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Student self-correction

"I'm very much interested in studying ways to help my secondary school EFL students spot and deal with their mistakes in an independent way. Could you facilitate any information that you may have on the topic that might help me with this task? Thank you in advance."

Any advice or ideas for Carol? Think about both spoken and written English. Any tips, suggestions or comments? Contact us.

This question is from Carol Honig, Argentina

Comments

Submitted on 21 March, 2008 - 07:29

Jesyka, Australia
If you have a correction key which identifies different problems such as T=tense, VF=verb form, P=punctuation, S/V=subject verb agreement, N=numbers (i.e. plural and singular) - then students can work in pairs to do basic correction using the key. The teacher can then get students into a computer laboratory and type up the text with the corrections. If it is on a word document - the green line can further identify other grammatical errors.

This may help students to be more aware of their grammatical errors and empower them at the same time. Hope this is useful.

P.C.Joshi, India
Hello Carol
Your question has elicited the following suggestions, I hope you might care to adopt them.
1- You can make your students exchange their answer sheets with other students in the class and allow them to do the corrections. You will have your say when the corrections have been done.
2- You may assign this job to one of your best students in that particular subject and she/he would tell you about the kind of mistakes made by students
3-Make a random selection of say five answer sheets in a class of twenty and discuss the common mistakes you have observed in those five sheets.
4-In case of conversation class again ask other students to rectify the speaker's mistake.

Ebrahim Akhtar, India
Hi.Carol.
I am not a teacher of English, but am interested in the language as a universal means of communication. I know from experience that people resent direct correction, even though they are aware that they are new learners of the language other than their mother tongue and that this language has its own rules and peculiarities. The best manner of correction is by example. Use what needs to be taught in the correct manner which encourages imitation and repetition. The listen, talk ,listen,correct,talk,listen ...approach.You will agree that most people hear, but do not listen.Teaching is but an aid to help people learn, and the manner will surely determine the acceptance and the result. Hope this helps. God Bless. Akhtar.
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