are used in special senses which they do not often have in ordinary language — New Everest bid by Japanese women — the word bid meaning any attempt or endeavour.

Headlines often follow rather different grammatical rules from other kinds of writing. They are not always complete. More earthquake deaths is by no means complete in terms of grammar but is less so in carrying out the meaning. The use of a string of three or four nouns sometimes makes it tough to understand: Furniture factory pay cut riot — the entire string of words means simple riot and thereby explains the reason behind the riot. In such expressions, all the nouns except the last one act as attributives, nouns doing the work of adjectives.

The articles and the verb to be is almost left out. As for example, we can say — New city plan faulty, says Mayor. Headlines have a special tense system. It is unusual to find complex forms like is coming or has produced; generally the simple tense forms, like comes or produces, are used, whether the headline is about something that has happened, is happening or happens repeatedly. Britain sends food to famine victims, Students fight for course changes, Fat babies cry less, say doctors are the ones to conform to the rule.

Sometimes the progressive forms are used, but dispensing with the auxiliary or the helping verb — Bangladesh heading for gas crisis. To refer to the future, newspapers often use the infinitive — the verb with to placed before it. PM to announce cabinet changes Tuesday. Passive sentences also do away with the auxiliary verbs; just the past participle is used: John named in Gillian murder case or Thousands feared killed in ferry capsize.

Headlines apart, the language of articles is intimidating when it comes to the point of the ordinary English grammar. It is a sort of hybrid of spoken and written English styles, having elements from both formal and information contexts. Among two of the most striking features of the language, adverbial use of days and dates is one; the other is that, unlike written English style, the conjunction “that” is often omitted when reporting a direct speech, sometimes simply setting it off by a comma and no quotation marks at all.

The practice of keeping the verb of the reported speech unchanged, complying to the verb of the reporting speech, is no rare occasion in this case; only what some newspaper house styles do is to leave out the conjunction “that” so as to make the sentence act line a direct speech; and exceptions are there; some newspapers used the conjunction with the verb in the reported speech changed.

The slang usage is also commonplace happening in newspaper writing. Shorter words are prevalent in the body of the news, keeping the line with the headlines.

With all these differences that enable you to tell journalese from the standard ordinary English style gobble up learners’ minds at the primary stage. But it is not unwise to use newspaper to teach English, especially written styles, to language learners at some later period.

Akkas, Abu Jar M. (1995 July 19). Newspapers No Place to Learn Grammar. The Financial Express. 5

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