Lecture teaching writing

Read and think about students spoken and written errors and techniques.

• Spoken errors: When students are doing controlled practice, we are usually concerned with accuracy; so we need to correct important errors as they occur. When students are involved in a free activity (e.g. discussion, role play), we want them to develop fluency; so it is better not to interrupt by correcting too often, but to remember common errors and deal with them afterwards.
• Possible techniques for correction errors:
• - give the correct form; a student repeats it;
• - indicate where the errors are, but let a student correct them on his/her own;
• - pass the question onto another student then give the first student a chance to repeat the correct form.
• To help students develop a positive attitude to errors; encourage them, focusing on what they have got right, and praise them for correct and partly correct answers, so they feel they are making progress.
• Written errors: to avoid too much correction of written work, give simple writing tasks which will not lead to many mistakes and which can be corrected in class.
• Correcting work in class:
• - go through the answers, writing on the board only if spelling is a problem;
• - let students correct their own work or exchange books and correct each other’s;
• - move round the class to check what they are doing.