, PLEASE USE THIS DOCUMENT AS A GUIDE TO ANSWER YOUR ASSIGNMENT
TMN3702 ASSIGNMENT 3 2026
MEMO
DUE DATE: 31 JULY 2026
QUESTION 1
1.1 Explain the difference between skimming and scanning as reading strategies. (2)
Skimming and scanning constitute two complementary yet functionally distinct rapid-reading
strategies. Skimming entails a swift, selective overview of a text in order to ascertain its general
thrust, organisational structure, or predominant tone, without engaging with every individual
detail. As Grellet (1981) elucidates, the reader’s purpose when skimming is to extract the gist
and to form a provisional mental map of the material. Scanning, by contrast, is a highly focused
search procedure whereby the reader systematically hunts for discrete items of information—
specific words, phrases, names, or facts—while deliberately disregarding extraneous content.
Nuttall (1996) characterises scanning as the rapid movement of the eyes across a text until the
targeted datum is isolated. The fundamental distinction, therefore, resides in cognitive intent:
skimming pursues global comprehension, whereas scanning pursues precision retrieval.
1.2 Design two activities (a skimming and a scanning activity) to teach the poem above.
Justify the appropriateness of each activity. (6)
For the skimming activity, learners are allocated approximately forty-five seconds to examine
solely the title “THE LITTLE TURTLE”, the accompanying illustrations, and the opening line
of each stanza. Thereafter they formulate and articulate to a partner a single, coherent sentence
encapsulating the poem’s central premise. This task is pedagogically appropriate because the
poem’s prominent visual scaffolding and formulaic stanzaic structure render its overarching
theme readily accessible. In accordance with Grellet’s (1981) principles, the judicious
exploitation of paratextual features enables learners to construct an anticipatory schema, thereby
enhancing readiness and self-efficacy prior to intensive engagement with the English text—
particularly advantageous within a multilingual Intermediate Phase cohort.
The scanning activity requires learners to work from a concise checklist of discrete targets:
locating the lexical item that rhymes with “box”, identifying and colour-coding every verb
denoting the turtle’s oral actions, and isolating the line that records the creature’s sole failure.
Learners compete quietly to mark these elements accurately. The activity is well-matched to the
text because the poem’s concrete nouns and recursive action verbs facilitate efficient visual
search. As Nuttall (1996) contends, systematically trained scanning cultivates purposeful
attention to detail and sharpens learners’ capacity to extract precise information without
TMN3702 ASSIGNMENT 3 2026
MEMO
DUE DATE: 31 JULY 2026
QUESTION 1
1.1 Explain the difference between skimming and scanning as reading strategies. (2)
Skimming and scanning constitute two complementary yet functionally distinct rapid-reading
strategies. Skimming entails a swift, selective overview of a text in order to ascertain its general
thrust, organisational structure, or predominant tone, without engaging with every individual
detail. As Grellet (1981) elucidates, the reader’s purpose when skimming is to extract the gist
and to form a provisional mental map of the material. Scanning, by contrast, is a highly focused
search procedure whereby the reader systematically hunts for discrete items of information—
specific words, phrases, names, or facts—while deliberately disregarding extraneous content.
Nuttall (1996) characterises scanning as the rapid movement of the eyes across a text until the
targeted datum is isolated. The fundamental distinction, therefore, resides in cognitive intent:
skimming pursues global comprehension, whereas scanning pursues precision retrieval.
1.2 Design two activities (a skimming and a scanning activity) to teach the poem above.
Justify the appropriateness of each activity. (6)
For the skimming activity, learners are allocated approximately forty-five seconds to examine
solely the title “THE LITTLE TURTLE”, the accompanying illustrations, and the opening line
of each stanza. Thereafter they formulate and articulate to a partner a single, coherent sentence
encapsulating the poem’s central premise. This task is pedagogically appropriate because the
poem’s prominent visual scaffolding and formulaic stanzaic structure render its overarching
theme readily accessible. In accordance with Grellet’s (1981) principles, the judicious
exploitation of paratextual features enables learners to construct an anticipatory schema, thereby
enhancing readiness and self-efficacy prior to intensive engagement with the English text—
particularly advantageous within a multilingual Intermediate Phase cohort.
The scanning activity requires learners to work from a concise checklist of discrete targets:
locating the lexical item that rhymes with “box”, identifying and colour-coding every verb
denoting the turtle’s oral actions, and isolating the line that records the creature’s sole failure.
Learners compete quietly to mark these elements accurately. The activity is well-matched to the
text because the poem’s concrete nouns and recursive action verbs facilitate efficient visual
search. As Nuttall (1996) contends, systematically trained scanning cultivates purposeful
attention to detail and sharpens learners’ capacity to extract precise information without
