IN THE CLASSROOM

The amazing
gapfill
Margaret Horrigan
sings the praises of an
enduring activity.

his article has been brewing

for a long while. In the many
times Ive sat down with
colleagues or trainees for the
planning of something or other, I have
always returned to the gapfill at some
stage of the planning session. When
asked recently to contribute a comment
about when I first started out teaching, I
mentioned the gapfill once again. So,
here it is my take on the amazing
gapfill and why it has endured the test of
time.

Why gapfills?
To be honest, there are as many answers
to this question as there are lesson stages
and gapfill types. Whether you are testing
or revising, practising or presenting a
specific lexical set or grammar item or
just randomly gapping a text for every
nth word the purpose of the gapfill
clearly changes.
Lets say, for example, you taught
past simple irregular verbs in the
previous lesson and you need a quick
revision task. A quick gapping of
irregular past tense verbs in a previouslycovered reading text might serve as a
useful revision or consolidation task,
maybe at the start of the lesson.
If you intend to teach discourse
linkers, you could devise a gapfill to test
the learners knowledge of these and
this could be used in both test stages of
a TestTeachTest lesson.
In reality, then, the rationales for
using gapfills in the language classroom
are so many that this short text cant do
them justice, and that is the best
rationale of all for using gapfills and the

rationale behind this very article. Let me

point out that up to now I have been
referring to a basic open cloze gapfill,
such as the one below, but this will soon
change.
This article has been (1) _______ for a
long while. (2) _______ the many times
Ive (3) _______ down with colleagues
for (4) _______ planning of something
or (5) _______, I have always returned
(6) _______ the (7) _______ gapfill at
some (8) _______ of the planning
session. (9) _______ asked recently to
contribute (10) _______ comment about
when I (11) _______ started out
teaching, I (12) _______ the gapfill once
again. (13) _______, here it is ... my take
on the (14) _______ gapfill!

What to gap?
The easiest gapfill to create is a random
open cloze one like the example above.
Which words you gap is up to you, and
is dictated by the aim that the task is
attempting to achieve. However, you do
need to start out with a clear rationale
of what you are gapping and why. The
above example mostly has random gaps
of every fifth word, so it is testing
general language knowledge. Most
randomly-gapped texts are in fact tests.
On a task design note, however, just
imagine for a second that I did not

www.etprofessional.com ENGLISH TEACHING professional Issue 92 May 2014

The amazing
gapfill
indicate where the actual gaps were in
the above example but, instead, removed
the lines and numbers and presented it
like this:
This article has been for a long while.
the many times Ive down with
colleagues for planning of something
or, I have always returned the gapfill at
some of the planning session. asked
recently to contribute comment about
when I started out teaching, I the
gapfill once again., here it is ... my take
on the gapfill!

It is the same text, but with a

different task. Obviously, this one is far
more challenging than the first one
which is a perfect example of the old
saying that it is not the text, but the
task, which creates the level of difficulty
for the learners. Although there are a
number of cases where that saying
doesnt hold true, it is certainly a good
starting point for all teachers when
planning tasks around texts and worth
restating here for that reason and in
relation to the gapfill, where the task is
100 per cent linked to the level of
challenge.

How to gap?
So far, weve considered open cloze tests,
but these represent only one type of
gapfill. The moment we introduce the
actual gapped words to the task, we
have lowered the level of challenge
again. Cloze tests where the missing
words are given are found in many
formal testing tools, ranging from the
Cambridge exams to TOEFL. Such tests
probably gave me my first real awareness
of how valuable gapfills can be in
language teaching. What took me a
while to appreciate fully, however, was
the importance of how these words
appear around the gapfill. Huge
differences in the level of challenge can
be caused by the actual formatting of
the gapfill. Consider for a moment
something as basic as the type opposite:

