Information Gap: Writing and Reading

Students perform reading and writing tasks on the topic of Family & Friends. Each task has an element of information gap.

 

These information gap activities focus on particular language skills.

Activity 1: Reading

  1. Students form pairs, and are given reading texts such as Worksheet A, and B respectively.
  2. They ask questions about the missing information, and fill in the blanks.

Worksheet A (Word 227KB)

Worksheet B (Word 375KB)

Activity 2: Writing

  1. Students write an essay on the theme of “Me and my family”, and put their name on it.
  2. The teacher collects the sheets, reads out the essays or redistributes them to different students to read out, and students guess whose essay it is.

Activity 3: Discussion/Problem Solving

  1. Students form two groups. One group is given Sheet C, and the other D.
  2. They read the text and memorize the content, or take notes. The content can also be given aurally.
  3. Students form pairs, one from each group. They exchange their information and discuss the issue to find a solution.

Worksheet C (Word 297KB)

Worksheet D (Word 385KB)

By creating information gap in the input, the discussion will be more complicated, requiring higher language skills, and hence the task will be more meaningful.

The above activities are just examples. You can use the theory to create activities suitable to your classes.

Additional Resources

Article: “Developing Your Own Activities: Information Gap”

Developing Your Own Activities Information Gap (PDF 347KB)

Resource created by Kazuhiro Isomura (August 2004).

Back To Top