Saturday, October 20, 2018

Using Writing to Practice IELTS Speaking Part 2

(TESOL Worksheets--IELTS Speaking Part 2)

Google Drive Folder HERE
* Mistakes: docspub
* Homework re-write 1: docspub
Describe a book you enjoyed reading: docspub
Describe a City or Town that You Do Not Like: docspub
Describe a Family: docspub
Describe a famous road, bridge, or tunnel: docspub
Describe a Film You Saw: docspub
Describe a Leader: docspub
Describe a Machine: docspub
Describe a Memorable Meal: docspub
Describe a modern building you like: docspub
Describe a Music Video: docspub
Describe a party that you enjoyed: docspub
Describe a personal possession that is valuable to you: docspub
Describe a place that has a special meaning to you: docspub
Describe a place you have lived in that you particularly liked: docspub
Talk about a person from your childhood whom you particularly admired: docspub

This is an experiment I did in one of my IELTS classes.  It was in addition to daily practicing Speaking Part 2.  I thought that it might help my students to practice writing out their responses.
This is based on the assumption that accuracy in writing could translate over to accuracy in speaking.  I thought that if students had the time to look up vocabulary, or think carefully about sentence structures, some of this accuracy might affect their speaking as well.  This is controversial.  It may or may not work depending on who you ask.
After completing Speaking Part 2 practice, students were instructed to write up the same topic for homework.  I collected the homework, did feedback the same way I did for my Telling Your Stories Project.

I follow the procedure I outlined in a previous post.

The first time, I simply underline the students mistakes, and they are responsible for finding the mistake and fixing it.  (This not only saves time for me, but I think it's better for them to find and fix their own mistakes)  I use this worksheet here (docspub).

Congratulations on being able to write your own story in English.
The next step is to fix all the grammar and vocabulary mistakes.
Unfortunately, if the teacher helps you with this too much, you won’t learn how to write English on your own.  Fixing your own mistakes will help you better remember the grammar for next time.
So, the teacher has underlined the mistakes for you, but not corrected them.  Your job is to try to fix these grammar mistakes on your own.
Don’t ask the teacher for help yet.
Don’t worry.  If you’re still having trouble with the grammar, the teacher will give you more detailed feedback on your next draft.  But first, try to fix everything by yourself.
I supplement this with some whole class discussion about the mistakes.  I take one sentence from each essay, and put it on a handout.  The students work in groups to find and correct the mistakes in each sentence, and then we go over it as a class. (docspub)

The teacher has taken one sentence from each of your homework papers.  Each sentence has some mistakes in it.  With your partner, find all the mistakes, and change them to correct English.
After the students have re-written their essay, I go over it a second time.  Any remaining errors I error code, but I still don't correct.  (drivedocspub)

Almost there.
You still have a few mistakes left in your story.
The teacher has used an error correction code to help you.  Use the error correction code on the back of this sheet to fix your mistakes, and re-write your essay one more time.
Don’t worry.  This is the last time you will have to re-write your essay.  After this, if you still have any mistakes, the teacher will talk to you in person.
Then, the student re-writes their essay again.
If there are any mistakes that still persist, at this point I correct them myself.  (Either in writing, or more usually by briefly talking to the students.)

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