1. Tricks with texts: bringing reading back to life
Alan Marsh
6th Malta ELT International Conference

2. Reading in the ELT Classroom
Do these acronyms mean anything to you, in the context of different purposes of reading texts in the ELT classroom?
TALO
TAVIE
TASP

3. This year the Turnbull family felt like taking a holiday together and their grandparents agreed to come with them. Grandpa suggested going to a hot country so they decided to visit the Mediterranean where they could enjoy relaxing by the beach and attempt to get a suntan. They carefully avoided taking a holiday in the high season because they dislike sitting on crowded beaches. They also preferred somewhere where English is widely spoken so they decided to go to Malta, in June.
Adapted from Survival Lessons

4. TALO… Text As a Linguistic Object
This year the Turnbull family felt like taking a holiday together and their grandparents agreed to come with them. Grandpa suggested going to a hot country so they decided to visit the Mediterranean where they could enjoy relaxing by the beach and attempt to get a suntan. They carefully avoided taking a holiday in the high season because they dislike sitting on crowded beaches. They also preferred to go somewhere where English is widely spoken so they decided to go to Malta, in June.
Adapted from Survival Lessons
Verb + gerund and Verb + full infinitive
TALO…
Text
As a
Linguistic
Object

5. Some tasks…
Read this text quickly and give it a title – not more than two words! (skimming for gist)
How many different reasons are given for choosing Malta? What are they? (scanning for specific information)
TAVIE
Text
As a
Vehicle for
Information and/or
Entertainment

6. Holiday!
This year the Turnbull family felt like taking a holiday together and their grandparents agreed to come with them. Grandpa suggested going to a hot country so they decided to visit the Mediterranean where they could enjoy relaxing by the beach and attempt to get a suntan. They carefully avoided taking a holiday in the high season because they dislike sitting on crowded beaches. They also preferred somewhere where English is widely spoken so they decided to go to Malta, in June.
Adapted from Survival Lessons

7. TASP Discuss with your partner(s):
1 Where did you go for your last holiday?
2 What were your reasons for choosing this holiday?
3 Did you enjoy it? Why?/Why not?
TASP
Text
As a
Springboard for
Production

8. Engaging? Motivating? Memorable?
Let’s bring reading back to life by combining ….

9. TALO TAVIE TASP TAVIELOSP!!!
TALO: Text as a linguistic object
TAVIE: Text as a vehicle for information and/or entertainment
TASP: Text as a springboard for production …
… with every text
TAVIELOSP!!!
Plus …..
And being just a little creative – adding a twist – in our use of reading texts in our classroom

11. Many years ago when I was a young reporter I worked for a local newspaper just outside London. Our offices were in an old building in Clapham, south London. There were lots of rumours about the building and many said that one particular office was haunted by a …
… mysterious ghost. My colleague, Jim, and I have never been superstitious so one night we decided to …
…stay in the ‘haunted’ office overnight and see if anything unusual happened.
So late that evening, after everyone had gone home, we went into the office. We locked the windows and the door, from the inside. We also covered the floor with …
… white chalk, just to see if anyone stepped across it. We switched off the lights and settled down in two comfortable chairs. We talked for a while and waited, but nothing happened. Outside, a full moon shone brightly in the night sky.
Then just after midnight ….

12. … the locked door suddenly opened
… the locked door suddenly opened. The locked windows flew open and then a strong wind blew into the room. We looked at each other in shock. And then we heard a …
… terrifying sound like the howl of a wolf and in the moonlight we saw …
… the shape of an enormous beast move across the room and through the office wall. The door closed and locked itself, the windows flew shut and then …..
… silence.
For a few moments, neither of us moved. Then I switched on the light. We looked around the room. Nothing had changed, except the …
… floor. In the chalk on the floor we saw …
… four footprints of a massive animal.

