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Classroom implementation
Reading aims to help students improve how they read in PARTS (A, B, C)
practical real-life situations and to widen students’ range of
vocabulary in line with A2 expectations. What are they?
The book contains twenty units, each of which can provide The units are organized into parts (A, B and sometimes
the basis of a lesson. They are divided across four sections: C), each with their own reading text (text chat, web page,
1. Communication, dealing with contemporary text-based newspaper article, sign), and each containing between
interaction between friends and within peer groups. one and eight exercises.
2. Around town, dealing with reading tasks students
might confront as a tourist or a longer-term visitor to an Suggested implementation (pre-reading):
English-speaking country. Some initial exercises may provide pre-reading tasks such
3. On the move, which provides practical examples of as vocabulary building or identifying the cultural context.
readings activities on planes, trains, on the road and on If there is no obvious pre-reading activity, you can instigate
foot. your own such as predicting the content of the text.
4. In your free time, utilizing reading material like 1. Pre-reading tasks often work well as group/pair activities.
newspapers, magazines, instruction booklets, etc. which Get pairs of students to predict the kind of language
students might find in a more downtime context. the text might contain, and feed back to the group with
There are also appendices covering the following: their most likely suggestions. Ask students to guess what
• different ways of reading (skimming, scanning for the text might be about by just reading one of these
general understanding and reading for detail) elements:
• study tips • the headings or bullet points
• text types • the topic sentences (first sentence of each paragraph)
• short forms • illustrations, graphs, charts, photographs and captions
• punctuation • several key words from the text (which you will have
written on board).
• signposting
• using a dictionary 2. You might also want to get the students to identify the
text type, and ask your students:
All the units in Reading have a broadly similar structure and
similar features. Below you can find explanations of how • Why and how often would you read this type of text?
these features can be deployed for classroom use. • Where would you normally see it? What is its normal
context?
• What sort of reading style is appropriate in that
GETTING STARTED context: skimming, scanning or reading for detail?
3. Asking students to read aloud is often discouraged in
What is it?
language teaching; it is often viewed as a skill in itself,
Each unit begins with three or four simple Getting Started and one which does not directly relate to language
questions directed at the student. The aim of the questions learning. However, it should be remembered that for
is to introduce the topic and prepare for the texts which some students it may well be a skill that can usefully
follow. be employed in their jobs. It also has value (particularly
at pre-intermediate level) in getting students to
Suggested implementation: look beyond individual words and see sentence and
1. Direct the questions at the class, personalizing the theme paragraph structure. At the very least, offering a different
for the students and getting them thinking about the presentational approach to the texts will add variety to
topic – which you can then discuss or brainstorm for your lesson.
vocabulary. • When choosing which texts, if any, to ask students
2. Get students to ask the questions of each other. to read aloud, select shorter ones and divide the task
across the class.
3. Highlight/clarify key basic vocabulary for the unit.
• Model new and difficult vocabulary first, and allow
4. Write the questions on card, cut the sentences up into
silent comprehension reading before asking students
individual words and have students reassemble them.
to read aloud.
5. Write model answers (perhaps your own) on card and get • Make notes of any pronunciation issues to model and
the students to match them with the questions. drill later.
English Readers
English for Life Reading (A2 Pre-intermediate)
Classroom implementation
Reading aims to help students improve how they read in PARTS (A, B, C)
practical real-life situations and to widen students’ range of
vocabulary in line with A2 expectations. What are they?
The book contains twenty units, each of which can provide The units are organized into parts (A, B and sometimes
the basis of a lesson. They are divided across four sections: C), each with their own reading text (text chat, web page,
1. Communication, dealing with contemporary text-based newspaper article, sign), and each containing between
interaction between friends and within peer groups. one and eight exercises.
2. Around town, dealing with reading tasks students
might confront as a tourist or a longer-term visitor to an Suggested implementation (pre-reading):
English-speaking country. Some initial exercises may provide pre-reading tasks such
3. On the move, which provides practical examples of as vocabulary building or identifying the cultural context.
readings activities on planes, trains, on the road and on If there is no obvious pre-reading activity, you can instigate
foot. your own such as predicting the content of the text.
4. In your free time, utilizing reading material like 1. Pre-reading tasks often work well as group/pair activities.
newspapers, magazines, instruction booklets, etc. which Get pairs of students to predict the kind of language
students might find in a more downtime context. the text might contain, and feed back to the group with
There are also appendices covering the following: their most likely suggestions. Ask students to guess what
• different ways of reading (skimming, scanning for the text might be about by just reading one of these
general understanding and reading for detail) elements:
• study tips • the headings or bullet points
• text types • the topic sentences (first sentence of each paragraph)
• short forms • illustrations, graphs, charts, photographs and captions
• punctuation • several key words from the text (which you will have
written on board).
• signposting
• using a dictionary 2. You might also want to get the students to identify the
text type, and ask your students:
All the units in Reading have a broadly similar structure and
similar features. Below you can find explanations of how • Why and how often would you read this type of text?
these features can be deployed for classroom use. • Where would you normally see it? What is its normal
context?
