Texts can be exploited in a number of ways. Have you tried some of the following?
Highlighting
- Pronouns - underline pronouns and draw a line to the part of the text they refer to.
- Synonymy/Same Item Repetition - find synonyms and also repetitions of the same word and underline them.
- Conjunctions - find and underline examples of cohesive conjunction.
Matching
- Match pictures from a picture story with related passages or sentences.
- Match text-based vocabulary to definitions/synonyms.
- Match pairs of sentences to connecting conjunctions.
Compare and Contrast
- Compare the style and register of informal and formal letters of complaint etc.
- Compare the style and tone of similar accounts of the same event in different newspapers.
- Compare the effect of two different endings to a short story/text etc.
Selecting
- Give learners a passage with one sentence missing. Learners decide which of four possible choices is the correct sentence/decide whether the missing sentence is a topic sentence/exemplification/re-statement etc.
- Give learners a passage and ask them to identify its source - text book/magazine/journal etc.
Re-ordering
- Learners re-order jumbled sentences to form a paragraph/jumbled paragraphs to form a text.
Drawing
- Give learners a complete text and ask them to produce a plan showing its structure.
- Learners are given a plan and certain key phrases and are asked to construct a paragraph/part of the text.
Completion
- Give learners a text in which all the linking expressions (pronouns/conjunctions etc) have been deleted and ask them to fill in the missing words.
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