It probably wont take you long to

realise that the task is completely
redundant, as it involves writing the
words in the gaps in the order in which
they appear on the right. So, number 1
is brewing, number 2 In, number 3 sat,
etc. The problem here is obviously that
the words need to be jumbled up ... or
do they?
What about presenting the words,
still in their exact chronological order,
but coded in some way? You can code
these words by using a symbol font like
Wingdings or by shuffling the letters
about so that the learners have to
produce the correct spelling. You could
also present the words in phonemic
script or use numbers for letters. For
teachers in a last minute rush, the
Windings font is the way to go.
Clearly, here the purpose of each
task is different and for the most part
consists of exposure to spelling of some
sort or recognition of phonemic words
an excellent skill for learners to have.
So, even putting the words in
chronological order has value. What
about putting them out of order?

other languages so that the learners are

potentially duped into negative L1
transfers if they try to guess the answer.
However, this is not the only way to do it.

What if?
Here the fun begins in earnest. We are
probably all familiar with the multiplechoice type cloze test where the learners
have to choose from four options for
each gap. This is actually quite a difficult
type of gapfill to create. The distractors
are generally based on knowledge of

What if we took out the capital letters

in the word list? This would obviously
be more challenging than leaving
them as capitals the learners
wouldnt see immediately which words
go at the start of sentences. We could
remove any double entries, like
amazing in the example above again
making it much more difficult.
What if we provided the first or last
letter of each gap to make it easier?
We could also add a red herring to
avoid a domino effect if a learner
makes an error. Without a red
herring, if there are 13 gaps and 13
different words and a learner gets one
of these wrong, they are automatically
pushed into getting two wrong.
What if we decided to provide a list of
synonyms or antonyms of the gapped
words? Again, there is a clear
difference in the level of challenge
between an ordered list of synonyms
or antonyms and a jumbled list. And
obviously, an ordered list of synonyms
is more challenging than an ordered
list of misspelled words.
What if we provided definitions of the
words? Lots more reading would be
involved and this would probably be
much more challenging than a list of

This article has been (1) __________________ for

brewing

a long while. (2) __________________ the many

In

times Ive (3) __________________ down with

sat

colleagues for (4) __________________ planning

the

of something or (5) __________________, I have

other

always returned (6) __________________ the

to

(7) __________________ gapfill at some

amazing

(8) __________________ of the planning session.

stage

(9) __________________ asked recently to

When

contribute (10) __________________ comment

about when I (11) __________________ started out

first

teaching, I (12) __________________ the gapfill

mentioned

once again. (13) __________________, here it is ...

So

my take on the (14) __________________ gapfill!

amazing

10 Issue 92 May 2014 ENGLISH TEACHING professional www.etprofessional.com

3
KEY
1 / bru* /
2 / n /
3 / st /

Gapfills

How do you use them in class?

What do you (dis)like about them?

This article has been (1) ________________ for a long while.

(2) ________________ the many times Ive (3) ________________

first

down with colleagues for (4) ________________ planning of

in
something or (5) ________________, I have always returned

stage

4 hte

(6) ________________ the (7) ________________ gapfill at some

when

5 reoth

(8) ________________ of the planning session. (9) ________________

6 / tu* /

mentioned

asked recently to contribute (10) ________________ comment

7 incredible
8 tasge

sat
about when I (11) ________________ started out teaching, I

brewing

9 hnew

(12) ________________ the gapfill once again. (13) ________________,

to

10 / e /

here it is ... my take on the (14) ________________ gapfill!

amazing

11 rsift

so

12 said

the

13 Therefore

other

14 incredible

2
1 Not the last

8 To leave something, usually a liquid, to develop for a long time

2 The opposite of out

9 The opposite of from

3 A component of a lesson procedure

10 A synonym for incredible

4 The question word we use to ask about dates

11 A very informal therefore

5 The indefinite article

12 The definite article

6 The past of to mention

13 To refer to something or someone briefly

7 The opposite of stood

jumbled words. Again, the list of

definitions could be presented in order
or jumbled, and this would greatly
affect the level of difficulty.

variable in the creation of gapfills. Look

back at the example gapfills in this
article and consider the section with the
list of words.