• What sort of reading style is appropriate in that
GETTING STARTED context: skimming, scanning or reading for detail?
3. Asking students to read aloud is often discouraged in
What is it?
language teaching; it is often viewed as a skill in itself,
Each unit begins with three or four simple Getting Started and one which does not directly relate to language
questions directed at the student. The aim of the questions learning. However, it should be remembered that for
is to introduce the topic and prepare for the texts which some students it may well be a skill that can usefully
follow. be employed in their jobs. It also has value (particularly
at pre-intermediate level) in getting students to
Suggested implementation: look beyond individual words and see sentence and
1. Direct the questions at the class, personalizing the theme paragraph structure. At the very least, offering a different
for the students and getting them thinking about the presentational approach to the texts will add variety to
topic – which you can then discuss or brainstorm for your lesson.
vocabulary. • When choosing which texts, if any, to ask students
2. Get students to ask the questions of each other. to read aloud, select shorter ones and divide the task
across the class.
3. Highlight/clarify key basic vocabulary for the unit.
• Model new and difficult vocabulary first, and allow
4. Write the questions on card, cut the sentences up into
silent comprehension reading before asking students
individual words and have students reassemble them.
to read aloud.
5. Write model answers (perhaps your own) on card and get • Make notes of any pronunciation issues to model and
the students to match them with the questions. drill later.
English Readers
English for Life Reading (A2 Pre-intermediate)
You can use some or all of these ideas to check and Using Part A
enhance your students’ understanding as they work their
way through Unit 1 of Reading A2 in class. After exercise 1, you can give students further skim reading
practice by asking them to extract the key words in different
Using Getting started categories from the EnglishClub.com activity.
Ask the students the Getting started questions and use their 1. Write these categories on the board:
answers as the basis of a classroom discussion and then as Greetings:
the basis of a survey about internet/chatroom use. Names:
1. Ask students to think of categories of questions they Languages/Nationalities:
could ask about internet/chatroom use (What sites? Countries:
Who do they chat to? Why do they chat? When?
Where?) and elicit a couple of example questions. 2. Ask the students to find the words in the messages that
fall into these categories:
2. Divide the class into small groups. If you want students
to take the questionnaires away and ask people outside Greetings: Hello (everyone), Hi, Hey
the class (for homework), then they could work on all Names: Mariana, Hannah, Pedro, Li
the categories. But if you want them to present to their Languages/Nationalities: English, Spanish, Chinese
classmates, you could get them to work on questions for
Countries/Places: Brazil, France, America
just one category.
(Remind students to find just what is in the text – so
3. As students work, monitor and prompt questions like:
Brazilian and China are not there. However, you could
Software/Sites: What search engine do you use? What make identifying these a further extension activity.)
English Readers
English for Life Reading (A2 Pre-intermediate)
3. Feed back with the whole group. 1. Elicit further examples from the students:
At the end of Part A students can: lol – laugh(ing) out loud
1. Work in pairs (or small groups) to write two more rofl – rolling on the floor laughing
paragraphs for each of the EnglishClub.com students imo – in my opinion
which fulfil the description provided by options a and c brb – be right back
of exercise 1 (i.e. what they like to do in their free time,
and, the schools and colleges where they are learning 2. Further examples and discussion on the topic can be
English). There are eight paragraphs in total – but your found in Appendix 3 – Reading specific text types.
students do not have to complete all of them.
Using Part C
2. The pairs/groups should write their paragraphs on
separate pieces of paper and swap them with another Exercises 1 and 2 involve scanning for specific (types of)
pair/group who can then work out both which student information so this would be a good time to revise the rules
and which answer they refer to. of scanning.
1. Ask students what type of text they might scan and what
Using Part B information they would be looking for in each case.
At the end of Part B you can get students to write their own Timetable: destination, last departure, next departure
chatroom dialogue: TV schedule: this week’s movies, what’s on now
1. First ask students to identify the topics that are discussed: Dictionary: definition, examples of usage
Where you are from. All involve unspoken assumptions about the presentation
Where you are living now and what it’s like. of the material.
Your age. 2. Use Appendix 1 – How should I read? to assist the
students.
When you are online.
3. You can bring in examples of text types which could be
2. Then get the students to think about other topics that
scanned, give them to pairs of students and ask them to
they might discuss and note them on the board.
challenge each other to scan for particular information.
3. Pairs of students can write their own dialogue of about
Part C Exercise 5 involves students creating their own profile
12–14 exchanges.
for CitySocialising.com. Using their answers, you can use the
4. Allow students to be as creative as they want, or template below to create a poster webpage for the whole
encourage them to stick more closely to the format in class.
the Part B reading text if you feel it suits their personality
1. Get students to check their answers to Exercise 5 with a
or ability.
partner and correct if necessary.
5. Students can then cut their dialogue up and exchange
2. Give students a copy of the template above and get
with another pair to reconstruct.
them to transfer their answers to it.
