Making

Inferences

Does it make sense to you?

(warm-up task)
He put down $10 at the window.
The woman behind the window gave
$4. The person next to him gave
$3, but he gave it back to her. So,
when they went inside, she bought
him a large bag of popcorn.

Possible
inferences
Man & woman: went on a date to the movie
Ticket: $3 each man paid for both
himself and the woman (total = $6).
Man got the change back ($10-$3-$3=$4)
The woman wanted to give him $3 for the
ticket but he declined.
Therefore, she bought popcorn to call it
even.

What if we dont know how

to make inferences?

Tom: Are you free tonight?

Mary: yes.
Tom: Ive two tickets for the concert.
Mary: I see.
Tom: So
Mary: What?
Tom: Do you like to go with me?
Mary: Oh! Sounds good

Decoding inferences
Are you free tonight= want to ask
her to do something.
Ive two tickets= want to take her
out to the cinema.

Definition

Making inferences
When a reader adds information that
he or she already knows to what is
stated, the reader is making an
inference! Beech (2005)
It is a kind of guess!

In simple words, making

inferences is

Reading between
the lines!

Inside the classroom

How to begin with the students?

1) use an everyday occurrence to
demonstrate the idea of making inferences.
2) use a short piece of text and ask the
students to annotate as many inferences as
they can.
3) can use bumper stickers to write the
internal text that comes from the external
text
4) use the think aloud approach!

Non-fiction text
Text type: News report
(Longman Express 2B)

Activity 2
Inferring the meaning of
unknown words
1st paragraph (example):
A wealthy local businessman was
found dead yesterday at his home
on The Peak. Police believe that
Albert
Sung, a jewellery shop
owner, was murdered.

Activity 2
Inferring the meaning of
unknown words

died because of money?

1st paragraph (example):

A wealthy local businessman was found
dead yesterday at his home on The
Peak. Police believe that Albert
Sung, a jewellery shop
involving police
perhaps he didnt
owner, was murdered.
passive voice!

die naturally

discovered later, rather strange!

Think Aloud Approach!

Umlet me thinkin this paragraph I can see
that the dead man was wealthy, that means he had
a lot of moneybut he died suddenly, and that
attracted the police to comeseems a bit strange,
so I guess he didnt die naturally. At the end I
spot the use of passive voice, that means he didnt
cause the death himself, or die from an illness.
Perhaps... he was killed by someone.

Remember, when using the

think aloud approach

Dont be shy

Guess result
Murdered =
killed by someone!

Useful text types for

teaching inferences

1) editorials (e.g. by comparing the

headlines of 2 newspapers reporting the
same news)
2) documentary (e.g. 60 mins. plus)
looking for the directors point of view
any biases?

Other means of
learning to make
inferences

Using logic problems can

help students develop their
ability to make inferences
New Shoes
One day, two mothers and two daughters
went shopping for shoes. Their shopping
spree was successful each bought a pair
of shoes, and all together, they had three
pairs. How is this possible?

Answer
Only three people went shopping: a
grandmother, a mother, and a
daughter but remember that
the mother was the grandmother's
daughter!

Source: Little Brown, Zoom Zingers, p.49