An escaped leopard Objectives: 1 to increase reading speed and develop scanning ability 2 to sensitize students to text structure 3 to develop

strategies for dealing with unknown vocabulary 4 to practice writing simple narrative 5 to practice interactive work. The task is to use the text and exercises to work towards the above objectives. PRE-READING 'What do learners already know about this topic?' Probably, they know something about wild animals and where they occur. They would almost certainly have some ideas as to what would happen if a leopard were to escape in England. 'Why would anyone want to read this text? A difficult question to answer, as this is a 'language practice' comprehension text with no obvious real-life counterpart. In some respects it resembles a newspaper article (and this similarity will be used), but it lacks the typographical features (e.g. a headline) and does not give details of names and places as an authentic newspaper article would. To begin the pre-reading the teacher might write on the board An Escaped _______, and ask the class to make suggestions about filling the blank. Visuals of animals and zoos would be useful to begin this phase. Next ask the class to write notes suggesting what would happen if a leopard escaped from a zoo in England. If necessary, they might be helped by the teacher providing questions as a guide, e.g. 'Where would it go? Who would see it? What would it eat? What would people do? Individuals could then compare their ideas in pair or group work, and the teacher could follow this by asking a sample of learners around the class to give their views.

The pre-reading has now introduced the topic, possibly generated some vocabulary from the text, and prepared learners for the way the topic will be handled in the text. WHILE-READING A possible procedure here is for the teacher to write on the board the following: O (writer's opinion), I (general information on leopards), A (action and advice), P (person who saw the leopard). Now ask the class to turn to the text and read it as quickly as possible, labeling the paragraphs O, I, A, or P as appropriate. Of course some learners will finish before others. They could be asked to read the text again more carefully and give short written answers to Exercise 1. This is obviously a 'language practice' rather than a 'reading skills' exercise. Answers to it can be checked fairly rapidly on a whole-class basis, with a sample of the class giving oral answers. Exercise 2 (grammar) can at this point be omitted. It is pure structural practice which, can be done without reading the text. It is intrusive at this stage, though if the teacher feels it is useful, it can be done as a grammar practice exercise for homework. As one of the objectives is to help the learner to deal with unknown vocabulary, a slight variation on Exercise 3 may be used. Instead of focusing on the vocabulary item the focus could be switched to context, by asking the learners what other word(s) could fit the gap, e.g. 'people living in a small village north of London were - by claims that a leopard had been seen in the area.' Global understanding of the situation, as well as the immediate content, should help learners to come up with words that fit, e.g. 'frightened'. This can be done as written or oral work. Of course, the, vocabulary used in Exercise 3 may not, in fact, be that which causes difficulty to the learner. To supplement exercise 3, or even replace it, learners could be asked to underline the words and phrases they are unsure of, and try to write down a new word that they think fits the context. During this time the teacher can circulate and help learners individually. Finally, ask the learners where they might expect to read a text such as this. Normally this question, which is to do with text type and function, would be given at the beginning of the while-reading phase, but as this text has few of the features of a newspaper report, the question is best left until the learners have had a chance to look more carefully at it. Exercise 1: Comprehension.

1 2 3 4

What sport of claims alarmed people living in the village? What was the farmers wife doing when she saw it? Where was it? etc.

Exercise 2: Grammar. It was not caught (line 20). The writer says it was not caught instead of no one caught it. Change the following in the same way: 1 2 3 The football team lost two games last season. Lightning struck the old oak tree. etc.

Exercise 3: Vocabulary. Give the meaning of the following as they are used in the text: 1 2 3 alarmed (line 4) stared (line 8) etc.

Exercise 4: Vocabulary Find a word or phrase in the text with the same meaning as the following: 1 2 3 immediately bringing together etc.

An escaped Leopard Leopards are large, spotted members of the cat family and are found in many places in Africa and Asia. They are not normally found in the wild in Britain, however, people living in a small village north of London were alarmed by claims that a leopard had been seen in the area. A farmers wife saw the leopard, while she was feeding her chickens. I saw something moving in the wood, she said, At first I thought it was a dog, then it ran across the field towards me and I recognized it straightaway, when it saw me, it stopped and stared for a few seconds, then turned around and ran back into the wood. She later telephoned the local police station, bringing up to six the number of reported sightings. A police inspector there, coordinating the reports, admitted that he did not have much experience with wild animals. An expert working with police said that paw prints confirmed that the animal really was a leopard. He advised people to keep their pets indoors at night, but added that a leopard would not normally attack a human being unless it was cornered. He believed that this leopard had probably escaped from a nearby safari park zoo. Lord Cleshins, the owner of the park, said that they had nineteen leopards in their collection, and that a check was being carried out. The hunt for the leopard went on for many weeks, but it was not caught. It is worrying to think that a wiled animal is roaming about freely in the countryside. POST -READING The most natural post-reading activity would be to ask students to complete the story (in real-life, subsequent newspaper reports would certainly follow up the story). One might suggest the following instructions: 'Imagine the leopard was caught alive. Give an account of what happened, giving diagrams and maps if you want to.' This could be done as homework in place of Exercise 4. The suggestions made could of course be compared and criticized.