13. We ran to the door, shaking with fear
We ran to the door, shaking with fear. Just before we ran out of the room, I stopped, turned and …
… took some photos of the prints in the chalk.
We ran out of the building and out into the street. All was calm and quiet. We stopped to catch our breath. I checked my camera and called up the photos of the beast’s footprints. The photos were very clear, with the floor covered in white chalk. But …
… there were no footprints.

14. Many years ago …. young reporter ………. local newspaper …
Many years ago …..young reporter ……….local newspaper ….. rumours ……ghost….
Jim and I …. ‘haunted’ office overnight ….
Evening……the office….windows…. Door…. floor … … white chalk…. the lights …..two comfortable chairs……talked ……waited…..nothing.
Full moon….. midnight ….
… the locked door…. The locked windows… a strong wind…shock…. a … terrifying sound howl ….moonlight
… enormous beast … the room ….the office wall…..The door… the windows…. silence.
neither of us moved…. the light….. the …floor….chalk… four footprints
We ran out …photos … prints…..chalk.
Street …..catch our breath ….. camera photos…. but …
no footprints.

15. Pulling out language from a text: problematize it! (TALO)
1 Can you reconstruct this sentence from the text?
We / hear / terrify / sound
We heard a terrifying sound
2 How did we feel? What terrified us?
The howl terrified us.
The howl was ____________. We were ___________.

16. Language practice
1 You look very tired/tiring. Why don’t you go to bed?
2 Sit down – I’ve got some very excited/exciting news for you!
3 He’s got a very annoyed/annoying habit of always interrupting people.
4 I’m very disappointed/disappointing by your behaviour.
5 Kids! You’re disgusted/disgusting! Don’t talk with your mouths full.

17. Skills extension: personalisation – speaking or writing fluency (TASP)
1 Do you know of any ‘true’ ghost stories?
2 What’s the most tiring thing you do in your job / at school / at uni? Why is it tiring? What could you do to feel less tiring?
3 Think about a time when you got some exciting news. Tell us about a. the background b. how you got the news c. how you felt d. what happened afterwards.
4 Do you have a colleague or schoolmate who is annoying? Why are they annoying? How do you/could you deal with their annoying behaviour?
5 Think about a time when you felt disappointed. Tell us about a. the background b. what happened c. how you felt d. how you dealt with your disappointment.
6 What’s your pastime or hobby? How did you become interested in it? Why do you find it so interesting?

18. Swimming surprise! What do you think the text is going to be about?
What’s the surprise, do you think?

19. Picture Dictation: Swimming surprise!
Divide into A and B
B Take up a pen/pencil and paper and look away from the screen. A will describe a picture to you which you will try and draw. Do not look at the screen!
A Describe the picture on the next slide as carefully as possible: start by saying what the picture is about then move on to details.
Now .. B … close your eyes or look away from the screen…

21. Create the comprehension questions
For example …..
Did she survive?
Was she injured?
Did it really happen?
Who took the photo?
Was anybody else there?
????????

22. A model was surprised when she saw a couple waving at her as she went for a dip in the sea – and waved back.
But little did Simone Gutsche know that there was a shark swimming only yards behind her in the water.
Gutsche had been catching the sun at Cocoa Beach in Florida’s Cape Canaveral when she decided to go for a dip in the sea.
  ‘There was nobody in the water, not many people were around. I found the emptiness beautiful’, she said.
And when the couple started waving, Simone certainly wasn’t concerned, telling German media: ‘A couple waved to me. Out of friendliness, I waved back.’
Simone had an instinct that all was not right – and decided to leave the water after struggling to work out why the couple had been screaming at her.
And as she came back to shore, they revealed that the shark had been swimming only 16 feet behind her.
‘I was so terrified I didn’t go back into the sea again for days’, she said.
Tiger sharks are known to lurk at Cape Canaveral, and are considered to be the deadliest species to humans after Great White Sharks.
They are known for visiting shallow waters – heightening their risk to humans.
Alan Marsh adapted 30/12/16
German pleasantly obligingly actually huge
refreshing frantically excitedly luckily eventually killer widely particularly potential

