Teacher tools - Information gap generator

A simple gapfill program which turns a text into an information gap quiz for pairs of students to ask each other alternating questions.

It can also be used for indirect questions - 'Do you know ...', 'Can you tell me ...'

• There is an option for students to write in their questions first
• There is a further option to give students hints, for example the first word
• It can be printed with both students' parts on one page, or separate pages for each student.
• Includes a teacher copy with both sets of questions

Finding texts

As well as Wikipedia you can get info at these sites. Mini biographies or profiles make good texts for asking questions.

• Short-biographies.com - hundreds of biographies of all sorts
• Sean Banville's various sites - Sean has several sites with suitable short texts and exercises, often with accompanying mp3. You could perhaps combine an info-gap exercise with one or two of his.
  - Breaking News English
  - News English lessons
  - Famous people - with mp3s
  - Company profiles just the right length, with mp3s
  - Holiday facts
• BBC Words in the News - often with mp3s
• Infoplease complete information site
  - Biographies
  - People in the news
  - Encyclopaedia
• How stuff works
• Atlapedia includes country information and histories

Credit where credit's due

The example text is adapted from one at Short Biographies.com, available under a GNU Free documentation licence. The article is based on material at Wikipedia. The photo is by Arnold Wells, and is a Wikipedia media file.

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Make gaps - Gap suitable words /phrases with square brackets.

An even number of gaps will give each student the same number of questions. The worksheet will divide the text into two halves and alternate the questions.

Optionally add clues - You can add clues, for example the first word of a question. In the gap add a backslash followed by the hint word

Font: Arial Times Verdana Comic Georgia Line height 1 1.5 2 2.5 Border

Gap length: Short Medium Long Questions: Show Don't show

You can adjust the length of the gap dots. If students fill in the answers below, you only need short gaps. But if they are to fill the gaps themselves, you'll want longer ones.

First the exercise

Then open in a new tab

Opening the exercise in a new tab (or window in IE) makes it easier to print, save or copy and paste into a Word document or similar.

Student A's questions will appear here

Student B's questions will appear here

The Teacher version will appear here