Changes at 'learning post'

As Bangkok Post’s manager for education marketing and support, Terry is getting plenty of opportunity to teach. Here he is with a class of second-year English majors at Rajabhat Suan Sunantha.

Although we never made a formal announcement, you have probably noticed by now that Matt Leppard is the new editor of learning post. He took over complete control of the section several weeks ago and my role now is essentially limited to that of a columnist — something I very much enjoy, by the way.

Matt may be new to learning post, but he is actually a more experienced and knowledgeable editor than I ever pretended to be. You have already started to see the results in a cleaner layout and tighter writing. There is much more to come.

Meanwhile, I have returned to what I enjoy most — marketing the newspaper to new readers and supporting teachers who use the Bangkok Post in their schools. As a result, I’ve had the chance to get back into the classroom myself, a role I played for 25 years in my pre-newspaper days.

A couple of weeks ago, for example, I taught a three-hour introductory class on reading the English-language newspaper to second-year English majors at Rajabhat Suan Sunantha. Our textbook was that day’s Bangkok Post and we spent our time examining how we here at the Post go about trying to satisfy our very diverse reading audience.

We looked at newspaper content and how it is organised and written. Then we looked at strategies to make reading easier and more effective. And since the newspaper’s main advantage is its timeliness, we spent a good deal of time looking at our coverage of the general election. The hit of the lesson, however, was clearly the final segment when I helped the students interpret their horoscopes for the day.

One-off sessions like this one can be useful, but they are far more effective as part of a systemic series of lessons on newspaper reading. It would be much better if teachers get much of the introductory work out of the way first, leaving me more time to focus on the various styles of writing found in the newspaper and effective strategies for reading them.

The Post Publishing Company hopes to introduce a newspaper-reading programme like the one described above shortly. If you believe your class or school could benefit, you can contact me at fredricksont@bangkokpost.co.th or give me a call on 02-240-3700, ext 1800.