6. Feed back with the whole group.
3. Working with a partner get students to think up
Using Language note: chat abbreviations additional entries if they wish. They might want to use
friends or famous people like Brad Pitt or Barack Obama.
There are a variety of activities you can do around text chat
4. Feed back with the whole group and attach the entries
and you will have to decide for yourself how useful this
to a poster for the classroom wall.
receptive lexis is for your students.
English Readers
English for Life Reading (A2 Pre-intermediate)
PHOTOCOPIABLES
CitySocialising.com profile
SUMMARY
You can use this summary to guide the learning objectives 2. Monitor their discussions and get them to start writing
and target setting for your class. further questions about social networking, picking
different categories for different groups. For example:
Can-do statements • What methods do you use to stay in touch? email,
By the end of this unit, students will be able to say: text, voice calls, Twitter, Facebook
• I can navigate the pages of a social networking site. • What devices do you use? phone, desktop, laptop,
• I can read a social networking site quickly to find tablet
information about particular friends. • How much time spent a day? hours, minutes, I lose track
• I can use the right expressions when making • How much do you think networking costs you? phone
comments on social networking sites. charges, upgrades, packages
• I can read an email quickly to understand its main 3. Get the students to mingle with each other and ask their
message. questions of students in other groups.
Skill focus 4. Feed back with the whole group.
Pre-reading: 5. As with other extension exercises of this type, you can
Part A 1 get the students to write up and display the answers to
Skimming: their survey as a poster in class or as homework.
Part B 1
Scanning: Using Part A
Part A 2 Part A Exercise 1 is a pre-reading task aimed at familiarizing
Reading for general understanding: students with the vocabulary in the reading text. You may
Part A 3 , Part B 2 want to further expand the students’ vocabulary with
Reading for detail: action words (e.g. like, block, unfriend, etc.) found on social
Part A 4 , Part B 3 networking sites.
PHOTOCOPIABLES
CitySocialising.com profile
__________________________________________________
My friends
Share Comment Like
My messages
______ ___________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
______ ___________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
______ ___________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
______ ___________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
______ ___________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
______ ___________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
______ ___________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
English Readers
English for Life Reading (A2 Pre-intermediate)
2. Ask students why people do it (for speed, because it’s Having completed all three exercises in Part A, activate the
cool and funny) students’ knowledge and creativity with this writing/reading
3. Compare the different sorts of short forms. Some are pairwork activity:
abbreviations of the spelling (hse) and some are common 1. Photocopy the Request/Respond table below, and cut out
pronunciations of single letters (c). the separate roles. (This provides for ten students but you
4. Ask students how useful, or confusing, they find these can easily give the same activity to two pairs.)
short forms. Also, how much they use them and whether 2. Create a speech bubble template with six or seven
new technologies will change them or make them exchanges (as in Exercise 2) or ask the students to make
redundant. Do similar short forms exist in students’ one in class.
native language? 3. Give each pair of students a pair of role cards (A1/A2,
5. Refer students to Appendix 4 – Understanding short etc). The pair of students should not see each other’s
forms of English for more examples and information. cards.
Texts or instant messaging (like BM or iMessage) as a form 4. Get student A to write a short text message, on the
of writing tend to mimic conversation in that they are made template, to their partner using the abbreviations they
up of short acts of communication, they attempt to include have learned, and adding new ones.
intonation and gesture using emoticons, and they usually 5. Student A can then pass the template to student B to
encourage interaction with a question or with ‘…’. For reply and so on.
this reason, the text messages in Part A Exercise 2 provide 6. Feed back to the whole class. Make note of any
a good text type for reading aloud in class. It provides a pronunciation issues to model and drill later.
clear interpretative challenge alongside the task of simply
speaking to the group. Students can also express the As homework, you could ask students to turn other short
emoticons in their voice at the appropriate point: text types (small newspaper articles, for example) into text
speech and bring them into class as a reading challenge for
1. Get students to practise the exchange in Exercise 2 in
other students.
pairs and monitor.
2. Feed back with the whole class.
English Readers
English for Life Reading (A2 Pre-intermediate)
PHOTOCOPIABLES
:)
I’m happy
;) :-? :(
I’m joking I’m confused I’m sad
</3 ;P
I’m broken-hearted (flirting)
:0 :-x
I’m surprised It’s a secret
Request/Respond
STUDENT A STUDENT B
A1: text a friend to ask them to come to your B1: you have to look after your little sister
house to play a new computer game tonight, but you can go out tomorrow
A2: text a friend to cancel a trip to the theatre – B2: you were really looking forward to the
try and rearrange it theatre trip
A3: text a friend to ask if they want to go B3: you’ve got no money at the moment
shopping
A4: text a friend to see if they want to go to the B4: you hate George Clooney, you prefer action
new George Clooney movie movies
A5: text a friend to ask about their trip to New B5: your trip to New York was great, but you
York spent a lot of money