How to correct the students` mistakes

 Let the students make mistakes. They need to. We all learn best through making mistakes. 

Trial and error is the name of the game .

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Let the students make mistakes. They need to. We all learn best through making mistakes. 

Trial and error is the name of the game .

1. 

Give the students time to realise they've made a mistake and try to correct it themselves. If 

they can't, maybe someone else can help them. If nobody can help then you can either step 

in and give the correct form or make a note of it for later. 

2 .

As far as possible, correct mistakes anonymously. Do this by making notes of students' 

mistakes as you monitor (see TT10 for further explanation) then putting them on the board 

later and give the students themselves the opportunity to correct them, in pairs or small 

groups. If no one knows the right answer, give it to them, but only as a last resort. 

Anonymous error correction is a kind way to deal with mistakes. It isn't important who 

made the mistake originally -the point is, can the students all correct it? 

3 .

Extra Info: 

Mistakes are good things and students need to know that they are. I explain like this: "Please make 

lots and lots of mistakes in my lessons - new mistakes, mind you, not the same old ones over and 

over. I like mistakes because we can all learn from them and because if you don't make any I won't 

have a job”. If I find a student who doesn't make any mistakes in my lesson I will move that student 

to a higher level class because she/he obviously isn't learning anything at this level 

Learning English is like learning to ride a bike - you fall off a lot, but you get the hang of it in the 

end. You will make a lot of mistakes but you will be able to communicate effectively in the end. 

Very few people become successful international cyclists and the chances are that even though you 

can ride a bike you are not a professional cyclist. Very few students reach mother-tongue 

(supposedly error-free) level but many students learn to communicate very well in English in spite 

of this. You will probably never have error-free English so accept that you will always make some 

mistakes -just try to learn from them and learn to live with your linguistic imperfections. 

When a student makes a mistake it is usually counter-productive to say "No!"/"That's wrong!"/"Are 

you serious?"/"How long did you say you've been studying English?" etc. It's often kinder to say 

"Not bad"/"Nearly"/"Good try"/"That's an interesting mistake" etc .

Some say that you shouldn't laugh at students' mistakes but I often do. They're often very funny so 

why shouldn't I? I find it breaks the "mistakes taboo" and makes linguistic risks and disasters an 

acceptable part of the classroom culture. Students catch on very quickly and we have a good giggle 

together when someone messes up. 

The ability to correct themselves when they make a mistake is an important one for students to 

develop. Encourage it and give them time to correct themselves - don't jump in immediately to 

correct them, keen though you are to prove that you are doing your job. Most students (and indeed 

some teachers) seem to think that it is the teacher's job to correct students mistakes but this is not 

necessarily so. Yes, teachers can correct their students endlessly but how will that help the students' 

when they go out into the big wide world - who will be there to correct them then?  

It's much better for the students if they get into the habit of listening to themselves when they are 

speaking and correct themselves as they go along. Obviously they won't be able to correct all the 

mistakes they make but they will be able to correct a lot of them .

(Present Practice Produce (PPP) and Task-based approach(TBL

 A PPP  and TBL are two approaches for learning.

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 A PPP lesson would proceed in the following manner.

·         First, the teacher presents an item of language in a clear context to get across its meaning. This could be done in a variety of ways: through a text, a situation build, a dialogue etc.

·         Students are then asked to complete a controlled practice stage, where they may have to repeat target items through choral and individual drilling, fill gaps or match halves of sentences. All of this practice demands that the student uses the language correctly and helps them to become more comfortable with it.

·         Finally, they move on to the production stage, sometimes called the 'free practice' stage. Students are given a communication task such as a role play and are expected to produce the target language and use any other language that has already been learnt and is suitable for completing it.

The problems with PPP

It all sounds quite logical but teachers who use this method will soon identify problems with it:

·         Students can give the impression that they are comfortable with the new language as they are producing it accurately in the class. Often though a few lessons later, students will either not be able to produce the language correctly or even won't produce it at all.

·         Students will often produce the language but overuse the target structure so that it sounds completely unnatural.

·         Students may not produce the target language during the free practice stage because they find they are able to use existing language resources to complete the task.

A Task-based approach(TBL)

Task -based learning offers an alternative for language teachers. In a task-based lesson the teacher doesn't pre-determine what language will be studied, the lesson is based around the completion of a central task and the language studied is determined by what happens as the students complete it. The lesson follows certain stages.

Pre-task

The teacher introduces the topic and gives the students clear instructions on what they will have to do at the task stage and might help the students to recall some language that may be useful for the task. The pre-task stage can also often include playing a recording of people doing the task. This gives the students a clear model of what will be expected of them. The students can take notes and spend time preparing for the task.

