This article
demonstrates how teachers can get students actively engaged in the learning
process and take charge of their learning by giving them the opportunities to
find and correct mistakes themselves. This technique works well with beginner
to high intermediate students. Step-by-step explanation of how to employ this
technique will be given to help interested teachers adapt it for their own
classes.
Preparation--Choosing a Mistake Category
Select a mistake
category that is pertinent to the focus of the lesson being taught. For the
purpose of demonstrating the employment of this technique, the past tense of
irregular and regular verbs will be used as an illustration.
Step 1. Warm up: (A
verb list can be used.)
Tell students
they are going to have an activity to review the Simple Past Tense.
Divide the class
into two teams and tell them they are going to compete in the activity.
Make two columns
on the white board and ask students to fill the left column with many verbs in
the Present Tense.
Tell them they
have to find the past tense forms for all the verbs. They have to raise their
hands quickly to get the permission to give an answer. For each correct answer,
the team will score ten points.
Begin the
activity and add up the scores for each team when all the verbs have been
changed to the Simple Past Tense.
Step 2. (Short
sentences and long sentences can be used.)
Tell students
that they have to listen to short sentences and then long sentences to find the
mistakes in the verbs and correct them by putting them in the Simple Past
Tense.
Start reading one
sentence at a time. Repeat the sentence if they did not understand it the first
time.
Students have to
raise their hands quickly to get the permission to give an answer. For each
correct answer, the team will score ten points.
Keep scores and
add them up after all sentences have been read and corrected.
Step 3. (A narrative
can be used.)
Tell students
they are going to listen to a narrative and write down the verbs they think are
wrong.
Read the
narrative at a normal speed once.
Read it again if
necessary.
They have to
raise their hands quickly to get the permission to give an answer.
Ask them to say
out loud the wrong verbs they heard and the correction as well.
Keep score and
add them up when all the verbs have been corrected.
Step 4. Wrap up
Praise students
for their efforts.
Review important
points or give more explanation if necessary.
