Error correction example

Students shouldn’t be afraid of using the wrong tense or omitting an article as making mistakes is the proof of learning, but the question is how teachers handle these mistakes. Too much error-correction can demotivate students, on the other hand, to let the conversation flow and not to correct any mistakes can also cause some problems in the future. The difficulty, of course, is in finding the middle ground. What should we correct, when should we correct it, and how should it be corrected?

Step 1 — Identify the reason for making mistakes (what to correct):

1. L1 interference — happens when the learner’s mother tongue affects performance in the target language. For example, learners make grammatical mistakes because they apply the same grammatical patterns as in their L1.
Read more in “Learner English”, a practical reference guide which compares the relevant features of a student’s own language with English, helping teachers to predict and understand the problems their students have. It has chapters focusing on major problems of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and other errors.
2. A developmental error — an error that occurs as a natural part of the learning process when a learner tries to say something that is above their level of language.
3. Overgeneralization of a rule — the process of extending the application of a rule to items that are excluded from it in the language norm.
4. A fossilized error — the process in which incorrect language becomes a habit and cannot easily be corrected.
5. A slip — a mistake made by a learner because they are not attentive or tired.
6. The nature of English — some set collocations, idiomatic expressions may cause errors.
7. Bad model — students learnt poor example and incorrect language from any available resources.

Some tips:

• We shouldn’t correct slips as they happen not because students don’t know the material but are caused by tiredness, inattention or just having too much to think about at the time.
• We should be careful with correcting developmental errors. Making such errors is a natural part of learning a language. You may just ignore them, as the student hasn’t studied the essential material yet or you can just articulate the correct sentence and that you are going to study that grammar or vocabulary later.
• We must correct all other types of mistakes, but don’t try to correct all the mistakes students make, choose ones which are relevant to the lesson/topic/activity.  

Step 2 — Choose the best time to correct (when)

There are two kinds of error correction:

1. Hot correction — as soon as we notice a student making an error.  
2. Cold correction (delayed error correction) — in order not to interrupt the learner during a speaking activity- as we are focusing more on oral fluency, we need to monitor and record the language of the learner to focus on the errors when the activity is complete. Conduct an error correction after the activity of at the end of the lesson.

Some tips:

• Use hot error correction during the presentation of the target language or controlled practice, as we are more focused on accuracy here. You should encourage SELF CORRECTION n first and then peer correction if needed, therefore ask CCQs (concept checking questions) that focus on meaning and form.
• Use cold (delayed) error correction while students are doing freer activity. Monitor the students and take notes of mistakes.

Step 3 — Choose an error correction technique (how)

There are many ways to correct errors:

Non verbal:

1. Finger correction — use fingers to show the mistake in the sentence.

2. Gestures — every teacher has a set of gestures to show students they’ve made a mistake. Teachers might gesture backwards with their hands to show students they haven’t used the verb in the past. Students often use the wrong pronouns, for example “She walked your dog.” You can point to yourself with a look of shock or surprise.

3. Facial expressions — when a student makes a mistake you can use an exaggerated facial expression to signal the mistake.
4. Cards (visual reminders) — some students often omit “-s”, “be”, etc. So you can just prepare a card with a big “S” or “AM/IS/ARE” and raise it every time students do this mistake, students instantly know they should go back and say it again. Later, you can just stick an empty card on the desk and point at it when necessary.
5. Visual analysis — write the sentence on the board and highlight indicators, question marks, everything that might help the student to correct the mistake, e.g.:

Verbal:

6. Repeat up to the error — repeat the whole sentence up to the error and make a pause waiting for the student to say the correct word/phrase. If the student has a difficulty correcting the mistake, give options.

S: My mum is really interesting in politics.

T: Your mum is really …

S: Interesting.

T: InterestING or interestED?

7. Demonstrate more examples — elicit or demonstrate more sentences with the same vocabulary or constructions.

S: I love SHocolate.

T: Read the words “chair, chicken”, now read this word “CHocolate”

8. Echoing — echo the mistake with emphasis on the mistake.

S: He like listening to rock music.

