Error Correction PDF

Feedback and Error Correction Feedback ü Feedback refers to the information that learners receive from their teacher about their performance, which will help them take self- corrective action and improve their achievement. ü Learners receive feedback from several sources: themselves, the lea...

Feedback and Error Correction Feedback ü Feedback refers to the information that learners receive from their teacher about their performance, which will help them take self- corrective action and improve their achievement. ü Learners receive feedback from several sources: themselves, the learning task, fellow students and the teacher. üThe purpose of giving feedback in the classroom is to improve learner performance, it provides constructive advice, and guidance to learners in their effort to raise their performance levels. Kinds of feedback Two different kinds of feedback: content and form feedback. 1. Content feedback involves the assessment of how good the students’ performance was in the communicative activity, focusing on their ability to perform the task rather than deal with the correctness of their language used in the activity. 2. Form feedback deals with the linguistic accuracy of the students’ performance. The teacher will record the errors the students are making during the activity and will give feedback on their successful achievement as well as discuss their errors and mistakes. Error correc1on Correction is a form of feedback given to learners on their use of the language. Errors VS. Mistakes Mistakes are inaccuracies in linguistic production either in our native language (L1) or in the foreign language (L2) that are caused by memory lapses, physical states and conditions such as fatigue, inattention, or strong emotion. Mistakes are mainly slips of the tongue or lapses, even native people make mistakes in speech and writing. Mistakes are not systematic, they occur accidentally, the learner is immediately aware of them and can correct them. Errors Errors are systematic and may give valuable insight into language acquisition because they are goofs in the learner’s underlying competence. Non-native speakers, L2 learners not only make mistakes, they also commit errors and as they have only an incomplete knowledge of the target language, they are not always able to correct the errors that they make. Thus, the learners’ errors reflect a lack of underlying competence in the language that they are learning. Teachers’ attitude to errors TEACHERS should understand that a language is a system of rules that the learner has to acquire, that trying out language and making errors are natural and unavoidable parts of this process. Errors are important because they are the indication of the learners’ developing competence Interlanguage: Interlanguage refers to the process the learner goes through from the initial stage when he knows very little about the language getting to a final stage when he possesses almost complete fluency. It shows a transitional stage of the learner’s development towards L2 competence. It is a system that the learners construct at any stage in their development. What are the most important causes of errors? 1. Language transfer – interference Language transfer refers to the influence of the mother tongue on the learning of the foreign language. 2. Overgeneralization Overgeneralization means that whenever learners meet a new pattern or a new rule, they think that the pattern or rule applies to all cases without exception. Errors are produced because the learner extends the target language rule to inappropriate context ignoring the restrictions of the structures.  3. Teaching-induced errors errors can be encouraged by the teaching method, as well. Teaching-induced errors result from different aspects of the teaching process itself that the learners are exposed to: the classroom situaKon, the used material, the teacher’s language use, the teaching method. They may be due to the fact that the teaching material is not appropriate to the class, or there are some deficiencies in the teaching methodology. The teacher can also induce errors by using overgeneralizaKon or simplificaKon himself in an aMempt to help the learners understand the new material. Types of errors 1. interlingual/transfer errors, which are due to the interference of the learners’ mother tongue. 2. intralingual/developmental errors, which are due to the new language learned.  Responding to oral errors Error correction should be positive to encourage students to concentrate on what they have got right. Teachers have to praise students for correct answers, even for partly correct answers, so as to make them feel they are making progress. Teachers should avoid humiliating students or making them feel that making a mistake or an error is bad. Teachers have to consider several factors: 1. what to correct (the nature of the error or mistake), 2. when to correct (students’ purpose in speaking, concentrating on fluency or accuracy), 3. how much to correct (selection of errors to be corrected, individual or common problem, 4. the ease with which the error or mistake can be corrected, avoidance of overcorrection). 5. How to correct (indication of the error, person providing correction, personality and ability of the student). Very little time is to be spent on mistakes, as students are usually able to correct themselves either unprompted or with some guidance. Accuracy Accuracy is important for learners in the accurate reproduction stage, when they are given controlled practice in the form of the language, during which they practice carefully the structure that has just been presented to them. In this stage immediate error correction is necessary. the teacher indicates that something is wrong then asks for correction.  How can the teacher indicate incorrectness? Repeating: the teacher asks the student repeat what she/he has just said, by using the word ‘again’ with questioning intonation to indicate that something is wrong. Echoing: the teacher repeats what the student has just said using a questioning intonation, or repeats the sentence up to the error/mistake and ask someone to continue. Gower and Walters (1983) warn us to be very careful not to echo the errors in a mocking way because it might discourage the student. Denial: the teacher simply can say that the answer is not right and ask the student to repeat it. It may be more discouraging than the earlier techniques. Questioning: the teacher can ask the whole class ‘Is that correct?’ The advantage of this technique is that it focuses the attention of the whole class on the problem, but it might cause the student who made the error or mistake to feel more embarrassed. Expression: the teacher can show that the response was incorrect by a facial expression or with some gesture, but it must be done carefully so that the student will not think that the teacher’s expression is mockery.  Ways of correction 1. Self-correction: is the best technique, because the student will remember it better. 2. Peer correction: If the student cannot correct him/herself the teacher can encourage other students to supply correction. Advantages of peer correction: A. it encourages cooperation, students get used to the idea that they can learn from each other, B. both learners (who made the error and who corrects) are involved in listening to and thinking about the language, C. the teacher gets a lot of important information about the learners’ ability 3. Teacher correction If no one can correct, the teacher must realize that the point has not yet been learnt properly. In that case the teacher can re-explain the problematic item of language, especially if the teacher sees that the majority of the class has the same problem. Fluency Teachers shouldn’t correct linguistic mistakes immediately when students are involved in fluency practice unless the mistakes affect the communication. If this is the case, the teacher may want to correct, but correction should be ‘gentle’. the teacher just indicates the student that a mistake has been made, gives the correct form but does not spend too much time on it and does not make the student repeat it While the students are involved in communication activities in pairs or in small groups the teacher can monitor their performance by walking round making notes of the mistakes and errors, and after the activity give individual students notes with the errors, they have made indicating the way of correction or discuss the errors with the class. If there are common mistakes, they can be written on the blackboard and corrected by the students. It might be necessary to have more practice in the given structure. Correction of written errors The same principles apply when written work is corrected. Sometimes the teacher concentrates on accuracy, the other time the teacher may be concerned with the content of writing. Written work is to be marked according to the purpose: if the aim is communication, the written work should not be marked according to e.g., spelling. The basic principle is that controlled writing is to be corrected tightly but in the case of guided or free compositions, when the aim is fluency and comprehensibility rather than strict accuracy we should correct less and react to it as communication.