Exploiting an Authentic Reading Passage for English Language Learning

Teachers of EFL, English as a Foreign Language, are almost constantly strapped for time and fresh materials to use in their English classes. If they teach in a non-English speaking country, the situation can reach critical proportions quickly and often. With the advent of the internet, however, authentic readings in English are now only a few mouse clicks away. But what to do with these snippets of information can be perplexing – even overwhelming, especially to fairly new, inexperienced EFL teachers. ESL, English as a Second Language teachers in an English-speaking country usually have a much easier time of getting materials. But, let’s look at a short historic passage of authentic English and explore some ways it could be used and re-used multiple times for a variety of didactic purposes. Here’s a 175 word complete article for starters:

A Day Well Spent

Business boomed in Cooperstown, NY. on the July day in 1805 when George Arnold, a local resident, was to be publicly hanged for murder. Merchants and street vendors did a capacity trade with the thousands of visitors from the countryside who came to witness the spectacle. At noon a brass band enlivened a procession of uniformed troops, noted citizens, and the condemned man, who was riding in a cart, to the newly erected gallows. There, a minister preached a sermon, dignitaries made speeches, and Arnold spoke his last words. The sheriff put the noose around the condemned man’s neck – and then announced regretfully that this was as far as the ceremony could go. A reprieve from the governor had come early that morning, the sheriff explained, but the town officials had let the preparations go on because they hadn’t wanted to disappoint anybody. While the crowd howled, Arnold collapsed and was carried back to jail – there to serve a life term – and Cooperstown counted the day (and the visitors’ money) well spent.

So, what could be done with this piece? Lots, that’s what. For example:

• Extract key vocabulary to make crossword or word find puzzles

• Take out the key vocabulary to create a fill-in-the-blanks exercise

• Create a cognitive pairs or matching exercise

• Work with a grammar point like reported speech based on the passage

• Use the passage for regular or irregular verb exercises

If you’d like to use the passage elements for further research you could easily:

• Create a web quest for students online

• Recommend additional related readings on history or topical information

• Have students write a different ending or plot twists for the passage

• Use the passage or its elements as a spring board for further discussion

• Investigate related themes such as methods of execution

• History and geography of the locale are other good possibilities

• Look for pictures and photos related to the passage and topic areas

But there’s more that might be done with even this short, basic piece. To generate speaking you might want to use activities

• to promote pronunciation practice

• to have students generate dialogues based on information in the reading

• have students enact scenes generated from elements in the reading

Then there’s always the possibility of making up some “standard” exercises based on the reading passage like:

• multiple choice questions

• true – false questions

• sentence or word unscrambles

• re-ordering of the sentences

• give sentences from the passage as “answers”, students write the questions

Additionally, you can always have students write a composition or opinion essay on the passage itself or some particular aspect of the passage. Had enough yet? Well you get the idea. Deepen and expand on one or any number of related topic areas to extract the maximum from any piece you come up with and you’ll be a lot less hard-pressed for ideas and materials. Don’t forget to have fun while you’re at it too.