ELT365 · Day 163 — Scanning: Locating Specific Information

Idea — Scanning means moving across a text quickly to locate a specific piece of information, ignoring everything else. It is what we do reading a menu or a train timetable. It needs a clear target before reading.

Example — Learners scan a restaurant menu to find: ‘Which dish contains nuts?’ They shouldn’t read every word — they should hunt for one item.

Try — Give learners a task with a specific target: a name, a number, a date. They have 30 seconds to find it. Debrief: what did you look for? Did you read every word?

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