What if instead of using words, you

used pictures? This is great for
younger learners. For particular gaps,
you could even consider using sounds;
these could be embedded into the gaps
for learners working on computers.

You could fold this back so that only

the gapfill can be seen, and instruct
the learners to unfold it only in order
to check their work or reduce the level
of difficulty.

How to present it?

However, lets move beyond the actual
gaps and consider what our handout or
material could look like this is also a

You could alter the position of the list

and have it on the left or the right, at
the top or bottom or on the reverse
side of the gapfill. Alternatively, you
could not have the list of words on the
handout at all, and get someone to

dictate it to the class instead. You

could do this yourself, or get the
learners to mill around the room
spelling individual words to each
other.
You could divide the list into two or
three, giving different words to
different learners, and then get them
to define and guess the words in pairs
or threes.
You could display the words on the
walls, on an interactive whiteboard or
overhead projector, perhaps in
phonemic script. Any number of
options are clearly possible.

www.etprofessional.com ENGLISH TEACHING professional Issue 92 May 2014

11

The amazing
gapfill
If you start out with the list of words,
you could get the learners to predict
the content of the text based solely on
this list. Obviously, the success of this
will depend on the words you have
gapped a list of prepositions is not
indicative of likely content, whereas a
list of nouns is far more revealing. But
why not have a couple of schemataactivating questions at the top of the
handout as in the example on page 11?
There are four possible positions for
the actual gapped words, with the text
in the centre. These are numbered on
the example: 1 top, 2 bottom, 3 left and
4 right. (Note: in the example, position
1 has questions rather than the gapped
words.) We could, therefore, be very
ecological indeed and have a number
of tasks on one sheet. The handout
might look something like the
example shown when it is unfolded.
As follow-up tasks, the list of words
(shown in position 4) could later be
matched to definitions (position 2) or
pictures or phonemic script.
I wont go into the origami of how to fold

this: Ill leave you to experiment. I would,

however, like to point out that the various
tasks can be cut out and delivered to
learners as needed during a lesson. The
key in this particular example becomes a
task, and gives me an opportunity to point
out that different gapfills can, of course,
be designed for individual paragraphs or
single sections of texts so that there is a
gradual increase of challenge level.
Be realistic, though dont expect
your learners to cheer when they see a
multitude of different types of gapfills
stretched over three pages. However, if
you are working from a single gapfill
type on one sheet of paper, as I have
been doing in the examples here, you
should always start from the most
challenging task when asking your
learners to complete texts, and design
your handouts accordingly, as it is
impossible to increase the challenge level
once youve started off very low.

The learners
Your learners are the most important
variable in the language classroom, so
when designing gapfills, it is fundamental
to consider your audience. Whatever type
you use, keep content, task and cultural
appropriacy in mind. A text about
learning the guitar might be interesting
for some but not for others worse still,
a text about a Hollywood starlets antics

may not go down well in a business

environment. Cute pictures indicating
gapped words will certainly work with
children, but not with legal English
students. The more you know about your
classes, the more you can meet their
needs and interests in the your lessons.

On a final note, dont be afraid to

experiment, but dont have a gapfill in
every single lesson either every
second one perhaps!
Derwing, T and Munro, M Second
language accent and pronunciation
teaching: a research-based approach
TESOL Quarterly 39 2005
Kenworthy, J Teaching English
Pronunciation Longman 1987
Walker, R International intelligibility
English Teaching Professional 21 2001
Margaret Horrigan is a
DELTA, CELTA and
CELTYL trainer and
assessor, and a teacher
of EAP courses at the
LUISS University in
Rome, Italy. She holds an
MA in applied linguistics
and is currently the head
of teacher training at
International House
Rome.
hollymarg@gmail.com

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