The following assumes that the teacher is working with the whole class on a single text, as this is the nature of most text-based work in modern languages. Lessons based on individual reading involve quite different preparation and change substantially the teacher's role. (Those interested in developing individual reading lessons or schemes are referred to Nuttall, 1996: 161-64.) That is not to suggest that a 'lock-step' approach, in which the whole group is engaged in the same activity and moves at the same pace, is inevitable; indeed much of the work we shall be looking at is best conducted by breaking the class up into sub-groups.