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Error Correction Relay Race
Skill: Reading/Writing
Time: 10+ minutes
Materials: Worksheet
Error correction relay race is an ESL activity that uses speed and competition to make something old (error correction) new again. Students of all levels should be quite familiar with finding and correcting errors in sentences. By adding a relay aspect, it will (hopefully) make an important but sometimes tedious skill new and more interesting.
How to Prepare
To prepare the activity, create a worksheet with 10-15 errors. You can focus your errors on one aspect of vocabulary, such as synonyms and antonyms, or more simply, misuse vocabulary words in sentences.
For lower level students, limit the errors to one per sentence. Higher levels can handle multiple errors in one sentence, and you can increase the challenge by having one vocabulary error per sentence and one or more other errors, such as grammar or punctuation mistakes.
The Activity Itself
The activity itself is straightforward. Students will work in teams of 4-5 to correct the worksheet as quickly as possible. Each student makes one correction and passes the worksheet to the next person who makes the next correction. They continue to pass the worksheet around until it is complete. You can make it easier by allowing students to choose any remaining sentence to correct, or you can require them to work from top to bottom.
Like this Activity? There are 38 more just like in this book: 39 ESL Vocabulary Activities for Teenagers and Adults.
Teaching Tips for Relay Race:
To prevent one student from carrying the rest of the team, do not allow other team members to correct another correction. That is, a sentence cannot be corrected by a second student once someone has corrected it. This also prevents more assertive (but not necessarily more able) students from incorrectly correcting others’ work.
Also, to keep things moving along you may want to have a time limit for each turn before students must pass the worksheet along.
Procedure for Relay Race:
1. In advance, prepare a worksheet with 10-15 sentences containing vocabulary errors.
2. Divide students into groups of 4-5. If possible, group the desks to facilitate easy passing of the worksheets.
3. Have students take turns making one correction and, passing the worksheet to the next student to make one correction. They continue passing and correcting until the worksheet is complete.
4. When all teams are finished, go over the errors as a class. The team with the most correct sentences wins.
Like Error Correction Relay Race?
It’s from this book, available on Amazon: 39 ESL Vocabulary Activities: For Teenagers and Adults
. If you want to have dozens of fun, interesting vocabulary activities and games at your fingertips, this is what you’ll need.
The book is available in both digital and print formats. The (cheaper!) digital one can be read on any device by downloading the free Kindle reading app.
Check it out for yourself on Amazon, but only if you have some ESL awesome in your life!
Have your Say!
What are some of your favourite ESL games or activities? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.
I regularly do relays but I’ve never done a correction one! Thanks for the tip and the clear instructions.
When I do really I form groups by the classroom rows. So the worksheet gets passed down the row and then the student at the front has to pin the completed sheet onto the board.