How Can Prefixes and Student Mistakes Improve English Lessons? – S05E18

How can English teachers explain prefixes clearly, experience classroom tasks from a learner’s perspective and correct memorable mistakes sensitively?This week, we explore the prefix under- and compare words such as undercooked and uncooked, underqualified and disqualified, and underreport and misreport. These examples reveal how changing a prefix can completely alter a word’s meaning.Em becomes a student by completing a challenging listening and note-taking task alongside her class. This raises some useful questions for teachers: Should learners hear a recording more than once? How much thinking time do they need before feedback? When should a detailed listening task be paused?We discuss the value of attempting your own classroom activities, allowing silence after listening and using transcripts to examine unfamiliar language such as habitually late.Gav then shares genuine learner errors from his recent lessons. We consider the differences between tall and high, bad and badly, hair and hairs, anybody and everybody, and do sport and make sport. We also explore why learners might say I feel myself happy, the responsible person or I’m looking for the TV.In What Would Gav Do?, Em asks how a teacher could handle an unidentified student repeatedly yawning during an online lesson—and how to stop a talkative learner politely when the class has already run over time.Finally, test your knowledge of Greek and Latin roots and prefixes in the Quiz of the Week, featuring auto, mono, micro and pan. Can you work out how these roots contribute to words including autoimmune, monogram, micromanagement and pandemonium?Drawing on our everyday experience teaching English online and in the classroom, we share practical ideas, honest reactions and language explanations for teachers and learners.📚 EXPLORE THE ARTICLES FROM S05E18• How Can English Teachers Explain Prefixes Clearly?• What Can Teachers Learn by Attempting Their Own Classroom Activities?• How Many Times Should Students Hear a Listening Recording?• Tall or High? How to Teach Commonly Confused English Words• Bad or Badly? A Practical Guide to Adjectives and Adverbs• Hair or Hairs? Anybody or Everybody? How Context Changes English Grammar📝 Full transcription:https://share.descript.com/view/Nszlv2MiPYr☕ Support the podcast:https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod🌐 More episodes and practical teaching ideas:https://howtoenglishpod.com📖 REFERENCESTwo-syllable word stress:https://pronuncian.com/2syllable-word-stressQuiz of the Week:https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mte2otc2oqwroj⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction and pronunciation corrections05:35 What does the prefix under- mean?09:18 Experiencing a listening task as a student12:00 Thinking time, repeated listening and transcripts15:17 Correcting memorable learner mistakes25:11 What Would Gav Do? Yawning in online lessons29:00 Ending a talkative student’s answer politely32:00 Greek and Latin prefixes quiz39:55 Final thoughts and outro