Spot the mistake and correct it.

MODULE 4

CORRECTING PUPILS’ MISTAKES

UNIT 1

Основные проблемы выявления грамматической закономерностью и формулировки грамматического правила на примере употребления, в первую очередь, английских существительных, прилагательных, наречий, числительных, местоимений

GIVING THE RIGHT VARIANT

Teachers often have to correct what pupils say in class or write at home. A teacher of English needs not only thorough knowledge of grammar rules, but also skills in spotting the mistake at once and in offering a suitable correction. If the teacher is pressed for time ( as it often happens in class ), the most suitable way may be just to give the correct variant. Let’s see how well you can do that.

Spot the mistake and correct it.

PUPILS’ MISTAKES	CORRECT SENTENCES
1. Afraid you of mice?
2. I’ll say you about their house.
3. How fine is the day!
4. March 8 is Woman’s Day.
5. It soon will be Christmas.
6. I really sorry.
7. He didn’t tell me that he will come.
8. She was more cleverer than he.
9. There is no any water left.
10. I’m studying English for 5 years.

Spot the mistake and correct it orally. Don’t leave a long pause, please.

1. Life is more hard now. 2. Look at the clouds, it will rain. 3. Would you like anything to drink? – Yes, please. 4. I don’t like neither Maths nor Physics. 5. We have a dinner at 2. 6. Are not you afraid mice? 7. How fine weather! 8. The rain stopped and the sun was shining. 9. How nice day! 10. There is not time left.

HOMEWORK

Spot the mistake and correct it in writing.

PUPILS’ MISTAKES	THE CORRECTED PART
1. Two coffee and a bun, please.
2. A former pupil of my mother called yesterday.
3. Our cat has been eating too much in the last time.
4. A great deal of people speak Chinese.
5. We’re having a dinner later than usually today.
6. He didn’t tell me nothing about the exercise 10.
7. They treated me very friendly.
8. What do you know about the ill child?
9. Maths is little easier than Physics.
10.Physics is less easier then Maths.

 

Say whether the mistake is connected with the way the pupil uses nouns, articles, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs or numerals.

A 1. Life is much difficult now. 2. There are not clouds. 3. Would you like anything to eat? 4. Maths are difficult, aren’t they? 5. We’re having a dinner later than usually today. 6. Afraid you exams? 7. What a fine whether! 8. The sun was shining bright. 9. How nice you play! 10. There isn’t minute left.

B 11. Afraid you of gooses? 12. I’ll tell you about them house. 13. How much clothes there are! 14. March 8 is Woman’s Day. 15. It soon will be Christmas. 16. I really sorry about my sick cat. 17. He didn’t tell me nothing about the exercise 10. 18. She was the twentyth in the line. 19. They treated me very friendly. 20. What do you know about the ill child?

Match the mistake and its type.

1.I do a lot of mistakes. 2.We have a dinner at 2. 3.My father work as a teacher. 4.I’ll tell you about them house. 5.I was never there. 6.Afraid you of mice? 7.It is snow everywhere. 8.How fine is the day! 9.March 8 is Woman’s Day. 10.It happened in the weekend.

a) Mind the word order. b) What about concord? c) Change the preposition. d) Check the form of the noun. e) I’m afraid you used the wrong structure. f)You forgot about the link verb. g) Be careful with tenses. h) You mixed up two pronouns. i) Watch your articles. j) You can’t use this verb here.

HOMEWORK

PROVIDING THE RULE

D. comprehensible

This requirement is perhaps the most difficult to meet. Complicated things seem to require complicated explanations. But teachers know perfectly well that in the middle of a complicated explanation most pupils will “switch off”. The teacher’s effort will be wasted. Adapting the rule to the level of understanding is also an art. Sometimes you’ll have to give two variants of the rule so that everybody could understand you. Compare:

1) “Must” and “have (got) to” express obligation, but their meaning is not quite the same. “Must” is often used to talk about an obligation that depends on the person speaking or listening. “Have to” is generally used to talk about obligations that come from “outside”.

