The teaching tips here are only a few of the many ways you can use this audio and video with your learners. The ideas given are not complete lesson plans and are not given in any suggested teaching order. They are just quick explanations of activities to use with your classes.

BRAINSTORMING VOCABULARY

With the whole class, brainstorm all the things that people read. Write all their suggestions on the board, and ask them to justify and explain any ideas where there seems to be no obvious connection with the theme. .

PERSONAL ANECDOTES

Tell the class a personal anecdote or story connected with the theme of reading - something strange (interesting, funny etc) that has happened to you. Invite learners to tell their own stories in pairs, groups, or to the whole class.

Tell the class about your favourite book, the book you are reading now, or the last book you read. Invite learners to tell their own stories in pairs, groups, or to the whole class.

PERSONALISATION

Tell the class what you like reading and invite them to do the same in pairs, groups, or to the whole class. You can also tell the class how your taste in reading has changed over the years and invite them to do the same.

PREDICTING LANGUAGE

Tell the class that the subject of the audio is someone talking about what they like reading, and ask them to predict any language they think they will hear. Write their suggestions on the board. To check their answers, play the audio and tick off the language they guessed correctly.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

Prepare (listening for gist or listening for specific information) comprehension questions for learners to answer while they are listening to the audio. Question formats you can use include True/False questions, WH-questions, and Yes/No questions.

GAP FILL

Give each learner a copy of the tapescript but with gaps where you have deleted one or more words. Ask learners to listen and write in the missing words. Learners should check their answers in pairs.

ORDERING ITEMS

On the board, write a list of all the types of reading material included on the audio but not in the order they appear on the audio. Ask each learner to make a copy of the list. Explain to the class that they should listen and number each item in the order it appears on the audio.

RECONSTRUCT THE TEXT

On the board, write the tapescript of the audio, but instead of writing the words, draw a short line to represent each word. Explain to the class that you will play the audio, and they should call out any words they recognise. You will then write these words in the correct spaces. Continue this procedure until the class have reconstructed the complete text. In this activity, it is important to let your learners listen to the audio as many times as they need.

WHICH WORDS DID YOU HEAR?

On the board, write a list of types of reading materials used in the audio, and include some that are not used. Ask learners to copy the list. They should listen to the audio and tick the words they hear.

READING HABITS QUESTIONNAIRE

Put learners into groups of three and explain that the class are going to make up a 'Reading Habits Questionnaire' to find out about the reading habits of the class. First of all, in their groups, they should brainstorm possible questions to ask. Point out that their questions should be as detailed as possible (e.g. What time of day do you prefer reading? Do you read in bed? How many pages of a book do you read at a time?). After this brainstorming stage, write all their ideas on the board, and with the consensus of the whole class, choose 15 of the questions to include on the questionnaire. You should make a note of these, and for the next lesson, type them up into a questionnaire and make one copy for each learner in the class. During the lesson, learners can then carry out their survey, and the class can analyse and draw conclusions about the reading habits of the class from the results.

How have you used the reading audio with your classes?

If you would like to suggest another way to use it with learners, please send us your idea and we will publish it in this section.