Some methods of doing error identification exercise in the GCSE exam

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HOANG HOA IV HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENTIAL INITIATIVE SOME METHODS OF DOING ERROR IDENTIFICATION EXERCISE IN THE GCSE EXAM Author: Hoang Thi

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HOANG HOA IV HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENTIAL INITIATIVE

SOME METHODS OF DOING ERROR IDENTIFICATION

EXERCISE IN THE GCSE EXAM

Author: Hoang Thi Minh

Position: Teacher

School: Hoang Hoa 4 high school

Subject: English

THANH HOA , YEAR OF 2019

INDEX

I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

2 Aims of the study

3 Objects of the study

4 Methods of the study

2 2 2 2 3

II CONTENTS OF THE STUDY

1.Theoretical background

2 Practical background

3.Implimentation and sollution

4 Results after applying the reasearch in teaching

2- 10 2-3 3 3- 10 10

III CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

Reference material

11-13 11

I INTRODUCTION:

1 RATIONALE (Reasons for choosing the topic):

There is no doubt that learning English is very important Especially, since the school year 2013-2014, it is compulsary for high school students throughout Vietnam to do English test in the GCSE exam This heightens the need for teachers to investigate alternative approaches to teaching skills that would lead to significant improvement in students’ marks

Error identification is one of exercises in the GCSE exam making up 0,6 points which most students have difficulties in identifying the errors

There are some reasons for this Firstly, The studens don’t learn English grammar well (such as verbs tenses, world forms, verb forms, conjunctions,

prepositions ) Secondly, most teachers mainly focus on teaching the theory

of grammar, they don’t teach students the methods of doing this exercise When correcting for the students, the teachers often help their students to identify the errors directly and explain about these errors Therefore, students only identify the errors in specific sentences

It is for such reasons that my experiential initiative attempts to explore

“ Some methods of doing error identification exercise in the GCSE exam ”

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY:

My school is in the country, most of my students come from poor families They learn english without the support of advanced technology such as: computers, laptops They don’t have a lot of chances to learn English at English centers The studens’ learning English mainly depends on their teachers and textbooks I myself take responsibility for the job and create several simply ways to improve the score of the students in the GCSE exam

3 OBJECTS OF THE STUDY:

The objects chosen for this study are 12th- form students at Hoang Hoa 4 high school, Thanh Hoa province where I have been teaching for 13 years

4 METHODS OF THE STUDY:

To achieve the objectives of the study, several methods are used, but I use mainly quantitative and qualitative methods

The data serving the research analysis and discussions are collected by means of a survey questionnaire for students and observation

II THE CONTENTS OF THE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVES

1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND:

English as a language has great reach and influence; it is taught all over the world English may not be the most spoken language in the world, but it is the official language in a large number of countries English is the language of science, of aviation, computers, diplomacy, and tourism Knowing English increases studens’ chances of getting a good job in a multinational company within their home country or of finding work abroad

Knowing the methods of doing multiple choice questions, especially the methods of doing error identification exercise will help the students gain high score in the GCSE exam

2 PRACTICAL BACKGROUND:

The study was conducted at Hoang Hoa 4 high school, a rural school of Thanh Hoa province

The school has 31 classes, each class consists of from 40 to 46 students Most of the students come from the villages in the district where English learning and teaching does not get much attention The only sources from which students can get knowledge are the textbooks and their teachers With three periods per week, this is unable for teachers to meet students’ demand At home, they are short of dictionaries, reference books, cassette tapes, speakers Additionally, their parents do not know anything about English As a result, they find it difficult to learn English and they become lazy I myself has been teaching English for 13 years I have a lot of experiences in teaching students for the GCSE exam For this exercise, most students have difficulties in identifying errors (about 90 % don’t know how to do this exercise)

Such practical background has leaded me to my experiential initiative:

“Some methods of doing error identification exercise in the GCSE exam”

3 IMPLEMENTATION AND SOLUTIONS:

3.1 HOW TO IDENTIFY ERRORS.

Step 1: Read quickly all four underlined words and base on English

grammar to identify the errors

Step 2: If you finsh step one and you can’t identify the errors, you must

read all the sentences because the errors often relate to the right part of the sentence

3.2 THE POPULAR ERRORS IN ERROR IDENTIFICATION EXERCISE IN THE GCSE EXAM

3.2.1 ERRORS IN VERBS

Errors in verbs often relates to the verb tenses, verb forms, the harmony between subjects and verbs

- Verb tenses

These errors relate to using the wrong tense or wrong part of tense We can base on the signs of time of the tenses to identify these errors

Ex1 He saw an accident when he walked to school this morning.

