LtL3

Maria Ascensión

OBJECTIVE Help students to improve their writing by making them aware of their mistakes

WHAT IS THE ACTIVITY ABOUT: Writing is a difficult skill and students have usually problems to control it. Many of the mistakes they make are often lack of profreading or lack of concentration so after having written a few compositions I analyse them and spot the kind of mistakes they make to help them reflect on them later. I give them the the corrections and tell them to analyse the mistakes themselves. The have to write a list of their mistakes and call it My fgavourite mistakes listing the ones they usually make.I tell them to have it when they write and check it before handing the essays either at home or in the classroom. First I focus on the mechanical ones like s in the third sg person, irregular verbs, __#|word__ order, etc. Later we concentrate on outline, organization, etc. Although it may seem simple it is not and usually students improve. But of course it depends on the group, as many of these things. The list is not fixed since it develops throughout the school year.

Nuria

Dear Maria Ascension,

One of my objectives for this summer is developing a small list of common errors that we want to get rid of. I will start with writing. This is very much related to what you say.

I am sharing with you a procedure that worked very well, and I plan to repeat next year, related to error correction and your contribution. Students downloaded presentations with errors and they had to upload them again on the wiki, once the errors were corrected. They worked in groups and I was able to make error correction less teacher centered. Then, of course, they added some of the corrections to their Learning Diary.

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Hope it helps!

Thanks, Nuria, I have downloaded myself. .

Lluís Miquel

Hi Maria Ascension, Here is a list a came across of grave errors. A teacher who works for the British Council in Portugal compiled it:

Unacceptable errors Concord and inflection lack ot number concord, e.g. between subject and verb, including absence of s on 3rd person singular present simple verbs false gender concord, i.e. his, her, their incorrect inflections, e.g. -s vs. -es, changing y to i, or not lack of concord for gender, e.g. which for who using 's for plurals (except after figures and letters) apostrophe omitted before/after genitive s Verbs impossible combinations of auxiliary + main verb (didn't went, had knew, could left, will came, etc.) use of non-finite form as a finite verb, e.g. done without an auxiliary indiscriminate mixing of past and present verbs incorrect addition/omission of to in basic infinitive constructions, e.g. to after modal auxiliaries to + past form for infinitive, e.g. to spent, to met have for he when giving ages, e.g. She has fourteen years. Pronouns, possessives and articles using him/her for it, when there is clearly no personification intended confusion of its with it's incorrect use of a/an Adjectives plural adjectives double comparatives/superlatives, e.g. more better Syntax, including __#|word__ order placing adjectives after nouns in basic adjective+noun contexts sentences without a subject or with two subjects verb+subject construction where there is no question separating a verb from its object questions with affirmative __#|word__ order failure to separate sentences with a full stop and capital letter basic clock times, e.g. at six and a quarter, at three and ten Common confusions misspelling of which, being, feel homophones involving basic vocabulary, e.g. peace/piece, by/buy, new/knew, sun/son, to/too/two using than for then, and vice versa using were for where, and vice versa using ear for hear, and vice versa using of for off. and vice versa using as for has, and vice versa using is for his, and vice versa using live for leave, and vice versa using want for won't, and vice versa using thing for think, and vice versa

Hi lluís Miquel, this is Nuria

I was thinking of something more general like

- Double subject - Spelling mistakes - Wrong tense - Omitting the subject - Using the wrong pronoun - Misplacing time references

No more than 15 items.

Which one would you think it would work better?


 * M Ascension**

I agree with Nuria, Lluis Miguel. I think we should concentrate on something like what she proposes. In fact those are the most common mistakes I was refering to. If the list is so long they get discouraged.

Sònia

Hi colleagues! I assume that all of us have done some sort of error correction activity in our classes. In my opinion, it is a suitable activity to raise the student's awareness of their own mistakes when using the language. Although the process I use is not as ellaborate as Núria's, here is an example of a worksheet I use in class to carry out this activity.



What you can see here is a collection of mistakes that Batxillerat students themselves have made in their compositions. I hand the paper out to the students and they try to correct as many errors as they can find. Besides working quite well, students have fun seeing their production in the paper!

Glòria Thank you for sharing all these materials, they are great! Some weeks ago English teachers from my school were talking how to improve the writing skills. The last years we have focused on the speaking and we left the writing aside. This is going to be very useful!!! I agre with Núria we don't have to write a very long list, although Lluis Miquel's list is fantastic, because our student get lost easily.

Nuria

In my opinion Lluis Miquel's list is very good for our own use, which is what I think Gloria has already pointed out.

Thank you for your materials on error correction. They help me improve my own process. I am sick and tired of correcting things students do not bother to look at. I think we have to make comments and correct language, but we have to make sure that we make it clear that they have the responsibility to correct them, and that we would take these corrections into account for their final mark.

Lluís Oh, sorry, I didn't understand the list was for the students' use. Of course if it is a list they have to use it must be clear, user-friendly and accessible. The list I suggested was just for the sake of having something concrete to discuss.