Teachers' resources
Text inspector
Text inspector
Sometimes you are not really sure if the students will be able to handle a text or not. This means you are not really sure if it might be too easy or too difficult for them. If it is too easy they will be bored, if it is too hard they will get frustrated and think English is too difficult. You won’t have this problem when you only use texts from your student books, but sometimes you want to use a text you found somewhere and build a lesson around it. For this reason text inspector is a great tool.
What is it?
It is a tool that breaks down the level of the words in your text. It shows you the overall level of the text as well as the level of each individual word.
Why use it?
- As I said before to make sure the text is not too easy or to hard.
- Also to check which words the students might find difficult because they are above their level. This should help you select some vocabulary you can pre-teach before your students start reading it.
How does it work?
You copy and paste the text in the box (yes, sorry you can’t take just a text from a book), you need to have a digital text version. You press the button and hey presto it gives you the results.
How have I used it?
- As I said before to check the overall level, if it is not too hard or too easy
- To easily find words I need to pre-teach as they will be too hard for them.
So what’s stopping you? Go to the text inspector and tell us in the comments below which text you checked, which words you pre-taught and how useful the tool was.
Spread the word
Kristof Abrath
Teacher, Trainer, Course Designer
Teaching in English on 4 different continents since 2006.