If I am anything, I am a
theorist. This doesn’t mean to say I am impractical; I simply like to construct
an edifice which I will modify in the course of time if or when practice proves
it ineffective or circumstances change and I have to adapt.
I find the way coursebook
material is arranged too linear for the needs of the learner even with the
revision sections thrown in. I prefer to customise and contextualise revision
in ways that tease my students’ brains.
To cut a long story short,
like most teachers in this world, I realise that no matter how many times my
students have been corrected about small mistakes like the ending in the third
singular person of Simple Present or the plural of nouns or the difference
between adjective and adverb form in British English, they will consistently
repeat the same mistakes when they write or speak.
Therefore, I came up with
the idea of purposely omitting different kinds of endings in texts which are
otherwise easily manageable for the students’ level. Of course, I indicate by highlighting the
items for correction that there is
something missing and they have to add it by focusing on content and accuracy.
The students responded
very well to this type of exercise which recycles all kinds of different
grammar points taught over a longer period of time than a couple of weeks,
which is what an average revision unit covers in a coursebook.
The following is a news
item I used to apply this all-round revision and raise awareness of simple mistakes.
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