T: He LIKE?

S: He likeS listening to rock music.

9. Ask for clarification — ask your student to repeat the sentence.

S: I went to the magazine.

T: Sorry? Where did you go?

10. Recast — reformulate the utterance into a correct version (emphasising the place of the mistake) and encourage to continue the conversation.

S: Yesterday I went in the shop.

T: Oh really, you went TO shop. Which shop?

!!Try to elicit the corrections as much as possible. Get students to fix their own mistakes.

What error correction techniques do you prefer?

Outline:

1- Error & Mistake
2- Sources of Errors
3- Views on Errors/Mistakes
4- Error Correction Types
5- Practical Strategies to Error/mistake correction

1- Error & Mistake :

A mistake can either be a slip of tongue or a temporary deficiency in producing language. Mistakes can occur when learners are tired or when they unwillingly fail to apply grammar while speaking. Generally, mistakes are self-corrected, since learners promptly notice them. If they don’t, a simple hint from the teacher or other learners would suffice to make learners aware of their mistakes and accordingly correct them. On the other hand, an error is a repeated mistake that is suggestive of the learner’s failure to grasp a structure or apply it properly. For instance, if a student says repeatedly,” she musts”, instead of must, it implies that he has not fully grasped the rules governing modals or is not acquainted with them all together.

In concise terms, a mistake is a lapse made at the surface, while an error is a lapse that indicates a deficiency in the deep surface (competence; linguistic knowledge, as Chomsky refers to it)
Now many would wonder; why do learners make errors? What are the sources of errors?

2- Sources of Errors :

Significant body research has been conducted to trace the sources of errors in L2 learning. This substantial body of literature points to three major sources; interlingual interference (interference of the mother tongue), intralingual (overgeneralizations), and context of learning.

Interlingual interference or the interference of L1 in the learning of L2 is a major source of errors. Students, especially beginners, draw from the system of their L1 in order to use and understand L2. This reliance may lead students to utter wrong statements. For instance, many Moroccan students say, ”I have 17 years old”, as an alternative to “I’m 17 years old”. This shows evidently that the source of error is the interference of L1 (Moroccan Standard Arabic) in L2 (English).

Intralingual interference or overgeneralization is one of the most prominent sources of errors. Students gradually learn the grammatical rules of the language. As they do, they form hypotheses about the language on the basis of their prior linguistic language. It often results in them falling in the trap of overgeneralization. A student may say “Information”, believing that forming plural is done by adding s to nouns.

The context of learning refers to the materials, atmosphere where the learning takes place, and it also includes the teacher. The atter can also be a source of errors. Teachers’ failure to explain a lesson adequately or clarify it but wrongly, may lead
students to make errors.

3- Views on Errors/Mistakes:

We have now looked at the sources of errors. Now let us see how some teaching approaches/methods consider mistakes or errors.

4- Error Correction Types

• Self-correction: the teacher may help the student recognize his mistake/error and may also help him correct it.
• Peer-correction: A student may be aided by his peer in identifying and correcting his mistake/error.
• Class-correction: The entire class may pay attention to the utterances of students, identify the mistakes in them, and correct them accordingly.
• Teacher-Correction: When spotting a mistake made by a student, a teacher may intervene in order to correct it.

It is preferable that the teacher makes students aware of their mistakes. If they fail to know their mistakes, a teacher can resort to the entire class group for correction. If other students fail to see the mistake as well, the teacher can then correct him/herself.

5- Practical Strategies to Error/mistake correction :

Repetition:

This is typically used to correct pronunciation mistakes. A teacher may verbally repeat the utterance of a student in order to correct the mistake in it. For example, a beginning-level student may say “I know him”, pronouncing the word “know” as it’s written; a teacher can repeat the word again and correct the students’ pronunciation.

Reformulation :

a teacher may reformulate a mistaken sentence in order to correct it. Example; “I like to playing soccer”; student’s statement. The teacher’s statement would be;”oh, you like to play soccer”.