A B C D

The correct answer is C (walked => was walking) because this is the use of the past continuous tense

Ex2 If It didn’t rain hard yesterday, our class could have gone camping

A B C D

The correct answer is A (didn’t rain => hadn’t rained) because this is the conditional clause of the conditional sentense type 3

- Verbs in passive or active voice

We can base on the meaning of sentence, the subject, or “by” to know the verbs are used in active or passive voice

Ex A new bridge will be build over this river.

A B C D

The correct answer is C (be build => be built)

- Verb forms

These errors relate to Ing-form, to infinitive, infinitive without to or present participle, past participle

Ex1 We were advised not drinking the water in the bottle.

A B C D

The correct answer is C (drinking => to drink) because after verb “advise” we have to use “to infinitive”

Ex2 Establishing in 1984 for students who wanted to study art and music

A B

subjects , LaGuardia was the first public school of its kind

C D

The correct answer is A (Establishing => Established) because in this sentence

we have to use past participle not present participle

Ex3 It is essential that cancer is diagnosed and treated as early as possible in

order to assure a successful cure

C D

The correct answer is A (is diagnosed => be diagnosed) because this phrase is in that clause of the structure “It is +adjective+ that +S+ V (bare infinitive)”

- The harmony between subjects and verbs

+ Verbs in the present simple tense

Ex My mother usually get up late from Monday to Friday.

A B C D

The correct answer is B (get up => gets up) because “My mother” is a singular noun

+ Some nouns ending “s” used as a singular nouns

Economics, mathematics, linguistics, informatics, measles, Athens, The United States …

Ex The United States come to of the list of countries ranked by economic

A B C

performances

D

The correct answer is A (come => comes)

+ Subjects are “A number of +V (inf )” , “The number of +Vs/es”

Ex A number of large insurance companies has their headquarters in the capital

A B C

city

D

The correct answer is B (has => have)

+ Subjects combined by “and”, “both” +Vinf

Ex Both his mother and he likes listening to music.

A B C D

The correct answer is C (like =>likes)

+ Subjects combined by “either or”, “neither nor”, “not only but also” verbs depending on the second subject

Ex Not only they but also she like learning English

A B C D

The correct answer is B (like => likes) because the subject is “she”

+ Subjects combined by “as well as”, “together with”, “along with”,

“accompanied by” verbs depending the first subject.

Ex Industrial emissions, together with littering, is causing many problems in

A B C D

our large industrial cities today

The correct answer is C (is => are) because the subject is “Industrial emissions”

3.2.2 ERRORS IN WORD FORMS

These errors relate to using word forms wrongly between nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, plural nouns, singular nouns

- Misusing adverbs and adjectives

Ex I feel both excited and nervously because I have an interesting interview

A B C D

tomorrow

The correct answer is B (nervously => nervous) because after “feel” we use adjectives not adverbs

After some verbs such as: be, get, feel, seem, look, smell, taste, keep we have to use adjectives not adverbs

- Misusing adjects ending “ing” and adjectives ending “ed”

Ex Jane is not such a celebrating actress as her mother

A B C D

The correct answer is C (celebrating => celebrated) because “celebrated” the same meaning with “famous”

- Misusing special adverbs not ending “ly”

Ex In order to earn a lot of money my father works as harly as possible.

A B C D

The correct answer is D (hardly => hard) because “hard” is an adverb

Some adverbs (hard, fast, late, early) don’t have ending “ly”, which makes us misuse them

- Errors relate to the order of words in a sentence

Ex He has taken recently an English course.

A B C D

The correct answer is B (taken recently => recently taken)

- Misusing adjectives and nouns

Ex Higher education is very importance to national economies and it is also a

A B

source of trained and educated personnel for the whole country

C D

The correct answer is A (importance => important) because after “is” and “very”

we have to use an adjective not an adverb

- Misusing singular nouns, plural nouns, countable and uncountable nouns

Ex All of the alumnus are attending the reception at the president’s house.

A B C D The correct answer is A (alummus => alumni) because the plural noun is

“alumni” not “alummus”

- Words connected by “and”, “but” or “or” have the same word form.

Ex The puppy stood up slowly, waged its tail, blinking its eyes and barked

A B C D

The correct answer is D (blinking=> blinked)

3.2.3 ERRORS IN PRONOUNS

- Misusing pronouns

Ex Your house is not so beautiful as my.

A B C D

The correct answer is D (my => mine) because we have to use an possessive pronoun “mine” not possessive adjective “my”

- The harmony between nouns and pronouns.

Ex Children learn primarily by dirrectly experiencing the world around it

A B C D

The correct answer is D (it => them)

- Excess pronouns

Ex A jelly fish, which isn’t really a fish, it has no brain, no bones, and no face.