23. A German model was pleasantly surprised when she saw a couple waving at her as she went for a dip in the sea – and obligingly waved back.
But little did Simone Gutsche know that there was actually a huge shark swimming only yards behind her in the water.
Gutsche had been catching the sun at Cocoa Beach in Florida’s Cape Canaveral when she decided to go for a refreshing dip in the sea.
  ‘There was nobody in the water, not many people were around. I found the emptiness beautiful’, she said.
And when the couple started waving frantically, Simone certainly wasn’t concerned, telling German media: ‘A couple waved to me excitedly. Out of friendliness, I waved back.’
Luckily, Simone had an instinct that all was not right – and decided to leave the water after struggling to work out why the couple had been screaming at her.
And as she eventually came back to shore, they revealed that the killer shark had been swimming only 16 feet behind her.
‘I was so terrified I didn’t go back into the sea again for days’, she said.
Tiger sharks are known to lurk at Cape Canaveral, and are widely considered to be the deadliest species to humans after Great White Sharks.
They are known for visiting particularly shallow waters – heightening their potential risk to humans.

24. The book…

25. The Mystery of the Mary Celeste
Mary Celeste was an American merchant brigantine, discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Azores Islands, on December 4, 1872.

26. The text…

27. Some names….
Mary Celeste
Dei Gratia
Benjamin Briggs
Azores

28. 1. Teacher tells lies! Listen and take notes
On 5th September, 1872, Captain Benjamin Briggs and his crew sailed their ship, the Mary Celeste along New York’s West River and out into the Atlantic Ocean. They were heading for Naples, in Italy, and they were carrying a cargo of industrial oil.
On 4th December, the ship was sighted by the captain of another ship, the Dei Gratia, about 100 miles west of the Azores. The captain was puzzled because the ship seemed to be moving strangely so he decided to send a send a large group of soldiers in a boat to investigate. What they found on deck is still a mystery today. The ship was deserted – nobody was on board: the captain, his wife, their ten- year-old daughter and six crew members had all disappeared, along with the two lifeboats.

29. 2. A Maritime Mystery Read the original
On 5th November, 1872, Captain Benjamin Briggs and his crew sailed their ship, the Mary Celeste along New York’s East River and out into the Atlantic Ocean. They were heading for Genoa, in Italy, and they were carrying a cargo of industrial alcohol.
On 4th December, the ship was sighted by the captain of another boat, the Dei Gratia, about 600 miles west of the Azores. The captain was puzzled because the ship seemed to be moving strangely. So he decided to send a small group of sailors in a boat to investigate. What they found on deck is still a mystery today. The ship was deserted – nobody was on board: the captain, his wife, their two-year-old daughter and seven crew members, had all disappeared, along with the only lifeboat.

30. 3 A Maritime Mystery: did you find all the ‘lies’?
On 5th November, 1872, Captain Benjamin Briggs and his crew sailed their ship, the Mary Celeste along New York’s East River and out into the Atlantic Ocean. They were heading for Genoa, in Italy, and they were carrying a cargo of industrial alcohol.
On 4th December, the ship was sighted by the captain of another boat, the Dei Gratia, about 600 miles west of the Azores. The captain was puzzled because the ship seemed to be moving strangely. So he decided to send a small group of sailors in a boat to investigate. What they found on deck is still a mystery today. The ship was deserted – nobody was on board: the captain, his wife, their two-year-old daughter and seven crew members, had all disappeared, along with the only lifeboat.