Body language and facial expressions :

believe or not, body language and facial expressions can help students realize their mistakes. A look of confusion coupled with hand gestures can make students aware of their mistakes.

Students’ repetition :

When a student makes a mistake, a teacher may tell him/her to repeat the utterance and stop him at the mistake he made.

Note-taking :

another useful technique for correcting language blunders is by noting them down. A teacher may take a notebook and write down the recurring mistakes/errors of his/her students so that he/she can, later on, devise a remedial activity to correct them.

Self or Peer-correction:

Do you think it’s pronounced like this, do you agree with this answer?

 Error
Correction

Mistakes and Errors

Errors happen when learners try to say something that is
beyond their current level of language processing. Usually, learners cannot
correct errors
themselves because they don’t understand what is wrong. Errors play a necessary
and important
part in language learning. Slips are the result of tiredness, worry or
other
temporary emotions or circumstances. These kinds of mistakes can be corrected
by learners once
they realise they have made them.

Two main reasons why learners make errors.

There are two
main reasons why second language learners make errors. The first reason
is
influence from the learner’s first language (LI) on the
second language. This is called
interference or transfer. Learners may use sound patterns, lexis or
grammatical structures from
their own language in English.

The
second reason why learners make errors is
because they are unconsciously working out
and organizing language, but this process is not yet complete. This kind of
error is called a
developmental error. Learners of whatever mother tongue make these kinds of
errors, which
are often similar to those made by a young first language speaker as part of
their normal
language development. For example, very young first language speakers of
English often make
mistakes with verb forms, saying things such as ‘I goed’ instead of ‘I went’.
Errors such as this
one, in which learners wrongly apply a rule for one item of the language to
another item, are
known as overgeneralisation. Once children develop, these errors
disappear, and as a second
language learner’s language ability increases, these kinds of errors also
disappear.

Errors
are part of learners’ interlanguage, i.e.
the learners’ own version of the second
language which they speak as they learn. It develops and progresses as they learn
more.
Experts think that interlanguage is an essential and unavoidable stage in
language learning, in
other words, interlanguage and errors are necessary to language learning.

Errors
are a natural part of learning. They
usually show that learners are learning and that
their internal mental processes are working on and experimenting with language.

Experts believe that learners can be helped to develop their interlanguage. There
are three main
ways of doing this. Firstly, learners need exposure to lots of
interesting language at the right
level; secondly they need to use language with other people; and thirdly
they need to focus
their attention on the forms of language.

 Oral mistakes

Look
at the following examples of learners’ oral mistakes. There are mistakes of
accuracy

(grammar,
pronunciation, vocabulary) and appropriacy. Can you identify them?

1  
She like this picture. (Talking about
present habit)

2    
Shut up! (Said to a classmate)

3    
I wear my suit in the sea.

4    
Do you know where is the post office?

5    
The dog /bi:t/ me. (Talking about a dog
attacking someone)

Accuracy

Examples
1, 3,4, 5 and 6 all contain examples of inaccurate language.

·         
In Example 1 there is a grammar
mistake. The learner has missed the third person s from the
verb. The learner should have said ‘She likes this picture’.

·         
Example 2 contains an example of inappropriate
language. Although Example 2 is accurate, there
is a problem with appropriacy. It is rude to say ‘Shut up!’ in the classroom.
The learner should have said ‘Can you be quiet, please?’, or something similar.

·         
In Example 3 there is a vocabulary
mistake. The learner has used suit
instead of swimsuit. The learner should
have said “I wear my swimsuit in the sea”.

·         
In Example 4 there is a grammar
mistake. The learner has put the subject and verb in the
wrong order in the indirect question. The learner should have said “Do you know
where the
post office is?”

·         
In Example 5 there is a pronunciation
mistake. The learner has used the long /i:/ sound when she should have used the
short /I/ sound. The learner should have said ‘The dog /bit/ me’.

