Authentic texts motivate learners and show real language; they work at any level when the task is graded to the
learners, not the text to the task. scripts/vocab_extract.py shows what to pre-teach, gloss or ignore, and
whether the text can support detail tasks.
Trigger Conditions
Activate this skill when the user:
- Wants a lesson from a real article, video, podcast, song, menu, ad or post
- Asks how to use authentic material with low-level learners
- Needs to choose what vocabulary to pre-teach from a real text
- Asks whether they may copy or share a text, video or song in class
To rewrite a text for a level instead: reading-comprehension-text-adapter. Audio and video tasks: listening-task-builder.
Workflow
1. SELECT -> interest, relevance, exploitability, length, cultural load, sensitivity, rights
2. ANALYSE -> python scripts/vocab_extract.py text.txt --level B1 --task-words ...
3. TASK -> grade the task to the level (references/exploiting-authentic-texts.md)
4. SHAPE -> lead-in -> pre-teach (max 6) -> gist/scan -> detail -> language focus -> response
5. SUPPORT -> gloss on the page; explain cultural references in the lead-in
6. CREDIT -> source, date, licence; cut to the useful part (references/copyright-and-sources.md)If coverage is under about 85%, keep to gist and scanning tasks, cut to a shorter extract, or adapt the text.
Output
| Part | Content |
|---|---|
| Text choice | Why it suits the class; the extract to use; source and licence |
| Vocabulary | Pre-teach items with how to teach them; glosses; words to ignore |
| Background | Names and cultural references with one-line explanations |
| Tasks | Graded gist/scan task, detail task, language focus, response, with answer key |
| Plan | Stage table with timings |
Scripts
python scripts/vocab_extract.py text.txt [--level B1] [--task-words word ...] [--max 6]Ranks less frequent words by repetition, appearance in the title or first sentence, and task relevance; groups word forms. Exit codes: 0 printed, 2 read error or empty text.
Additional Resources
| File | Content |
|---|---|
| exploiting-authentic-texts.md | Grade the task not the text, selection criteria, task ideas for ten material types, lesson shape, building tolerance of not understanding |
| copyright-and-sources.md | Teaching exceptions in the UK, US, EU, Canada and Australia; Creative Commons; safer sources; attribution; practical rules |
| high-frequency-words.txt | About 1,000 high-frequency English base forms used by vocab_extract.py |
academic-english-eap-course-planner
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adult-literacy-esl-lesson-builder
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