31. Text extract – original version: speed reading
How many theories?
Which sounds more realistic?

32. There were lots of theories about what actually happened
There were lots of theories about what actually happened. At the time, the government investigator thought that some members of the crew must have got violently drunk on the industrial alcohol, massacred the rest of the crew and the captain’s family and then abandoned the ship on the lifeboat.
Some people thought that the crew of the Dei Gratia might have attacked the ship themselves and then pretended they’d found the ship in order to claim salvage money. Or else, North African pirates could have attacked the ship and killed everybody on board.
And what about aliens – could everybody have been abducted by aliens, perhaps?
Or there may have been a natural disaster, such as a tornado or a seaquake, and the captain might have ordered everybody to abandon ship.
But the most likely explanation is that dangerous, poisonous alcoholic fumes may have escaped from the cargo and the captain thought that an explosion was going to happen. So he ordered everybody into the lifeboat to sail behind the lifeboat until the danger was over. But the rope they attached to the Mary Celeste might have broken and they couldn’t get back on board.
What do you think? Do you have a better idea?

33. Text extract – doctored version
There were lots of theories about what actually happened. At the time, the government investigator thought that some members of the crew had probably got violently drunk on the industrial alcohol, massacred the rest of the crew and the captain’s family and then abandoned the ship on the lifeboat.
Some people thought that the crew of the Dei Gratia perhaps attacked the ship themselves and then pretended they’d found the ship in order to claim salvage money. Or else, North African pirates possibly attacked the ship and killed everybody on board.
And what about aliens – was everybody abducted by aliens, perhaps?
Or perhaps there was a natural disaster, such as a tornado or a seaquake, and maybe the captain ordered everybody to abandon ship.
But the most likely explanation is that dangerous or poisonous alcoholic fumes perhaps escaped from the cargo and the captain thought that an explosion was about to happen. So he ordered everybody into the lifeboat to sail behind the lifeboat until the danger was over. They then possibly attached a rope to the Mary Celeste but it broke and they couldn’t get back on board.
What do you think? Do you have a better idea?

34. There were lots of theories about what actually happened
There were lots of theories about what actually happened. At the time, the government investigator thought that some members of the crew must have got violently drunk on the industrial alcohol, massacred the rest of the crew and the captain’s family and then abandoned the ship on the lifeboat.
Some people thought that the crew of the Dei Gratia might have attacked the ship themselves and then pretended they’d found the ship in order to claim salvage money. Or else, North African pirates could have attacked the ship and killed everybody on board.
And what about aliens – could everybody have been abducted by aliens, perhaps?
Or there may have been a natural disaster, such as a tornado or a seaquake, and the captain might have ordered everybody to abandon ship.
But the most likely explanation is that dangerous, poisonous alcoholic fumes may have escaped from the cargo and the captain thought that an explosion was going to happen. So he ordered everybody into the lifeboat to sail behind the lifeboat until the danger was over. But the rope they attached to the Mary Celeste might have broken and they couldn’t get back on board.
What do you think? Do you have a better idea?

35. It looks like this… The crew must have got … might attacked Pirates
could
There
may
been
Subject
modal
Past participle

36. Likeable lexis (word thief)
Go back to the text and underline any collocations, phrases and expressions that you like.
Try and find at least three.
Share and compare with your partner.

37. Word thief … about what actually happened … got violently drunk
… until the danger was over

38. Tricks with texts: the ‘tricks’
The BEAST
Predict from images and/or words (TAVIE)
Scroll down and predict (TAVIE)
Make mental images (TAVIE)
‘Change!’ (TASP)
Problematisation of language: we / hear / terrify / sound (TALO)

39. Swimming surprise Predict (TAVIE) Picture dictation (TASP)
Elicit questions (TASP/TALO)
Read and find answers (TAVIE)
No gap-fill (TAVIE + TALO)

40. Mary Celeste Previous knowledge? (TAVIE);
Teacher’s a Liar! (TASP: note-taking from Listening)
Read and find the differences (TAVIE)
Predict the theories (TAVIE)
Speed Reading (TAVIE)
Doctored text: ‘noticing’ language (TALO)
Word thief: likeable lexis (TALO)

41. Thank you! alanmarshinmalta@gmail.com +356 99428447
Website for the slides:
Facebook: Alan Marsh and Alan Marsh ELT
A big thank you, too, to: ELT Council, Malta for all the help with this session. Special thanks to: Sue Falzon, Catherine Bugeja and Annabel Cutajar