Task

The students complete a task in pairs or groups using the language resources that they have as the teacher monitors and offers encouragement.

Planning

Students prepare a short oral or written report to tell the class what happened during their task. They then practise what they are going to say in their groups. Meanwhile the teacher is available for the students to ask for advice to clear up any language questions they may have.

Report 

Students then report back to the class orally or read the written report. The teacher chooses the order of when students will present their reports and may give the students some quick feedback on the content. At this stage the teacher may also play a recording of others doing the same task for the students to compare. 

Analysis

The teacher then highlights relevant parts from the text of the recording for the students to analyse. They may ask students to notice interesting features within this text. The teacher can also highlight the language that the students used during the report phase for analysis.

Practice

Finally, the teacher selects language areas to practise based upon the needs of the students and what emerged from the task and report phases. The students then do practice activities to increase their confidence and make a note of useful language.

The advantages of TBL

Task-based learning has some clear advantages

·         Unlike a PPP approach, the students are free of language control. In all three stages they must use all their language resources rather than just practising one pre-selected item.

·         A natural context is developed from the students' experiences with the language that is personalised and relevant to them. With PPP it is necessary to create contexts in which to present the language and sometimes they can be very unnatural.

·         The students will have a much more varied exposure to language with TBL. They will be exposed to a whole range of lexical phrases, collocations and patterns as well as language forms.

·         The language explored arises from the students' needs. This need dictates what will be covered in the lesson rather than a decision made by the teacher or the coursebook.

·         It is a strong communicative approach where students spend a lot of time communicating. PPP lessons seem very teacher-centred by comparison. Just watch how much time the students spend communicating during a task-based lesson.

·         It is enjoyable and motivating.

Conclusion

PPP offers a very simplified approach to language learning. It is based upon the idea that you can present language in neat little blocks, adding from one lesson to the next. However, research shows us that we cannot predict or guarantee what the students will learn and that ultimately a wide exposure to language is the best way of ensuring that students will acquire it effectively. Restricting their experience to single pieces of target language is unnatural.

For more information see 'A Framework for Task-Based Learning' by Jane Wills, Longman; 'Doing Task-Based Teaching' by Dave and Jane Willis, OUP 2007. 

Also see www.willis-elt.co.uk

Richard Frost, British Council, Turkey

Mitigators and Intensifiers

 Mitigators are the opposite of intensifiers. To make an  adjective less strong use mitigators and more strong use intensifiers 

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 Mitigators are the opposite of intensifiers. When we want to make an adjective less strong we use these words:

fairly - rather - quite

By the end of the day we were rather tired.

The film wasn’t great but it was quite exciting.

and in informal English: pretty

We had a pretty good time at the party.

We call these words mitigators.

Warning
quite
When we use quite with a strong adjective it means the same as absolutely: The food was quite awful. = The food was absolutely awful. As a child he was quite brilliant. = As a child he was absolutely brilliant.

Mitigators with comparatives:

We use these words and phrases as mitigators:

a bit - just a bit - a little - a little bit - just a little bit - rather - slightly

She’s a bit younger than I am.

It takes two hours on the train but it is a little bit longer by road

This one is rather bigger.

We use slightly and rather as mitigators with comparative adjectives in front of a noun:

This is a slightly more expensive model than that.

This is rather bigger one than that.

Adjectives as intensifiers:

We use some adjectives as intensifiers:

absolute

total  - complete

utter  - perfect

real

We say:

He’s a complete idiot.

They were talking utter nonsense.

… but we do not say:

The idiot was complete.

The nonsense they were talking was utter.

Intensifiers:

(Intermediate)

We use words like very, really and extremely to make adjectives stronger:

It’s a very interesting story

Everyone was very excited.

It’s a really interesting story.

Everyone was extremely excited

We call these words intensifiers. Other intensifiers are:

amazingly	exceptionally	incredibly
remarkably	particularly	unusually

We also use enough to say more about an adjective, but enough comes after its adjective:

If you are seventeen you are old enough to drive a car.

I can’t wear those shoes. They’re not big enough.

Intensifiers with strong adjectives:

Strong adjectives are words like:

enormous, huge = very big

tiny = very small

brilliant = very clever

awful; terrible; disgusting; dreadful = very bad

certain = very sure

excellent; perfect; ideal; wonderful; splendid = very good

delicious = very tasty

We do not normally use very with these adjectives. We do not say something is "very enormous" or someone is "very brilliant". 

With strong adjectives, we normally use intensifiers like:

absolutely	completely	totally	utterly
really	exceptionally	particularly	quite

The film was absolutely awful.

He was an exceptionally brilliant child.

The food smelled really disgusting.