Training students how to use basic monitoring strategies

Retrieved from Google images on May 30, 2010

I have been training my students to use certain monitoring strategies in order to raise awareness of their most frequent mistakes when they use the past tenses. I believe that it is necessary to train students to use some of our teaching techniques, so they can apply them according to their needs, in both inside as well as outside the classroom settings and they will also have to become familiar with the procedures, starting from noticing a new concept (Scrivener, 2005) to actively using the language accurately. To do this, learners need to correct themselves and their classmates when they are negotiating meaning. The more they do it during controlled practice activities and from time to time in free conversations; they will raise awareness of becoming more accurate (Chamot, 1999). Here are some techniques I've been using to train my learners to monitor accuracy in the past tenses:

• Substitution tables

• The book’s grammar charts

• How to use their fingers to monitor accuracy

Substitution tables:

These tables or charts are very useful especially when it comes to notice and understand grammar patterns (Scrivener, 2005). Students are to write a short sentence, it could be affirmative or negative statements or Yes/No or WH questions. It has to be written out from left to right and the sentence has to be divided into smaller parts and each part has to be labeled according to part of speech it corresponds.

The rationale behind the substitution tables like any other learning strategy has to be explained to the learners beforehand so they will know how to use them and most importantly, how they will link later on with future strategies. I suggest that once the students record the information in their notebooks, they write their own examples following the models that they wrote down before. Another variation of this strategy is to leave part of the information blank so the students can figure out what the missing part is.

Grammar charts:

Once the students familiarize themselves with the substitution tables, they have to know how to transfer that information into their book’s grammar charts. Students will have to breakdown the information given in their charts into smaller bits of information. They will have to subdivide the information, for instance, in any book’s grammar chart; students can draw a horizontal line between the subject and the main verbs. They will also have to draw another line between the main verb, and the complement. It would be ideal if they label the parts of the sentence by using their own conventions such as abbreviations. They can also draw a vertical line if there are differences in the structures. They can draw a line between the affirmative and negative statements in the first or third person and so on. It is likely for the students to remember the information more if they have a visual reference of the concept they are learning. Another advantage of subdividing the grammar charts will come from class preparation. If the students work on their grammar tables on their own before class, they will be ready to produce the target structure during class time much faster than without doing this procedure in advance and they will also be ready to understand the concept in class more rapidly or they will be able clarify a doubt on their own as the teacher is guiding them through the concept.

Finger correction:

Initially used as a correction technique, finger correction is quite useful once the students become aware that there is a grammatical pattern to follow when they are speaking. This technique originated from the “silent way” methodology back in the 70’s, its distinctive trademark is the Cuisenaire rods. Among its many uses, the rods show how the grammar structures are formed. Each rod comes in a different sizes and colors and they represent a part of speech. These patterns can be transferred to the student’s fingers. Each finger represents a part of speech. They already know the grammar patterns because they have used them before in the substitution tables and their grammar charts. This is the way it works: you have to put one hand in front of you, make sure that your palm is facing you because the students will read the sentence from left to right on the other side of your hand, then use your other hand to indicate each word in each finger in turn as you or the student say the sentence. The students will get a clear visual indication of the form of the sentence. Of course, the students will have to be trained in this technique, but you have to make clear that it has the same rationale as the substitution tables and the grammar charts. They can use this technique whenever they are doing controlled or freer practice activities.

I assume that these techniques will initially raise awareness of how my students are employing the verbs in past tenses. However, I still need to see to what extent they will use them in order to improve past tense accuracy during the regular lesson before we do the second implementation task.