Great Expectations: An Abridged Text

Subject: English as an Additional Language
Level: Secondary
Age Group: 14 - 16
Order Number: 5261

A resource for EAL and SEN students.

Classic texts can be very difficult to understand for students not fully conversant with the English language, or with special learning needs. However, the difficulty of the language can be addressed by an abridged version that seeks to communicate the essential meanings, themes and symbolism of the texts in more accessible terms. Moreover, characterisations can be clarified and illuminated so that students can more easily relate to and empathise with what motivates characters’ actions.

This text has been developed to offer students of Dickens a means of understanding a complex story play with mature themes of love, identity, expectations and class.

Accompanying the text are exercises written to work alongside each group of chapters that encourage students to recognise the personality traits of the main characters and to try to understand why they act as they do. There are also sets of quotations taken from the text that can be used by teachers with students to recall key moments in the story. Towards the end of the publication teachers will find a section on themes with examples of how the themes are interwoven into the story.

This abridged version of Great Expectations is designed to be used by students in Year 9 and above.

Once purchased, the CD can be freely copied and networked throughout the school.