Определение связности, согласованности и структуры текста на английском языке

Activity title:

Gapped text

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Skill(s):

Cohesion, coherence, text structure

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Level(s):

B2 First for Schools

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Exam part:

Reading and Use of English

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Aim(s):

In this part, there is an emphasis on text structure, cohesion and coherence, and candidates' ability to follow the development of a
long text.
This task tests your ability to see how a text is structured, and how it makes sense through its references backwards and forwards.

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Materials needed:

This task consists of one text, for example an extract from a magazine, from which six sentences have been removed and placed in jumbled order after the text, together with a seventh sentence which does not fit in any of the gaps.

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Preparation:

Train your students to read through the text with gaps in it first so that they gain an overall idea of the structure of the text and the development of the writer's ideas, before starting to do the task.

When your students are selecting a sentence to fill a gap, make sure that they look carefully at the information before and after the gap. Candidates sometimes make the wrong choices by selecting options which seem to fit the text before the gap and neglecting to check that the text after the gap follows on logically.

Give your students plenty of practice in recognizing a wide range of linguistic devices which mark the logical and cohesive development of a text, for example words and phrases indicating time periods, cause and effect, exemplification, contrasting arguments, repetition, concordance of tenses, pronouns, etc. This will help them to make the correct choice between two possible sentences which seem rather similar at first sight.

It is important to discourage your students from relying on 'word spotting'. That is assuming that if the same word, name, date, etc. appears in the surrounding text and one of the options, that is automatically the right sentence to fill the gap. Train them to check all the other linguistic clues carefully before making their final decision.

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Procedure:

Step 1. At first skim the text to get the main idea about its topic and contents. Don't mind the gaps.

Step 2. Then study carefully each gap and surrounded sentences.

Step 3. Study the removed sentences. Keep it in mind that there is one extra sentence, and it can possibly be out of the topic but don't cross it out at once, maybe it just seems like that.

Step 4. Having chosen the correct variant from your point of view, read the whole paragraph - does it make sense?

Step 5. Having done do not forget to mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

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Variation(s)

None

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Reflections

In order to complete the task successfully, you will first need to have a general idea of what the passage is about, so a quick reading of the gapped text, without worrying about unknown words, is the first thing to do. While skimming through the text, try to note what information is given about the topic in each paragraph of the text, how the main ideas develop from paragraph to paragraph, and what you expect to come in the gaps. Then, you should look at each of the sentences in turn, and begin to match information in the sentences to information in different sections of the text, thinking about which sentence might come where.

However, you need now to read the text very carefully, because there are clues in the passage both before and after each gap. The development of ideas can be seen in different lexical and grammatical relations between sentences and paragraphs of the text and, therefore, you should pay careful attention to both lexical words and phrases, and grammatical structures that may indicate such relations in the text. Thus, for example, the repetition of certain nouns or adjectives, the use of synonym words and phrases, the use of one verb tense rather than another, the use of reference words, like personal pronouns (referring to either people or things), demonstratives (this, those), possessives (its, their), relative pronouns (who, that, which), temporal markers (when or while), adverbs of frequency (often, never), of place (here, there), logical connectors (besides, however), or other linking words indicating contrasts (but, while), or reasons (because, since) - all might help you to see how information in the text is organized, and decide which sentence fits where in the text.

Once you have chosen a sentence to fill a gap in the text, it is a good idea to cross out that sentence from the list of choices given so that you are not tempted to put it elsewhere.

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