Don't worry. The title is taken from a Facebook group and doesn't reflect my opinion. But isn't this one of the things that make English teachers go nuts? You can easily get disappointed or even angry when your students mix them when you have a general revision. Besides, it is not the only mistake they do.
For example, I really dislike when I see some students always forgetting about inflections! They usually don't add inflectional 's' when needed in both writing and speaking. I know it is partly because of L1 but it is hard to stand it if your students are going to be teachers of English. It is also very difficult for teachers with higher expectations. This makes you start to think negatively. We usually end up thinking 'their level is so bad.. what am I going to do?'. We may become desperate at some points and look for a light outside the tunnel. Time helps.
As the semesters -more experienced teachers say 'years'- are passing by, I have learnt to be patient about these mistakes as you see them improving themselves and modeling your behaviors. Actually, it is a funny way to keep your spirit up. I mean, you shouldn't show anger or happiness when they make a mistake but try to make the most of it. I usually enjoy some mistakes because;
- First, it is funny!
- Second, no language can be learnt without making mistakes
- Third, the more mistakes you do, the more you learn!
- Fourth, I know that they will be better next time.
Are there some mistakes you dislike more than the others? How do you react correcting the errors/mistakes?
- solmaz21's blog
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Here are the mistakes that make me drink extra cups of coffee every day:
1. I was in the toilet
2. Please open the airconditioner
3. I do many mistakes.
4. Let's listen music. (to)
5. He doesn't care me. (about)
6. I am absent.
7. I am ill yesterday.
8. Are we going the computer lab? (to)
9. definite/indefinite articles in general: students mostly leave them out
10. personal pronouns (esp. 3rd person and reflexives)
I have a feeling these are common mistakes made by especially Turkish students, i.e that it is related to Turkish. Someone (you?) should do research on this and come up with a book of "grammar points for Turkish students". I would buy it!!!
:-)CoffeeAddict
Dear Osman,
Thank you for mentioning some reasons to love the mistakes of students. They are motivating. My favourite is the first one. I've always thought about noting down the funny mistakes of students but I have never done. I think I should start that to have more fun:)
Im agree with you!
If we have higher expectations, we should learn to be patient.
What can not be cured , must be endured for a while.
This time wil help us to find our way to benefit from these mistakes.
When they do mistakes, They give us signals that are useful to improve our teaching.
One of the most annoying mistakes that I come across in ''personal and possesive pronouns''
Luckily, I 've developed some methods to help my students.
When I see that they are not good at using pronouns, I focus on them.
If I hadn't seen the mistakes, I would never have cured them:)
TE Team
You should try
Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and other Problems
It was written by Michael Swan and Bernard Smith and includes a section on Turkish learners.
Thank you all for your fascinating comments :-)
Love them! CoffeeAddict, your list is sooo funny but so true at the same time!! I have a study on foreign learners studying Turkish but not vice versa yet :) (Oh yes, one article of mine hopefully to be published in CALL journal in 2011) :)
Merve, we should really make the most of our limited time in class and have fun! Esin, great observation! Possessive pronoun-related mistakes kill me either!
Thanks Derek for the book suggestion. Sounds quite interesting!