Oral correction

Here
are some ways that we can correct oral mistakes:

·         
Finger correction. This shows learners where they have made a mistake. We
show one hand to the class and point to each finger in turn as we say each word
in the sentence. One finger is usually used for each word. This technique is
particularly useful when learners have left out a word or when we want them to
use a contraction, for example I’m working rather than l am
working. We bring two fingers together to show
that we want them to bring the two words together.

·         
Gestures and/or facial
expressions are useful when we do not want to
interrupt learners too much, but still want to show them that they have made a
slip. A worried look from the teacher can indicate to learners that there is a
problem. It is possible to use many different gestures or facial expressions.

·         
Phonemic symbols. Pointing to phonemic symbols is helpful when learners make
pronunciation mistakes, for example using a long vowel /u:/when they should
have used a short one /u/, or when they mispronounce a consonant. You can only
use this technique with learners who are familiar with the relevant phonemic
symbols.

·         
Echo correcting means repeating. Repeating what a learner says with rising
intonation can
show the learner that there is a mistake somewhere. You will find this
technique works well when learners have made small slips which you feel
confident they can correct themselves.

·         
Identifying the mistake. Sometimes we need to identify the mistake by focusing
learners’ attention on it and telling them that there is a problem. This is a
useful technique for correcting errors. We might say things like ’You can’t say
it like that’ or ‘Are you sure?’ to indicate that they have made a mistake.

·         
Not correcting at the time when the
mistake is made. We can use this technique
to give feedback after a fluency activity, for example. It is better not to
correct learners when they are doing fluency activities, but we can make notes
of serious mistakes they make. At the end of the activity, we can say the
mistakes or write them on the board and ask learners what the
problems are.

·         
Peer and self-correction. Peer correction is when learners correct each other’s
mistakes.

·         
Self-correction is when learners correct their own mistakes. Sometimes we
need to indicate that there is a mistake for the learners to correct it.
Sometimes they notice the mistake themselves and quickly correct it. Peer and
self-correction help learners to become independent of the teacher and more
aware of their own learning needs.

·         
Ignoring mistakes. In fluency activities we often ignore all the mistakes
while the activity is in progress, as the important thing is for us to be able
to understand the learners’ ideas and for the learners to get fluency practice.
We can make a note of frequent mistakes and correct them with the whole class
after the activity. We often also ignore mistakes which are above
the learners’ current level. For example, an elementary learner telling us
about what he did at the weekend might make a guess at how to talk about past
time in English. We would not correct his mistakes because the past simple is a
structure we have not yet taught him. We may also ignore mistakes made by a
particular learner because we think this is best for that
learner, e.g. a weak or shy learner. Finally, we often also ignore slips as
learners can usually correct these themselves.

Written  mistakes

       Can
you remember how you felt as a learner when your teacher returned a piece of
written work? Many learners say they want to have all their mistakes corrected,
and some teachers still believe it is a good thing to correct every mistake.
But it can be very discouraging for your work to be covered in red marks, with corrections
written in between the lines, and a single word at the end, or maybe just a
tick.

      The key question for teachers to ask themselves is
what students learn from this kind of total correction. The answer is probably
very little. If everything is corrected, learners will probably look over their
work without thinking enough about any individual mistakes. Even if they do pay
more attention to the corrections, this method does not involve them in any kind
of learning process — they simply look at the corrections and teachers hope
this means that they will not repeat the same mistakes.

       So, what alternative methods can we use?

Selective correction With this method the
teacher still gives the correction, but focuses on one or two areas (e.g. verb
tenses, use of prepositions) while ignoring other mistakes. The students are
told in advance what the correction focus will be, which should make them think
more carefully about those particular aspects when they are writing.

Signposting. One way of getting students to take a
more active part in the correction process is just to indicate where there are
mistakes, leaving students to think about what is wrong with what they have
written and correct it themselves. The ‘signpost’ can be a mark in the margin,
indicating that there is a mistake in a
particular line (or two marks if there are two separate mistakes in one line),
or the mistake can be underlined, giving the student a precise indication of
where the mistake is.