2) When we say “you must” we feel it’s necessary and we want you to feel it is necessary. When we say “you have to”, something (a law, a rule, other people, the weather) makes it necessary. You do it because they make you do it.

3) When I say “you must” it’s your duty, when I say “you have to” there is no other way out.

E. bright enough or easy to remember

This requirement can hardly be treated as obligatory, but wouldn’t you like your pupils to remember the rule and to avoid mistakes? So teachers naturally try to make their explanations easy to remember. Something bright in it often helps to attract the pupils’ attention and the rule sticks in their memory, while a precise but dry statement is soon forgotten. Experience shows that pupils forget “an action that is taking place/happening at the moment/time of speaking” and remember “the action that you see between the beginning and the end” or “somebody is in the middle of doing it”. Sometimes in the same textbook (for example, Murphy R. English Grammar in Use) you can find different ways of expressing the same idea and some of them will be easier to remember than others.

1. Read the rule and say (giving proofs) whether it is:

Correct

Valid

Relevant

Laconic

Comprehensible

Bright.

1. There can’t be two negatives in an English sentence.

I neither ski nor skate. Never say “never”. She never says nothing.

2. Progressive forms describe an action that is taking place at the moment of speaking.

He’s working at a new film now. They’re leaving tomorrow.

3. Englishmen avoid split infinitives. I try to never tell lies.

4. In English such words as hundred, thousand, million are used without “s”. That costs 3 hundred.

Millions of people like travelling. I need a hundred dollars.

5. “Must” is often used to talk about an obligation that depends on the person speaking or listening. “Have to” is generally used to talk about obligations that come from “outside”.

I have to leave the flat early. I must get to the office on time.

Correct the mistakes.

1. They said it will rain soon.
2. I’m sorry for all ill animals.
3. Did he suggest to help you?
4. Nobody never helps me with my homework.
5. Several cars are always parking in our yard.
6. I’m too tired to do something now.
7. I was so in a hurry that I left my book at home.
8. You look very smartly today.
9. I bought it with the money my parents gave me before.
10. He stopped to go to school last year.
11. We have not a lawn in front of our house.
12. We’d like to be independent from our parents.

HOMEWORK ò

MISTAKES RULES

1. They said it will rain soon. 2. I’m sorry for all ill animals. 3. Did he suggest to help you? 4. Nobody never helps me with my homework. 5. Several cars are always parking in our yard. 6. I’m too tired to do something now. 7. I was so in a hurry that I left my book at home. 8. You look very smartly today. 9. I bought it with the money my parents gave me before. 10. He stopped to go to school last year. 11. We have not a lawn in front of our house. 12. We’d like to be independent from our parents.

1. They looked into the future from... 2. Before nouns, instead of “ill” we... 3. If he was ready to help... 4. In an English sentence we can’t...   5. If the cars are not moving at the moment, instead of Present Progressive we should... 6. The meaning of “too tired” is... 7. “So” is used before adjectives, and before... 8. After link verbs not adverbs but... 9. If the action happened in the past before another... 10. To show the end of the action after “stop” we need... 11. If negation refers to a noun...   12. The adjective “independent” needs the preposition...

IMPROVING RULES

You know already what a good rule must be like. Let’s try to recollect its most important characteristics. It must be:

1. valid

Relevant

Laconic

Comprehensible

Bright (if possible).

If we want the rule to be correct or valid, we should make sure that it doesn’t contradict actual usage. For example, if we say that in English sentences the verb follows the subject, will it be true in all cases? What about the following sentences? Is the rule which we formulated above really valid?

Is everybody here?

I don’t like exams. – Neither do I!

We’ll have to change something in the rule to make it suit all the cases. We could say “ In English declarative sentences (statements) the verb follows the subject, as a rule ”.

The rule may give you a lot of information, some of which is not connected directly with the mistake the pupil has made. The teacher’s task is to select the information which is really important for correcting this particular mistake. It isn’t always easy to transform the rule because you have to paraphrase it, changing sometimes the structure of the sentence. Sometimes the information you need can’t be found in the grammar rule, concerning the structure where your pupil made a mistake.

