If our students are struggling with online reading material, they can simply copy and paste it into a Gen.AI tool –I will be using Claude this time- and ask for a simplified, shorter version of it.
As an example, I will be using this article entitled “By 8pm it is time to head home: whatever happened to the big night out?” from The Guardian newspaper. You can find it HERE. This original article, which is about 2,000 words, would, in principle, be suitable for upper-levels in terms of language reading difficulty. However, it can still be adapted for lower levels with this prompt:
“Here’s a newspaper article entitled “By 8pm it is time to head home: whatever happened to the big night out?” I am copying and pasting this article, and I want you to rewrite a shortened version, reducing it to around 700 words. The rewritten article must keep the ideas from the original. Simplify the advanced language and shorten long sentences to make it easy to follow. The new version should be clear and share the main points of the original text so that a student of English at a lower-intermediate level can understand it. Here’s the original article: [pasted article].
I’ll rewrite the article, simplifying the language and focusing on the key points while making it more accessible to intermediate English learners.
“The Changing Face of Night Out Culture”
In recent years, something interesting has been happening to how people spend their weekend nights. Going out late and partying until the early morning is becoming less common, with more people choosing shorter and earlier social events.
A recent report from a major bar group revealed a surprising trend: the busiest time for bars is now in the afternoon, around 3 pm, instead of the traditional late evening. People are changing their social habits, preferring to enjoy themselves earlier and return home sooner.
Take Joyce Harper, a 61-year-old professor, who now enjoys “day raves” – dance events that happen in the afternoon. She explains that in the 1990s, she used to go clubbing twice a month and stay out all night. Now, she prefers shorter events that allow her to get enough sleep and feel good the next day.
Several factors are contributing to this shift:
- Economic Challenges Going out has become expensive. Club tickets that used to cost £5 now cost £40 or £50. Young people have less money to spend on nights out, making expensive entertainment less attractive.
- Changing Work Culture With more people working from home, the traditional Friday night “blow-out” has disappeared. Remote work has reduced spontaneous social gatherings.
- Safety Concerns Issues like drink spiking and late-night crime make people more cautious about going out late.
- Health and Wellness Trends More young people are choosing to drink less or not at all. Some, like Millie Gooch, who founded the Sober Girl Society, have found that socializing doesn’t require late nights and heavy drinking.
- Social Media and Technology Platforms like TikTok have made staying in more acceptable. The “soft life” trend encourages rest and relaxation over constant partying.
The impact on nightlife has been significant. Between 2020 and 2023, 31% of nightclubs closed – about 10 clubs per month. Instead, people are choosing alternative entertainment like escape rooms and ice cream parlors that close earlier.
Patrick Hinton, an editor at a dance music magazine, believes nightlife is changing. Large festivals and big music venues are becoming more popular, while smaller, local club nights struggle to survive. The pandemic particularly hurt these smaller venues, as many young people never developed the habit of going out.
Despite these challenges, some see positive sides to this trend. Daytime events like afternoon raves offer a more inclusive and health-conscious approach to socializing. People can enjoy music, dance, and meet others without sacrificing sleep or spending too much money.
Dave Haslam, a DJ and author, notes that while young people might not go out as often as previous generations, they still value culture and music. They’re just consuming it differently.
For those who enjoy an early bedtime, these changes are welcome. As Joyce Harper puts it, dancing and music are important for mental and physical health. The key is finding a balance that allows people to enjoy social experiences without exhausting themselves.
The future of nightlife might look different, but it’s not disappearing – it’s just evolving.
The new version is about three-fourths shorter and has been conveniently adapted for an intermediate language learner. This revised text could serve as a springboard for tasks that learners might be required to complete in standardized texts. For example, students could now ask Claude to write a good example of mediation based on the new version.
Prompt: Now, based on this shortened and simplified version, act as if you were an upper-intermediate student of English completing an oral mediation task in a speaking exam for the Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas in Spain, retelling the article in your own words.
Takes a deep breath and speaks in a slightly nervous but confident manner
Good morning, today I’m going to talk about a fascinating article about changes in nightlife and social habits, especially among young people.
The main idea is that going out late at night is becoming less popular. Instead, people are choosing shorter, earlier social events. For example, bars are now busiest in the afternoon around 3 pm, not late at night like before.
There are several reasons for this change. First, going out has become really expensive. Club tickets that used to cost just £5 now cost around £40 or £50, which is difficult for young people with limited budgets.
Also, work culture has changed. With more remote work, people are less likely to have those traditional Friday night parties. Additionally, safety concerns and a growing focus on health and wellness are making people more careful about their social activities.
Interestingly, this trend is having a big impact on nightlife. Between 2020 and 2023, almost one-third of nightclubs closed. Instead, people are choosing different types of entertainment like escape rooms or daytime events.
Some experts, like the music magazine editor Patrick Hinton, believe nightlife isn’t disappearing but transforming. Young people still love music and culture; they’re just experiencing it differently.
The positive side is that these new social trends, like daytime raves, allow people to enjoy music and socializing without sacrificing sleep or spending too much money. As one professor mentioned, dancing and music are still important for mental and physical health.
In conclusion, nightlife is evolving. It’s not about partying all night anymore, but finding a balance that allows people to have fun, stay social, and take care of themselves.
Looks up with a slight smile, hoping the explanation was clear
The resulting text is very useful for learners, as it provides a good example of how the speech could be organized. The new text reflects the main ideas from the adapted version and it is rich in linkers that can be reused to mediate other texts. Learners can compare the two texts and notice how a good mediation task should aim to convey the same ideas in different ways, using varied grammar structures and wording from the original text as much as possible.
Another interesting task would be to try changing the tone, register, and style of the original text to learn informal and useful language. Let’s take a look at this prompt: Rewrite the text now in about 250 words. This time the style should be very informal, rich in word collocations and language chunks, reflecting the nature of spoken speech, as if a young person were retelling it to a friend over drinks at a bar.
Takes a swig of drink and leans in
Okay, so get this – nightlife’s totally changing! Remember how we used to go crazy partying till dawn? Not anymore. These days, people are like, “Nah, I’m good” by 8 PM.
So here’s the tea: bars are now packed in the afternoon, not late night. Young people are basically saying, “Screw spending £50 to get wrecked!” Plus, with remote work and all, that classic Friday night blow-out? Dead.
It’s wild – clubs are closing left and right. We’re talking 31% of nightclubs gone in just a few years. Instead, people are hitting up escape rooms and grabbing ice cream. How boring, right? laughs
But here’s the thing – it’s not that people don’t love music or culture. They’re just doing it differently. Day raves are a thing now. Like, imagine dancing at 3 PM and still getting a full night’s sleep? Wild.
We are now scaling the material up. Learners can benefit from exposure to practical conversational language and gain a deeper understanding of the importance of register in communication. They should pay attention to chunks of language they can imagine themselves using in informal conversational situations and review this vocabulary regularly to ensure effective learning.
AI in ELT 