 Back to Speaking/Listening Activities
Working on Lists of Mistakes
The Teacher's feedback on Rajimar's Talk on Listening Experiences (Av2, 2010-11)
 Video of Rajimar's talk in class  - Watch it first! |
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"In my first week I was so scared that I could hardly understand a word!"
"I remembered the teacher saying 'Be patient, be patient!'"
-- Rajimar tells his classmates about his Learning-to-Listen practice
and also about his progress, so as to encourage them
to be patient and follow their teacher's advice!
Thanks, R.! That was very helpful and inspiring! :) |
Teacher's comments:
Dear R.,
Thanks so much for allowing us to videoshoot your performance and sharing your experiences in class.
Now, to work! I'm going to give you some feedback.
Although our Syllabus is designed for a first year of a C1 level, this course is meant to be a B2 level (because the June Certificate Exam will be testing a B2 level) and I have to say that, in my view, you would be able to pass a B2 level Speaking Test right now! You are fluent, and very fluent at times. Communicatively speaking, you get your message through. Your pronunciation and intonation are fine. The way you organize and connect ideas, too. So congratulations! Well done!
What you should improve, though, is this: those little language mistakes. You need to work on your List of Mistakes (LoM) also with the input from your Speaking activities in class, OK? And you should combine this awareness with the development of your ability to monitor your production: to listen to yourself, notice the mistake, and fix it! You did use some self-correction in this piece, but I think you could've corrected a few other mistakes on the spot!
Now let's list those minor mistakes you made, OK? Feel free to comment and ask in class, or to post here, of course!
LoM
(List of Mistakes to avoid)
01. tell you ABOUT my experience
02. NO: I got this school by level test. YES: I took a level test and was placed in Av1
03. Replace "However" with "In any case,"
04. Replace "I choose" (pres.) with "I chose" /chouz/ (past)
05. NO: to explain you better. YES: to explain it better (to you)
06. Pron. of initial s-: start with the s- sound, not the e- sound
07. Pron. of 'previous' = /príviez/
08. I think you mispronounced "patient" the 2nd time: Be patieNT
09. listening TO the same
10. NO: What I want to tell is ... YES: What I want to say is; altern.: What I'd like to say is... + Past (correct): what I wanted to say is...
11. Alternative to "It's an easy word" = the word is easy
12. I told HIM ABOUT the situation
13. Info mistake: NO: from the podcast of TP website. YES: from the TP website
14. NO: I understood something as YES: something like
15. Is THAT right?
16. I was not able to understand IT
17. NO: give you an advice. YES: give you ANY advice (in your context) - Give you some advice = darte unos consejos / algún consejo / un consejo
18. We need to talk about "good enough". I didn't mean it that way. In that context, it'd be "well enough".
What you pronounced wonderfully well: experience, exercises, technique, started, passed, course, downloaded, pieces, had, it's, success...
What you did well: Tenses: a variety of tenses: past simple & cont., past perfect cont., modals in the past, including "was able to". Correct use of nonpersonal verb forms, prep. phrases, linkers, expressions, voc., quantifiers, verbal structures like "let me use", the use of "kind of" to mitigate & "very" as an intensifier (from the very beginning)...
About Clauses, you could improve that a bit: you used time clauses, reason clauses... that was good. Perhaps you could've used a conditional clause here (your Pres-Pres conditional clause can be brushed up!), an "although" clause there, a relative clause... :) |
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About garden paths. I wasn't accurate enough -- though it's OK. But let me explain: lexical ambiguities take numerous forms/names. "Garden paths" are are misleading groupings. When those are aural they are generally known as "mondegreens" or "mishearings". One of the funniest and most popular is: "The ants are my friends, they're blowing in the wind," from Dylan's song! "The answer my friend is blowing in the wind." We'll have a look at this at the Lexical Creativity Workshop.
About mishearings, read this article -
dedicated to Rajimar! :)
To cheer up, check out "Mistakes by Native Speakers: Ambiguity and Multiplicity in Meaning" published at Talking People
Cultural Issues: If you are going to listen to the news in VOA , you could also listen to the news in Democracy Now , to get more varied sources. A source which progressist people from the USA do not like is Fox News. |
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