        Correction code

      
Another method that involves students and makes them think about how they can
correct their own work is the use of a ‘correction code’, a set of letters and symbols
which make it clear what kind of mistake they have made. For this method to
work well, it is important to keep the number of symbols to a minimum and for
all the students in the class to know the code. If two colleagues are teaching
the same class, they also need to agree on a common code, so as to avoid any
confusion. In the box below there is an example of a correction code. But it is
only an example — you may prefer to use more or fewer symbols, and to create
some of your own. The important thing is for students to be absolutely clear
about what each of the symbols means.

Correction
code

       Gr = grammar
P = punctuation
V = vocabulary (wrong word)

       Pr = preposition

       ? = I don’t understand what you have written. Please
explain.

       Sp = spelling

       WO = word order

      T = wrong verb tense

      WF = wrong form

      N = number / agreement (singular vs. plural)

      л= something missing

      0 = not necessary

         With both signposting and the correction code,
instead of just handing outcorrections, the teacher introduces an extra stage
of learning, where students have to identify, or at least think about, the kind
of mistake they have made, and correct their own work. We remember things much
better when we have to make an effort to find the answers ourselves. It also
means that rather than correcting every mistake, the teacher has to stop
and think about why the student has made a mistake. Is it just a careless mistake
that could be made by a native writer? In this case it may not even be
necessary to point it out. Or is it an error that is repeated
throughout, which might be because of first language interference? Or is it the
result of the student being ambitious and attempting to find a way of
expressing something which is beyond his or her current level?

 If this is the case, the teacher needs to think about whether or not
the student will be able to correct it.

        How can self-correction be managed in the
classroom?

Individual self-correction

       Students attempt to discover the problems, make
their own corrections (perhaps using a different coloured pen) and return their
work to the teacher. This gives the student the opportunity to reflect on their
mistakes and make improvements to their writing. It also shows the teacher what
the learners are able to do and what still remains difficult or unknown. The
teacher now has to check the corrections, and give the student feedback on
anything that is still wrong or that the student has been unable to improve.

Peer correction

        Students work in pairs, or in small groups. They
exchange their papers and attempt to correct each other’s work. Again, the teacher
has to build in an extra checking stage, as students will often not be able to
provide appropriate corrections. But as with individual self-correction, the
students have to go
through a process of reconsidering what they have written.

Whole-class correction

       The teacher
selects several common errors made by the students and highlights
them on the board for the whole class. Students then continue to correct their
own work, either individually or in pairs or small groups.

       How can the teacher deal with items that students
are unable to correct for
themselves?

One of the ways that you can help students improve their
written work most effectively, is to take a short part of what they have
written, and re­write it yourself, as you would have written it, without regard
to what they have actually written linguistically, taking only the content of
what they say. Just going back over their mistakes is likely to be less
effective than looking at a simple short piece of language well constructed
which they can compare with their own.

Remedial teaching

        If students repeatedly make the same mistakes, or
are unable to correct
themselves, the best response from the teacher may be to use these items as the
basis for planning remedial teaching in future lessons.

         Teacher feedback

        Once
the students have corrected as much as they can, the teacher can concentrate on
the remaining problems. Rather than just correction, students need to
understand why they have made the mistake and how to put it right. At this
stage students need feedback from the teacher — some kind of explanation of the
particular language point and perhaps one or two examples to show them how the
language should work. Ideally, feedback would take place in a one-to-one
tutorial session, but with a large class this may not be practical, and feedback
can take the form of written notes at the end of the student’s work.

                                                        
REMEMBER!

·       Correct
promptly for accuracy, afterwards for fluency

·       Don’t
over-correct

·       Re-formulation
is often better than correction

·       Give
students the chance to correct themselves

For reference:

·        Ken
Lackman «Error Correction Games for Writing»

·       Michael
Lewis, Jimmie Hill «Practical Techniques»

·        Alan Pulverness  « The
TKT Course»                                   

Transcripts

Part 1 — Why correct?

