Notices: same word, wrong meaning
A teacher runs a 20-minute Reading Part 1 clinic with 12 learners. They complete six A2 Key for Schools notices. Tomas scores 4/6. His two errors share a pattern: in the library notice-'The library is closed on Tuesday morning for a computer upgrade. It opens again at 2 p.m.'-he chooses 'The library is closed all day on Tuesday.' In the sports hall notice-'No food or drink in the sports hall'-he chooses 'You can buy food in the sports hall.' When asked, Tomas says, 'I looked for the words I knew.' He can translate most vocabulary in the notices, and his listening scores are strong. The teacher has 30 minutes before the next class and wants a targeted intervention, not a full reading course. The department also wants to know whether this is a vocabulary problem or a strategy problem.
1. Diagnose Tomas’s errors. What is the evidence that this is a strategy issue rather than a vocabulary gap, and what exactly is he doing wrong?
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The evidence points to strategy, not vocabulary. Tomas can translate most of the notice vocabulary, and his listening is strong, so he is not blocked by words such as 'closed', 'food' or 'library'. His wrong choices recycle a word from the notice but change the meaning: 'closed on Tuesday morning' becomes 'closed all day', and 'No food or drink' becomes 'You can buy food'. He is matching surface words instead of checking the notice’s purpose and scope.
What he is doing wrong is ignoring qualifiers ('morning', 'all day'), function words ('No' vs 'can'), and the difference between a rule and a permission. Part 1 tests whether the option means the same as the notice, not whether it contains the same noun or verb.
2. Design a 20-minute follow-up for Tomas and two classmates with the same pattern. Include one concrete example and the questions you would model.
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Use three notices and make the thinking visible. Example: 'Children under 8 must come with an adult.' Options: A All children must come with an adult. B Children aged 7 cannot come alone. C Adults cannot use the pool. The correct answer is B, because 'under 8' includes 7 and 'must come with an adult' means they cannot come alone.
Model these questions: 'Who is the notice for?', 'What exactly is allowed or not allowed?', 'Which word in the option changes the meaning?', and 'Which words in the notice prove this option is right or wrong?' Then learners underline evidence for each option and write one trap option of their own. The aim is to slow down the word-match reflex, not to teach new vocabulary.
3. What should the teacher say to the class about choosing answers in Part 1, without giving the generic instruction 'read carefully'?
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Give a short procedure rather than a warning. Say: first read the notice once and decide its job-is it a rule, a time change, a warning or an invitation? Second, find the exact limit: who, when, what, and is it 'all', 'some', 'only' or 'not'? Third, test each option against those limits, not against one shared word. If an option contains a word from the notice but adds 'all day', 'only' or 'can', check that word against the notice.
This is concrete enough for A2 learners to apply. It also explains why Tomas’s choices were tempting: they looked familiar. The teacher can keep the procedure on the board for the next three reading tasks and ask learners to name the trap word each time.