A B C D The correct answer is C (it => leave out “it”)

3.2.4 ERRORS IN PREPOSITIONS

- Misuing prepositions after adjectives, verbs, or in idioms

Ex The boy apologised the woman of breaking her window.

A B C D

The correct answer is B (of => for) because the structure “to apologise sb for”

- Lack of prepositions

Ex According experts 60,000 cubic feet of earth was thrown into the air in the

A B C D explosion of Mount St Helen

The correct answer is A (According => According to)

- Excess prepositions

Ex Most of people learn English for their jobs.

A B C D

The correct answer is A (Most of =>Most)

3.2.5 ERRORS IN CONFUSING WORDS

- like/ alike

Ex Alike other forms of energy, natural gas may be used to heat homes, cook

A B C D food, and even run automobiles

The correct answer is A( Alike => Like)

- many/ much

Ex Much people agree that we should protect the environment.

A B C D

The correct answer is A (much => many)

- most/ almost

Ex Almost poetry is more enjoyable when it is read aloud

A B C D

The correct answer is A (Amost =>Most)

- few/ a few , little/ a little

Ex I’ve got a few friends and I need to make new friends.

A B C D

The correct answer is B (a few=>few)

- so/ such

Ex It is so an interesting book that I’ve read it three times.

A B C D

- beside/ besides

Ex Many small towns have a wooded park besides a lake or stream.

The correct answer is C (beside => besides)

- lay/ lie

Ex She lay the baby down gently on the bed.

A B C D

The correct answer is A (lay => laid)

- despite, in spite of / although, though, eventhough, because/ because of

Ex Although the bad weather, we decided not to cancel our trip.

A B C D

The correct answer is A (Although => Despite or In spite of ) because after it is

a noun phrase

- other/ another/ the other

Ex Some birds perch on branches, while other cling to their trunks.

The correct answer is C (other => others)

- make / do

Ex The helicopter can make jobs that no other aircraft can.

The correct answer is B (make => do)

- Not/ no

Ex Because not food is as nutritious for a baby as its mother’s milk, many

women are returning to the practice of breast feeding

The correct answer is A (not food => no good)

- twice/ double

Ex There are only ten children in the class at the moment but it could be

twice that after Christmas

The correct answer is C (twice => double)

3.2.6 ERRORS IN INVERSION

- Inversion with rarely, hardly, never or little, much, nowhere, at no time, under no circumstance

Ex Little he knows about her

A B C D

The correct answer is B (he knows => does he know)

- Inversion of some structures

+ so that

Ex So beautiful the girl is that everyone likes her.

A B C D

The correct answer is B (the girl is =>is the girl)

+ Not only but also

Ex Not only she is intelligent but she is also hard-working.

A B C D

The correct answer is B (she is => is she)

+ It was not until that

Ex Not umtil he came into the light I recognized him.

The correct answer is D (I recognized => did I recognize)

+ No sooner than , Hardly when

Ex No sooner I had come home than it rained.

A B C D

The correct answer is B (I had => Had I)

+ Inversion with Only (in, on, at, by, after, when )

Ex Only when he grew up he knew about the truth.

A B C D

The correctanswer is C (he knew => did he know)

- Inversion in conditional sentences

Ex Alex had asked, I would have been able to help.

A B C D

The correct answer is A (Alex had asked => Had Alex asked)

3.2.7 ERRORS IN RELATIVE CLAUSES

- Most errors relate to misusing relative pronouns (who, which, that ) Ex1 There are many single mothers and single fathers which are raising

A B C D

children by themselves

The correct answer is C (which => who)

Ex2 He passed the exam with high score, that made his parents happy

A B C D

The correct answer is C (that =>which) because after “,” we don’t use “that”

3.2.8 ERRORS IN REPORTED SPEECH

- These errors relate to not changing tense, time, place in reported speech Ex1 The children said that they hadn’t gone to school yesterday.

A B C D

The correct answer is D (yesterday => the day before)

Ex2 They said that they will come back again soon.

A B C D

The correct answer is C (will =>would)

- Errors relate to the order of elements in reported speech

Ex Her husband asked her son what did he want for his birthday.

A B C D

The correct answer is C (what did he want => what he wanted)

3.2.9 ERRORS RELATING EXCESS WORDS

- These are some pairs of words which can’t be used together.

Ex1 Once you have finished an article and identified its main ideas, it may not

be necessary to reread it again

C D

The correct answer is D (again => leave it out)

Ex2 Would you like to join together with us ?

A B C D

The correct answer is C (together => leave it out )