Here’s a question to begin with. Which of these statements do you agree with more? ‘Errors are evidence that learning is taking place’, or ‘Errors are evidence that learning isn’t taking place’? I’m Jo Gakonga from elt-training.com and in this series of three videos I’m going to be looking at error correction. So I’m going to be looking at why you might correct, I’m going to be looking at what you might correct. And finally, of course, perhaps most importantly, I’m going to have a look at how you might correct learner error.

If you take a strictly behavioral approach to language learning, you might think that learners have to avoid error. They need to make sure that they know what they’ve got to do, that they get lots of practice of it, that they’re praised when they do it right and they’re corrected when they make mistakes.

Now, there aren’t many people in education these days who would see learning like this, as just a conditioned response. But error correction is a really important part of language learning — of that whole process. And I think that there are two really good reasons for correcting error. The first one is that it works. Simple as that, it works. There’s lots of really solid research evidence to show that error correction is a very powerful learning tool. I’d really recommend John Hattie’s work ‘Visible Learning’ on this, if you don’t know about it, it’s really, really interesting. And his work shows that feedback error correction is one of the most important ways in which learning happens. Without being corrected, learners errors tend to fossilize, and then they’re difficult to change. And it’s not just about correcting for the sake of it. If you make a lot of error, then for your listener, it’s really hard for them to understand you. And that does cause problems. Maybe they won’t want to listen to you very much either. It makes it more difficult more of an effort to understand, even if those mistakes are small.

The second reason, to focus on error correction — and this is a big one — is that learners expect it and that learners like it. So they won’t usually be corrected — if they’ve got English speaking friends and they’re just talking in a conversation, those friends aren’t usually going to correct them, it would be considered rude probably and certainly probably be irrelevant. So in a classroom is their opportunity to be corrected, and they usually feel quite positive towards teachers who do this. Of course, it depends on how it’s done. But I think that if you correct learners, they feel as if you’re listening to them, and they feel as if you care about their progress. This is really important.

There is a ‘but’, of course — language, as I said, isn’t just about conditioned learning, and if we try to correct every mistake they make, especially at lower levels, they would never say anything. Also it can be rather demotivating. If you correct a lot or if you correct insensitively, then you know learners may end up just giving up. There’s a balance to be had, of course, as in many things in life, but the balance may be further down this end, then you feel naturally inclined to.

I hope I persuaded you that it is a good idea to correct learner error. So in the next part, let’s go on to see what kind of things you can correct, how you’re going to choose what to correct and why learners perhaps make some of those errors.

Part 2 — What to correct?

Hello again. In the first video in this series, we looked at why you should correct learner error in class. But before we think about how to do this, let’s take a minute to think about what it’s useful to correct. I’m Jo Gakonga from elt-training.com and if you like this, there are lots of other helpful video-based courses and resources on my site.

Learners of English make mistakes, of course, but those errors don’t always have the same cause. So let’s think about the different root causes of those errors. The first one, of course, is just the level of ignorance. The obvious reason for an error is that the learner just hasn’t learned that vocabulary or that form yet. And of course, this is especially true at lower levels. But it can happen with any level of learner.

Here’s an example — ‘I will can come later’. So this learner hasn’t yet learned the phrase ‘be able to’, or they don’t know that we can’t have two modal verbs together. So they’ve done their best to express their meaning, using the words that they do know. Now you understand what they mean, it’s not that difficult to pull apart, but you need to teach them how to say it.

Another very obvious reason that learners make mistakes is that the language they already speak, their L1, is getting in the way. Now this can be manifest in all sorts of ways, pronunciation, of course, is a really huge aspect of this. Languages have different sounds and some just don’t map onto each other. Mostly they don’t map onto each other exactly.

So different sounds can be a major source of error. And this also goes into intonation, word stress, sentence stress, all of those things often have different patterns too. And so that will affect the learners’ L2 English in this case.

