This document provides information about teaching techniques, student profiles, learning styles, basic concepts of mistakes vs errors, error correction methodology, and games for adult English language learners. It discusses approaches for different student personalities and strategies for correcting errors without discouraging language production. Various classroom activities are described, including dictogloss, circuits, and games using pictures, flashcards, and dice to reinforce vocabulary and grammar.

1. Teacher training:
teaching techniques

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3. Error
Correction

5. Students’ profiles:
Profile Behavior in class How to tackle
Shy
• Doesn’t intervene
• Quiet
• Gets easily embarrassed
• Doesn’t give away personal information
• Hides
Wise
• Has better level than the rest
• Collaborative
• Takes part in discussions
• Easy to deal with
• Gets it right most of the times
Leader
• Charismatic
• Disciplined
• Tries to coordinate, delegate, organize things
• Communicative
• Assertive
• Creative
Dogmatic
• Might be rude
• Thinks that has the answers to everything
• Hard to think out of the box
• Might be narrow-minded
• Hard to give in
Dominating
• Speaks more than the rest
• Loud
• Nervous
• Take over others’ turns
• Is up to intervene and take part in activity.
Prankster
• Is joking all the time
• Interrupts teacher’s explanations
• Lack of concentration
• This attitude could be a symptom of being shy
or having possibilities underappreciated
Aggressive
• Rude
• Might not intervene so much in class
• Tense
• This attitude could be a symptom of a low
level or shyness

6. Style Example of activities in class
Verbal Repetition,
Visual Flashcards,
Musical / Auditory Songs,
Physical / Kinaesthetic Food samples,
Learning styles:

7. Basic concepts:
1. Mistake is usually a choice that turns out to be wrong.
Mistakes are usually accidental. You know it’s wrong. In other words, mistakes are performance based, and
can be self-corrected.
2. Errors are usually made due to the lack of knowledge. So, the action was wrong because it was different
from the rules, model or specific code.
Mistakes or errors?
Knowing the difference gives you the tolerance and understanding you need to tackle a correction.
Why is this important?
Spotting an error means you’ll need to teach a lesson instead of refreshing it.
Fossilization.
Fossilization refers to the process in which incorrect language becomes a habit and cannot easily be
corrected.
Example
Many advanced level learners who have Spanish as an L1 do not distinguish between ‘he' and ‘she'. This
could be a fossilized error.
In the classroom
Mistakes in general take time to correct but a fossilized mistakes may never be corrected unless the
learner sees a reason to do so, e.g. if it is seriously hindering communication. Teachers can help learners
notice their fossilized mistakes by for example recording them speaking, or by asking them to keep a
record of written mistakes as part of a language portfolio.
British Council

8. Error correction – The correction methodology
Making errors is an inevitable and necessary part of language learning. It is only through making errors, and
hearing the correct forms, that students can develop their own understanding of how English works. It is
thus important that students have as much opportunity as possible to produce language and, with the
focus on using English creatively (rather than simply repeating language), the number of errors that students
make will inevitably rise. Teachers thus need to think carefully about how they will respond to these errors.
The process of absorbing a new language structure takes considerable time. Teachers cannot, therefore,
expect that simply correcting an error will produce immediate results. Some errors can remain even up to
very advanced levels (such as the ‘s’ in ‘she lives’, ‘he goes’, etc.). A strong emphasis on error correction
cannot be expected to produce students who make few errors. In fact, an over-emphasis on error
correction is likely to be counter-productive as students become deterred from using – and experimenting
with – new language and vocabulary. But students do need to have their errors pointed out to them. The
key is to limit correction to a small number of points at a time and to judge when the right moment for
correction is.
Cambridge University ESOL.
• Correcting students when they are in the middle of saying something may produce students who are
afraid to talk. You can make a note of the errors students make and go through them at the end of the
discussion / lesson.
• Limit yourself to correcting only a few errors in written work or after the students speak.
• For errors in writing, students can be encouraged to build up a short list of their most common errors.
The list can be arranged to form a mnemonic of things to check (e.g., PATTIBS = plurals, articles, tenses,
‘there is / are’, ‘-ing’ form, ‘be’, spelling).
• In monolingual classes most students will make the same errors. You may want to have ‘an error of the
week’ game. Choose an error which most students make, tell them what it is and write the correct
version on a piece of paper on the wall. This raises the students’ consciousness about this particular
error. They then have to try not to make this error all week. The student who succeeds can choose the
‘error of the week’ for the next week.
Practical ideas:

9. • Corrections on the spot
 Show error + answer
 Show error + clues for self correction
 Choose types of errors to decide what to correct
• Flashcards with typical mistakes
• Peer correction
• Buzz!
Some other techniques…
I AM
AGREE

