Leveraging Online News for Language Learning across Diverse Educational Contexts

Abstract

The digitization of news has made it accessible to a growing number of people worldwide. Since it contains large quantities of authentic language input, online news has riveted language learners, teachers, and educators. Despite the availability of multitudes of studies on online news, there is a lack of research on comprehensively exploring its potential benefits and drawbacks to serve as a guide for language education. To that end, this exploratory research sought to survey the possible educational impacts of online news on language learning and teaching. The examination of the extensive literature review revealed eight potential advantages (real-world context, vocabulary expansion, grammatical/syntactical practice, heightened cultural awareness, practice/improvement in four skills, authentic language input, and content diversity) and disadvantages (linguistic complexity, content bias and inaccuracy, limited interactivity, time consumption, accessibility and technology dependency, information overload, digital distraction, and privacy concern). A five-step practical guideline for using online news was suggested for language teachers. News websites beneficial to multilingual and multicultural learning and awareness were provided. The research concluded with some limitations and recommendations for future studies.