Languages › English as a Second Language Error Correction Print English as a Second Language Resources for Teachers Pronunciation & Conversation Vocabulary Writing Skills Reading Comprehension Grammar Business English By Kenneth Beare Kenneth Beare English as a Second Language (ESL) Expert TESOL Diploma, Trinity College London M.A., Music Performance, Cologne University of Music B.A., Vocal Performance, Eastman School of Music Kenneth Beare is an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and course developer with over three decades of teaching experience. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on March 27, 2017 Error correction is often done by the teacher providing corrections for mistakes made by students. However, it is probably more effective for students to correct their own mistakes. In order to do this, students and the teacher should have a common shorthand for correcting mistakes. Aim: Teaching students to correct their own mistakes Activity: Mistake identification and correction Level: Intermediate Outline: Discuss the importance of correcting your own mistakes with students. Point out that information arrived out inductively (by their own reasoning) is more likely to be retained over the long term.Go through the shorthand used in the following exercise for various types of mistakes.Ask students to first find mistakes in the short biography.Give students the correction marks copy of the short biographyAsk students to correct the short biography based on the correction marks.Give students corrected version of a short biography. Correction Key T = tenseP = punctuationWO = word orderPrep = prepositionWW = wrong wordGR = grammarY upside down = word missingSP = spelling Find and mark the mistakes in the following short biography. Jack Friedhamm was born to New York on October 25, 1965. He began school at the age of six and continued until he was 18 years. He then went to New York University to learn Medicine. He decided on Medicine because he liked biology when he was at school. While he was to University he met his wife Cindy. Cindy was a beautiful woman with hair long black. They went along for years before they decided getting married. Jack began to work like a doctor as soon as he graduated to Medical School. They had two children named Jackie and Peter, and have lived in Queens for the past two years. Jack is very interested painting and likes to paint portraits of his son Peter. Compare your corrections with the image at the top and then correct the mistakes. Compare your corrected version with the following: Jack Friedhamm was born in New York on October 25, 1965. He began school at the age of six and continued until he was 18 years old. He then went to New York University to learn Medicine. He decided on Medicine because he liked biology when he was at school. While he was at University, he met his wife Cindy. Cindy was a beautiful woman with long black hair. They went out for years before they decided to get married. Jack began to work as a doctor as soon as he had graduated from Medical School. They have had two children named Jackie and Peter, and have lived in Queens for the past two years. Jack is very interested in painting and likes to paint portraits of his son Peter. Short Biography with Mistakes Printing Page Short Biography with Correction Marks Printing Page Correct Version of Short Biography Printing Page Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Beare, Kenneth. "Error Correction." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/what-is-error-correction-1210492. Beare, Kenneth. (2020, August 27). Error Correction. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-error-correction-1210492 Beare, Kenneth. "Error Correction." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-error-correction-1210492 (accessed April 24, 2024). copy citation