Input Flood and Noticing

Students read a text salted with multiple instances of a target structure, then complete a noticing task that makes the form visible — without explicit grammar instruction.

Procedure

1. Prepare or adapt a text that naturally contains 10–15 clear instances of the target structure (e.g. passive voice, present perfect, reported speech). The text must be content-rich and comprehensible — not artificially constructed around the grammar point.
2. Students read for meaning first: a standard gist or comprehension task (2–3 questions about content only).
3. Students read again with a noticing task: "Find and underline every instance of [target pattern]." At lower levels, highlight the first instance as a model.
4. Pairs compare their findings.
5. Class discussion: "What did you notice? Can you spot a pattern — when does the author use this structure?"
6. Students attempt a short piece of writing on a related topic, trying to use the structure naturally.

Tips

• The key distinction from Consciousness-Raising Tasks: students discover the form in real input rather than examining decontextualised example sentences. Meaning is always present.
• Avoid flooding to the point of unnaturalness — a text where every other sentence has the target structure becomes artificially suspicious. Ten well-embedded instances in 300 words is enough.
• Input enhancement (bolding or italicising the target structure) is optional: research is mixed, but for dense texts it prevents students missing instances entirely. Use sparingly.
• The writing task in step 6 provides pushed output that consolidates what noticing alone cannot achieve.