Prompt 3

1. (During a vocabulary exercise you hear:) "I have a compromise to

meet him at 6:00 this evening"

This mistake is due to False Cognate of L1 vocabulary in which the word

(compromise) is used mistakenly. The Spanish word (compromiso) means
commitment in English and the learner uses it inappropriately ,here,
thinking that it gives the same meaning.
For this type of mistakes, I would (as a teacher) correct it immediately
during the task since the example shows an accuracy mistake. The
technique I would use here to correct such a mistake is to elicit the correct
form from another student and then ask for the correct form again from the
first student.

2. (During a discussion you hear:) "I go ski next weekend"

The reason behind this mistake is overgeneralization in which the

student misuses the form because it has not been completely internalized.
The future tense is supposed to be known to the student through the time
marker (next week) and (go) is supposed to be used for sports that end in (-
ing).
As the correction (I will go skiing next weekend) is complex, the teacher
would rather plan a future lesson to address the student's need. This is done
by writing a timeline on the board.

3. (During a role play you hear:) "Give me one glass of water, waiter!"

The usage error in this sentence is in vocabulary. The student should have
said "I'd like a glass of water, please" . As the student is engaged in a
role-play (and in order not to interrupt the flow of the activity), the teacher
could take a mental note and deal with the error after the activity is
finished. The teacher asks, then, : "Is it 'give me one glass of water,
waiter!" or ' I'd like a glass of water, please" ?
4. (During vocabulary practice you hear:) "Mexico City is the greatest city
in Mexico with almost 15 million people"

It is an example of overgeneralization in which the adjective " great" is

used generally to describe (size) . Instead of "greatest " the word "biggest"
should be used to describe population of Mexico . For accuracy in this
practice of vocabulary, the teacher corrects immediately upon hearing the
error to create a model for the student to work on. The teacher asks this
question: " Is it greatest or biggest ?"

5. (During a group class activity you hear:) "She leaves in a small house in
town."

L1 interference with pronunciation cause this kind of errors. The

students pronounce "lives" with the sound of "leaves". The teacher has to
correct immediately by echoing the sentence with stress on the error using
also the phonemic chart to indicate the sound.

6. (During a debate you hear:) "He can't play football because of his
damaged leg."

This error is a result of false cognate. The student chooses the

inappropriate word (damaged) instead of (injured) to describe leg injury
because they look similar in L1 vocabulary. The teacher has to correct at
the end of the debate by simply telling the student his mistake.