Error Correction Relay Race | ESL Grammar Activity

Are you looking for a fun ESL game that makes something old and boring, new and fun? Then the Error Correction relay race might be the activity for you.

Keep on reading to find out more about why it’s one of my favourite ESL grammar activities for kids, as well as adults.

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.

How to Do the Error Correction Relay Race

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.

If you teach vocabulary in your classes, then you’ll need to do lots of review to help those new words stick. That’s exactly where this book comes in. There are dozens of fun, interesting games and activities for English learners that’ll help build repetition into your lessons.

Yes, it really is that easy.

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. Keep a copy on the bookshelf in your office, or take a copy with you to your favourite coffee shop for lesson planning on the go.

Check it out for yourself on Amazon, but only if you have some ESL awesome in your life!

—>39 ESL Vocabulary Activities for Teenagers and Adults<—

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