Visibility - How to teach accuracy

How to teach: English - Chris Curtis 2019

Visibility
How to teach accuracy

A lot of students get the words ’a lot’ wrong. In my time I have seen several versions, but the preferred option is usually ’allot’ or ’alot’. Why is it that students make this mistake over and over again? Well, it is relatively simple. Say the following sentence out loud:

A lot of gardeners own or rent an allotment and the owner allots a fixed amount of space for each person.

Did you notice how you say ’a lot’ in the same way as you say the opening of ’allotment’ and ’allots’? You say it without any pauses. In fact, we all do it. Is there any wonder why students write it as one word when this is how it is spoken? To combat this, every time I come across it while reading aloud, I place emphasis on the gap and put a pause between the ’a’ and the ’lot’. There are lots of mistakes students make and I think we have to be explicit about drawing attention to them.