How to address common errors in your classroom

Hi, everyone.

My name’s George,

and in today’s video we’re going to look at how you can identify

and address common errors made by students in your classroom.

Before I continue,

don’t forget to like the video and to subscribe to the channel,

so you don’t miss out on any of these lessons.

It’s difficult to address every single error

in your class,

but if you use the Cambridge common error cards,

you’ll able to identify the common patterns

in your students’ errors.

This will give your lessons more focus and speed up

your students’ progress.

For this video,

I’m going to be focussing on errors made by

learners from Korea,

as I’m teaching Korean students,

but there are different cards available

for different learners,

and the resources

and suggestions in the video are for everyone.

I went to the London.

I bought a handphone.

I’m eat breakfast now.

These are all common errors made by learners from Korea,

and these errors are influenced by their first language,

which is Korean.

So now, we’re going to briefly look at why

they make these mistakes.

Explanations of these errors are provided in Cambridge’s

common error cards,

along with examples

of errors made by learnings from other countries.

I went to the London.

In the first sentence, I went to the London,

the has been added unnecessarily

because in Korean they don’t have definite

or indefinite articles,

like the or a,

which leads to some confusion as to when to use them in English.

This type of error is illustrated in the Cambridge

common error cards,

where there are examples of missing definite

and indefinite articles,

and an unnecessary definite article in this sentence.

I bought a handphone.

In the second sentence, I bought a handphone,

the learner has incorrectly used the word handphone

instead of phone,

because of the presence of Konglish words in Korean.

Konglish words are English loanwords used in Korean

which are often

quite different to their English equivalents and,

as a consequence,

they might sound strange to native English speakers.

For example, a Korean person might say,

I need to buy a rashguard to go surfing,

instead of I need to buy a wetsuit to go surfing.

I’m eat breakfast now.

In the last sentence, I’m eat breakfast now,

the learner has missed the ING in the present continuous,

so they should have said, I’m eating breakfast now.

This is because in Korean

although they have the present continuous form,

they don’t always have to use it for actions

that are being done in this moment.

Verb tenses feature in the cards for Korean learners.

For example, confusion between is and was,

and can and could.

It’s useful to be aware

of common errors influenced by a learner’s first language,

as it will help you to identify predictable patterns,

like the ones I showed you earlier,

made by Korean students,

which is why I recommend using the Cambridge common error cards

in your lessons.

Here are some examples of errors made by learners from Korea.

As you can see, here,

determiners and prepositions are amongst the most

common errors made in Korea,

but there are lots of other cards available,

and you’ll notice

that each learner has a different set

of common errors, depending on their first language.

Here are some of the ways you can incorporate these cards

into your lessons.

Tip number one.

You can use these cards to make a Kahoot Quiz to see

which of these errors are most frequently made in your class,

so you can address these first.

For my Kahoot Quiz,

I’ve added four possible options using the common error cards

for the Korean learners,

so I’ve got I go to the London last year,

I went to the London last year,

I went to a London last year, and I went to London last year.

So I select the correct answer,

which is this one, and then I type a question,

which sentence is correct?

I can add a time limit if I want to,

and then I click done.

Tip number two.

You could do an error correction race.

So you could incorporate some of these errors

into a short text.

Here, I’ve used some examples

of common errors made by Korean students,

but you can incorporate errors from the common error cards

that are relevant to your students.

You can then ask the students to identify a set number

of errors in the text.

The first person to identify all of the errors is the winner.

Tip number three.

After a speaking activity,

you could go over the common errors made

by the students anonymously,

utilising the common error cards.

This is a great opportunity

for students to correct their own errors,

something which can make them feel proud and give

them greater confidence.

And don’t forget to praise the students

for good language too.

You could do this by writing up some examples of good language

that the students used in the lesson.

This might be a good idiom, a good use of grammar,

or a very natural-sounding expression.

Tip number four.

During a writing task,

monitor the students and write down any common errors

on the whiteboard.

You can also add some examples

from the common error cards, too.

Then, encourage the students to look through their first draft

to find any of these errors.

Don’t forget to remind the students

that making errors is normal and part

of the process of improving their English language skills.

Thanks for watching, everybody.

Check out the common errors download link

in the description below,

and don’t forget to like the video

and to subscribe to the channel.