T asks SS to read a text and summarise the main point of the text in one sentence of exactly 20 words.. SS work with their group or partner for a short time, e.g.. Group feedback: a memb
Trang 1TEXT Text Reduction – 20, 10, 5, 1
Method:
1 T asks SS to read a text and summarise the main point of the text in one sentence of exactly 20 words Not
21 words, or 19 words, but exactly 20!
2 SS work with their group (or partner) for a short time, e.g 10 minutes T monitors, checks, and corrects
3 Group feedback: a member from each team reads out their 20-word sentence T or SS could write some on the board and SS have to compare them T elicits corrections to errors from the whole group and discusses interesting grammar points The whole group could discuss “What were the difficulties raised by the word number rule?”
4 Repeat steps 1-3, except SS have to summarise the same text in one sentence of exactly 10 words
5 Repeat steps 1-3, except SS have to summarise the same text in one sentence of exactly 5 words
6 Repeat steps 1-3, except SS have to summarise the same text with only 1 word
7 T discusses the activity with SS: what was easy? What was difficult? What have you learned from doing it?
Tips:
• T must enforce the word count limit It is this restriction that makes the activity challenging – and fun! SS have to find different ways to say the same thing – adding and removing words to meet the target number
of words
• This is a nice activity because it practices:
o grammar
o vocabulary
o word order
o speaking & listening
o reading & writing
o teamwork & negotiation