Spot the Differences

Introduction:
Your ESL students go over 2 texts to spot the differences.

What is learnt?
Common mistakes and self correction.

How the game is played:

Pair the students and give them the two texts. Ask them to spot all the differences they can between them. Tell them that there may be more than one pair of differences per pair of parallel sentences. Tell them one item in each pair of alternatives is correct.
They are to choose the correct form from each pair.
Ask them to dictate the correct text to you at the board. Write down exactly what they say, so students have a chance to correct each other both in terms of grammar and in terms of their pronunciation. If a student pronounces dis voman for 'this woman' then write up the wrong version. Only write it correctly when the student pronounces it right.
Your task in this exercise is to allow the students to try out their hypotheses about sound and grammar without putting them right too soon and so reducing their energy and blocking their learning. Being too kind can be cognitively unkind.

LATE-COMER A	LATE-COMER B
This women was often very late.	This woman was often very late.
She was late for meetings.	She was late for meeting.
She were late for dinners.	She was late for dinners.
She was late when she went to the	She was late as she went to the
cinema.	cinema.
One day she arrive for a meeting	One day she arrived for meeting
half an hour early.	half an hour early.
Nobody could understand because	Nobody couldn't understand
she was early.	why she was early.
'Of course,' someone said, 'clocks	'Of course,' someone say, 'the
put back last night'.	clocks were put back last night'.
© Cambridge University Press 1995