error correction 2006

8/8/2019 Error Correction 2006

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Error Correction

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Why do students do mistakes?

Types Of Errors

How and When should teachers correct

students?

Oral mistakes

Written mistakes

What If?2


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Why dostudents domistakes?

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All Students make mistakes at variousstages of their language learning. It is part

of natural process they are going throughand occurs for a number of reasons.

In the first place, the students' own

language may get in the way. This is most obviously the case with false

friends- those words which sound or look

the same but mean something differentsuch as assstir in Spanish which meansattend in English and not assist.

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False friends are more common wherethe learners language shares a common

heritage with English. In Arabic we havethis heritage like cut cat cave cup

Grammatical Consideration too:Japanesestudents usually have trouble with article

usage, Germans have to get used to putthe verb correctly, Arabic students haveto deal with a completely different writtensystem etc.5


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Interference from the students own language

is not the only reason for making mistakes.

There is a category which a number of people

call developmental errors. These are the

result of conscious or subconscious

processing which frequently overgeneralises

a rule,as,for example, when a student have

learnt to say I have to go ,then he starts to

say I must to go.In other words, some mistakes are deep

seated.

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Types

Of

Errors7


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*It was produced

while testing outhypothesis

(systematic).9


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*It is a slip of the

tongue, a lapse, a

mistake (caused bycarelessness, fatigue

etc.)(post-systematic).

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How and Whenshould teachers

correct

students?11


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The Issue A crucial issue for any teacher is when

and how to correct students' English

mistakes. Of course, there are anumber of types of corrections thatteachers are expected to make duringthe course of any given class. Here are

the main type of mistakes that need tobe corrected:

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Grammatical mistakes (mistakes of verbtenses, preposition use, etc.)

Vocabulary mistakes (incorrectcollocations, idiomatic phrase usage, etc.)

Pronunciation mistakes (errors in basic

pronunciation, errors in word stressing insentences, errors in rhythm and pitch)

Written mistakes (grammar, spelling and

vocabulary choice mistakes in writtenwork)

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The main issue at hand during oral work iswhether or not to correct students as the

make mistakes. Mistakes may be numerousand in various areas (grammar, vocabularychoice, pronunciation of both words andcorrect stressing in sentences). On the

other hand, correction of written work boilsdown to how much correction should bedone. In other words, should teachers

correct every single mistake, or, should theygive a value judgments and correct onlymajor mistakes.

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Oral

mistakes

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With oral mistakes made duringclass discussions, there arebasically two schools of thought:1) Correct often and thoroughly

2) Let students make mistakes.Sometimes, teachers refine the

choice by choosing to letbeginners make many mistakeswhile correcting advanced

students often.16


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However, many teachers aretaking a third route these days.

This third route might be called'selective correction'. In this case,

the teacher decides to correctonly certain errors. Which errorswill be corrected is usually

decided by the objectives of thelesson, or the specific exercisethat is being done at that moment.

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Techniques For Correction

1. Asking for repetition withoutindicating the mistake.

Many teachers use a rolling movementof the hand to ask the student to repeat

without indicating where the mistake

falls. In many cases students will be ableto self-correct when you have indicated

there is a mistake.18


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2. Drawing attention to mistakes and promptingself-correction.

Many teachers use their fingers to indicate the position

of mistakes and prompt the student to self-correct. Forexample, if a student wants to say:

'The car was invented in 1995.'but the student actually says:

'The car was invent in 1995.

The teacher puts up three fingers and touches the first

finger and says IN, then touches the second fingerand says VENT, and finally touches the third fingerand looks at the student with a questioning facialexpression.

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3. Peer correction Sometimes the student cannot self-correct

(although they should always be given theopportunity). In this case you can prompt

another student to provide the correction. After

doing this, return to the original student to get

the self-correction.

Beware of allowing two or three students in the

class to become the ones who always providepeer correction. Correction of mistakes should

be a task shared by all the students in the

class. 20


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4.Deferring correction to the end of

an activity.

5.Taking notes on typical mistakesmade by many students.

6.Correcting only one type of error.

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7.Giving students clues to the type of errorthey are making (in written work) but

allowing them to correct the mistakesthemselves .

8.Asking other students to remark onmistakes made and then explain the rules bythemselves. A great technique for getting'teacher pets' listening instead of answering

each question themselves. However, usethis with caution.

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Writtenmistakes

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Recommendations We wish to avoid de-motivating our students.

The less corrections the better therefore andthis should follow from carefully controlledwork.

Get the pupils to check each others' workbefore handing it.

Isolate the main error. If the past tense is

highlighted and the writing involves a narrativein the past concentrate on that and ignoreother errors. Correcting every single errorachieves nothing since it confuses and de-

motivates pupils. 24


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Use different coloured pens for marking.Perhaps red for the main errors,green for

others . Use a code (Dont correct everything

yourself encourage pupils to spot theirerrors) eg.sp = spelling, ww = wrong wordetc.

Discuss common errors in class whenhanding back work.

Get pupils to work in pairs to correct theirmistakes.

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Correction is best done with pupils asthey are writing and

improvement/corrections can be discussedwith individuals.

Written assignments must present pupils

with only a reasonable challenge;something for which they have beenprepared in class, If a written task is too

difficult, it will lead to so many errors that itis impossible to correct in a constructiveway.

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Procedure for correction

The teacher should go through the

pupil's written work in detail,underlining all errors. This must bedone with some precision. Thenature of the error is indicated with

an abbreviation in the margin. Thatis all at this stage: no marks areawarded nor comments made.

Stage one

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Common abbreviations used by teachers:

sp = spelling st = structures w o = word order w w = wrong word t = tense p = punctuation + = add something

- = omit something ? = incomprehensible * = see note below

Students may like to make a note of these abbreviations inside the

cover of their copybooks. 28


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Stage two Work is returned to the pupils with

the underlinings and marginalabbreviations.

The pupils study them and attemptto correct their errors, with the helpof the textbooks and dictionary.

The teachers role here is to goround to check that the pupils havetruly studied the errors.

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Stage three The teacher correct the work again,

focusing on the pupils' response to

the underlined errors. If the pupil has made a reasonable

attempt to correct his own work, he

should be awarded. Otherwise, thework is returned at the pupil sothat he can make a second attempt

of self correction.30


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If I allow students to makemistakes, I will reinforce the errors

they are making. Many teachers feel that if they do not

correct mistakes immediately, they will be

helping reinforce incorrect language

production skills. This point of view is also

reinforced by students who often expect

teachers to continually correct them during

class. The failure to do so will often create

suspicion on the part of the students.32


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If I don't allow students to makemistakes, I will take away from thenatural learning process required toachieve competency and, eventually,fluency .Learning a language is a long process duringwhich a learner will inevitably make many,many mistakes. In other words we take amyriad of tiny steps going from not speaking alanguage to being fluent in the language. In theopinion of many teachers, students who are

continually corrected become inhibited andcease to participate. This results in the exactopposite of what the teacher is trying toproduce - the use of English to communicate .

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error correction 2006

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