Stament of the problem

Retrieved on May 10, 2010 from http://agiletools.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/problem.jpg

Problem:

The overall objectives of the Skills 1-3 block is to enable students to use English as a way to expand their already existing knowledge, to collaborate among classmates to reach specific tasks effectively, and to consolidate what they have already learned in the six previous courses. Students are expected to use grammatically appropriate discourse to talk about the topics that the textbook (Top Notch 2) has to offer.

I have noticed from my experience as well as other teachers' who have taught the same courses that many of the learners from the Skills block  (CEF A2/B1) tend to present difficulties in speaking accuracy especially constructing full-length sentences in Past tenses (Subject + Verb + Complement order) in affirmative negative statements and yes/no and information questions. They also show difficulties shifting aspects (e.g. from simple past to past continuous). They are also not aware of correcting their own speaking production in order to improve accuracy and this generally leads to fossilization and stagnation. The aforementioned issue concerns me because these learners are most likely to reach an early learning plateau in their learning process quite prematurely due to lack of awareness of correcting their own mistakes especially during communicative events.