For example, you pupil says, “Teachers dislike exams too, do they?” while the correct variant is “Teachers dislike exams too, don’t they?” or “Teachers don’t like exams too, do they?”. The rule about question-tags in your grammar textbook may run as follows.

“Question tags are used to check or clarify information, or simply to involve the listener in a more interactive way. Question tags consist of an auxiliary or modal verb or lexical verb be + subject pronoun. The subject pronoun repeats the subject of the main clause to which it refers, and agrees in number, person and gender with the subject of the main clause. Where the main clause contains an auxiliary or modal verb or lexical verb be, it is repeated in the tag.

You've worked hard, haven't you?

He didn't get it, did he?

Where there is no auxiliary or modal verb in the main clause, auxiliary do/does/did is used in the tag.

They have a New Year party every year, don’t they?”

Polarity refers to whether a verb phrase is affirmative or negative. There is contrasting polarity between the main clause and the tag:

Affirmative negative

You've worked hard, haven't you?

Negative affirmative

He didn't get it, did he?”

The problem is that all this information, which is correct and important for constructing correct questions with tags, may not help you to correct this particular mistake. First of all, you should select the part which is closer to the problem, which is really relevant. This will make the rule laconic as well.

There is contrasting polarity between the main clause and the tag:

Affirmative negative

You've worked hard, haven't you?

Negative affirmative

He didn't get it, did he?”

Then it’s necessary to adapt the language to your pupils’ level of comprehension – to make the rule comprehensible. You may find it useful using the Russian language instead.

Основная часть разделительного вопроса и его окончание противопоставляются:

Correct the mistakes.

1. Businessmen needn’t worry about money, do they? 2. Avoid to use bad words. 3. He stopped to read when I came in and shut the book. 4. How often did you have to cheat in your life? 5. I’ll complain if the furniture won’t be delivered by Saturday. 6. I wish holidays last longer! 7. Mother could come home early yesterday, we were all very glad to see her at two o’clock. 8. She had to come at five, but she was busy. 9. The bed was covered by a dark blanket. 10. She had to move the furniture herself, hadn’t she?

Correct the mistakes.

1. He lives in Oxford Street, house ten.
2. He feels lonely often.
3. He looked at me sad.
4. He plays hockey and guitar equally well.
5. He seldom ills.
6. He shaved himself, washed and dried.
7. He’s always worrying about someone’s else benefit.
8. He’s very bad, you may expect everything of him.
9. Mum always gives me good advices.
10. Where is the money? – They’re in the safe.
11. You should be politer with old people.
12. My brother is 2 years elder.

2. Copy a suitable rule for each mistake listed above ñ. Try to improve the rule, making it valid, laconic, relevant and comprehensible.

Correct the mistakes.

Dad never ills.

Daughters-in-law should be kind with their mother-in-laws.

I really sorry to you.

MODULE 4

CORRECTING PUPILS’ MISTAKES

UNIT 1

Основные проблемы выявления грамматической закономерностью и формулировки грамматического правила на примере употребления, в первую очередь, английских существительных, прилагательных, наречий, числительных, местоимений

GIVING THE RIGHT VARIANT

Teachers often have to correct what pupils say in class or write at home. A teacher of English needs not only thorough knowledge of grammar rules, but also skills in spotting the mistake at once and in offering a suitable correction. If the teacher is pressed for time ( as it often happens in class ), the most suitable way may be just to give the correct variant. Let’s see how well you can do that.

Spot the mistake and correct it.

PUPILS’ MISTAKES	CORRECT SENTENCES
1. Afraid you of mice?
2. I’ll say you about their house.
3. How fine is the day!
4. March 8 is Woman’s Day.
5. It soon will be Christmas.
6. I really sorry.
7. He didn’t tell me that he will come.
8. She was more cleverer than he.
9. There is no any water left.
10. I’m studying English for 5 years.