The Information Gap as a Guide in Designing ESL Teaching

Activities

This information has been abstracted from Teaching Adults: An ESL Resource Book, produced by

New Readers Press, Syracuse, New York.

Information gap activities require students to use their English language skills to share information

in order to complete a taska true communicative task. The students cannot complete the task with the

information they have at the beginning of the activity.

During the activity, the students interact to exchange information for a real purposewhich is

exactly the way people use language in real life. The students are not merely parroting phrases and

sentences that the tutor says, nor are they asking questions to which they already know the answers.

(Maria, ask Wong what his name is and if he is studying English.) Instead, the students are asking

their own questions, giving commands, and giving and receiving information that is new to them.

An information gap activity is always used as a follow-up or practice activity, and should not be

used to introduce new material. Before beginning the activity, be sure that you have already introduced

the vocabulary or grammatical structures that the students will encounter. Try to build some kind of

information gap into every review and reinforcement you do.

The activities below require students to use listening, speaking, reading, and writing to fill

information gaps. Some information gap activities may require only listening and speaking.

The following three ESL activities contain information gaps. Note the sharing of information that is

necessary to complete the tasks.

Information Gap: Supermarket Ad

Purpose

To provide an opportunity for students to practice using vocabulary related to grocery shopping

How

1. Collect supermarket ads that advertise a variety of different food products. You will need two

copies of each ad. (If you dont have a second copy, you can make a photocopy.)