11. Teaching
Techniques

13. Learners are required to reconstruct a short text by listening and noting down key words, which are then used to re-
tell what they’ve just listed to.
Skills practiced: __________________________
DICTOGLOSS
3 – 2 – 1
Learners make up text including elements from lesson. Pair them up and have them read it to each other in 3
minutes. They change partners and now summarize the text in 2 minutes. They change partners again and
summarize the text in 1 minute.
Skills practiced: __________________________

14. COMPULSORY PICK-UPS
Set two stacks on the middle of the classroom, one with compulsory words to use (e.g.: adjectives) and the other with
phrases (e.g.: to express opinion). Ask them questions and every time they answer they have to pick up one card
from each stack and use them appropriately in their speech. It’s a competition-based activity.
CIRCUITS
Skills practiced: __________________________
PICK UP
Students go around the classroom (or central table) in pairs (or with you) to stop and do an activity at every station.
You have previously prepared a different thing to do for each activity including aspects of grammar, vocabulary or
opinion that you want them to do or discuss. At the end of the activity, discuss a closing question with the whole
group or correct the exercises.
Skills practiced: __________________________

15. Phonemic chart
Select the phonemes that you want your students to practice or learn. Set them on a telephone keyboard shape.
Every phoneme is a number. You’re going to dictate telephone numbers but producing the phoneme sounds
instead of the actual numbers. Your students have to write the numbers that belong to that sound. Then, check
that the telephone number you dictated is right. Then have them do it in pairs or for the whole group. You might
want to use the British Council application ‘Sounds Right’ (for tablets) or the website
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/phonemic-chart
Skills practiced: __________________________
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
0

17. Games for adult
learners

19. Make flashcards or give list of words for
your students to describe them in one
minute. Include grammar or vocabulary
points and have them describe them to you
or their partners. The winner is the one
who guesses as many words as possible in a
minute.

20. Teach a grammar point, e.g.: modal verbs. Then person A draws situations that simulate a
sentence that uses a modal verb. Then, student B says the sentence s/he thinks is correct.
The winner is the student who guesses the correct sentences. Add different difficulty guess
degrees.
Example:
Student A draw the situation in the picture
beside. Student B should guess the
sentence A thought.
The sentence is: Men shouldn’t think girls
need to be saved.

21. Tell students to form a circle. Then, spin the bottle and in turns they talk about their
experiences related to the pictures you set up around the bottle. You can vary this activity
by asking them to ask each other questions. You might want to replace pictures for
grammar cases or vocabulary.
Example:
Student A (got the bottom of the bottle)
will ask a question to B (got the tip of the
bottle) about picture Nº 1 (or the picture
that the tip of the bottle is pointing at).
Question: have you ever turned a blind eye
to any important decisions at work?

22. QUESTI ON
Make a grid with poker symbols and questions next to them. Bring a set of poker cards and
explain the vocabulary related to them. Put the stack of card in the middle of the table and
have students take one and answer the first question next to the symbol on the card. Make
students take turns. At the end of the activity, the winner is the student who gets more
points by adding the numbers of each one’s cards.
A variation of this activity: both students withdraw one card each, and the student who gets
the highest card number is the one who will have to answer the question.
What do you think is interesting about your culture?
If a group of people just came to your country from overseas, what
advice would you give them?
Have you ever felt confused by the actions of someone from another culture?
What are some things that define a culture? For example, music,
language, ...
What customs do you think should no longer be practice?
What other cultures have you met people from?
Would you ever consider marrying or dating someone from another
culture?
Do you think "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" is always good
advice? Why or why not?
Have you ever experienced culture shock?
If aliens visited your country, what might surprise them?
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt you had to "do as the
Romans do"?

23. Think of six phrasal verbs that you want to practice. On the board write the six different
verbs and six different prepositions in two numbered lists. First of all, give pairs or groups of
students five to ten minutes to brainstorm and write down as many valid phrasal verbs as
they can. Then go through the phrasal verbs offered making sure to ask the students to
explain the verbs given by using them in a sentence.
Finally give pairs or small groups of students two dice. In turns, students throw one dice for
a verb and a second dice for a preposition, they then have to make a sentence using the
phrasal verb given. If they succeed they get a point, if they can’t or it’s not possible then the
turn passes to the next student.
1. make 1. up
2. put 2. in
3. look 3. away
4. take 4. out
5. give 5. on
6. get 6. down

25. On-line
Resources

27. ESL games for adult learners.
ESL Conversation Questions.
ESL phonemic chart, ready-
made class plans and other
activities.
ESL class plans based on TED
talks.
ESL short stories with audio
and script.

28. Language Solutions España | Calle General Díaz Porlier 90 (28006) Madrid | www.langsols.es | www.campus.langsols.es| 915 314 960