Anaphoric reference

Anaphoric reference means that a word in a text refers back to other ideas in the text for its meaning. It can be compared with
cataphoric reference, which means a word refers to ideas later in the text.

Example
I went out with Jo on Sunday. She looked awful.' She` clearly refers to Jo, there is no need to repeat her name.

In the classroom
Asking learners to identify what or who the pronouns in a text refer to is one way to raise awareness. They can then practise this by
using pronouns to replace words themselves. Comparing texts with well managed referencing to ones with poorly managed
referencing can help students develop an idea of effective referencing even at low levels.

Cataphoric reference
Cataphoric reference means that a word in a text refers to another later in the text and you need to look forward to understand. It
can be compared with anaphoric reference, which means a word refers back to another word for its meaning.

Example
'When he arrived, John noticed that the door was open'.

In the classroom
Matching parts of sentences can help learners understand how cataphoric reference works, for example:
a) As she entered the building 1) Jim fell over
b) When he was running upstairs 2) the woman saw a huge crowd

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/anaphoric-reference
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/cataphoric-reference