Some thoughts on Error Correction

I have recently become a Celta TiT (Tutor in Training) and something I have been thinking a lot about is error correction (or lack thereof). Aside from correcting students in the first place, there was something said during the course that I thought was particularly important: it makes a big difference if you involve students in the correction and give them a chance to use the target language after it has been corrected. What follows are two examples of how I dealt with mistakes in my lessons last semester.

Channing Tatum’s six-pack

Some teachers, like myself, are coming back from holidays this week and I thought an R-rated lesson might help spice things up.

Some weeks ago I came across an article on Vanity Fair talking about Channing Tatum’s career on the eve of the release of Magic Mike XXL. I knew it would interest a pair of private students who like his films, even if the article needed to be adapted more havily than usual (because it’s a cover story, it’s too long to be used in a 60-minute lesson).

Now, just like my first post on this blog, this lesson might not be suited for people who are under 18, or who may be offended be the innuendo-packed trailer. Keep that in mind before clicking below.

DELTA Module 2 – Listening

Last week I had a post about my lexis LSA in Delta module 2. Since I believe that was a successful post and it got some good feedback, I decided to write about another LSA that I enjoyed doing.

During module two, each candidate has two choose two skills and two systems to write about in a background essay and to give a lesson that is either observed by a tutor or the external assessor. I chose, in order, grammar, listening, speaking and lexis. I started with grammar as I thought that would be the easiest thing to work with and finished with lexis as I think that is my strong suit.

That left me with two skill assignments for LSAs 2 and 3. I chose to work with FCE listening tasks and used the same B2+ group from LSA4. I received a distinction for the BE and a merit for the lesson, which is explained below.