Some grammatical forms exist in some languages, but not in others. So articles are a good example. English has them. And it has a plethora of rules of how you use them. But many, many languages do perfectly well without them. And so they’re hard to remember to use if they’re not in your first language.
Between European languages in particular, there are lots of cognates, like ‘table’ in French, and this can be really helpful. But there are also some false friends, words that look the same, but aren’t. So if you know this word in Spanish, you might be expecting ’embarrassed’ to mean the same thing. But it doesn’t.

Another issue is word order, that’s often different between languages, and that’ll cause problems.

The list of these reasons for error is really, really long. And if you teach learners from a particular language group, then of course, it’s a very good idea for you to know something about that language, so that you can see the kinds of difficulties that they’re likely to have — the holes that they’re likely to fall into because of their L1. Preferably, of course, you’d speak their first language yourself.

Some error is caused because learners are experimenting with what they already know, but they’re over generalizing. So, ‘I got on the car’ is incorrect. But it’s a perfectly reasonable assumption, given that ‘I got on the bus’ is perfectly right. So a learner that says ‘they builded a house next door to me’, is making a guess, perfectly reasonable guess, but it’s an incorrect guess that ‘build’ has a regular past tense. It doesn’t.

Another reason that learners may care is just because they make mistakes. They know the language. If you prompt them, they can almost certainly self correct. But they’re trying to make meaning in real time. It’s getting from their brain to their mouth in real time. And it’s just difficult. It’s hard to make that connection fast enough. And so, error occurs. This happens with native speakers too of course. Learners at all levels right up to advanced will do this, for example, leaving out the auxilary ‘do’ in questions, or that notorious third person ‘s’ on the Present Simple.

Why is this important to consider when we choose what to correct? Let’s think about it. If the learner makes the error because they don’t know that form yet, then it’s not an error. They just don’t know it. So the answer is, teach it to them or keep it in mind to teach in a future lesson at least.

If they make the error because of L1 interference, or because of overgeneralization, then it’s very helpful to show them why they made that mistake. It’s like this in your language. But in English, it’s like this. We do say ‘on the bus’, but it’s ‘in a car’.

And finally, if they’ve just slipped up, then a simple facial expression or a recast — ‘how long do you play the guitar?’ — will probably prompt them to self correct.

One final thought before the end of this. And I’ve already said that you can’t and shouldn’t try to correct everything. So how do you choose? I think that there are a few ways to prioritize this. If your target language is the simple past, then you should be correcting that. Second is errors which affect intelligibility. If you can’t understand them, then they need to know because other people won’t understand them either. Third one is the frequency of the error. If they all make this error all of the time, then it’s definitely something you should be correcting. And finally, the likelihood of success. It’s best to save correction for language that they’re ready for. And at a time in the lesson, when it’s likely that they’ll take it on board.

So we’ve looked at the why and we’ve looked at the what of error correction. So now let’s go on to think about how you’re going to do it.

Part 3 — How to correct?

Hello again, this is our third and final video on error correction. We’ve looked at why? And we’ve looked at what? Now, of course, what you want to think about is how you’re going to do it? I’m Jo Gakonga, from elt-training.com and if you like this, there are lots of other videos on the site that you might also find helpful.

Okay, I want you to imagine that you’re in a class and a learner makes an error. What’s the first question? First question is, who is going to correct that error? Now, it could be the learner themselves. It could be one of the other learners in the class, or it could be you as the teacher. Now, who it is, depends a little bit on whether it’s a mistake that the learner can correct themselves, or whether it’s just a slip, or whether it’s something that they don’t know yet. Generally speaking, though, as a rule of thumb, if you think it’s something that they can correct, then try the learner first, then their peers. And if nobody knows, then you tell them, you’re the teacher.

Now, there are a few different ways of doing this. The first is implicit correction. This is called recasting. It’s what parents do to young children all the time. They repeat what they said, but in a correct form. So the teacher says, ‘What did you do at the weekend?’ And a learner says, ‘I go cinema’. And the teacher says, ‘Oh, you went to the cinema’.

Now, there’s mixed research evidence here about whether this is effective or not. It really depends a bit on whether the learner actually notices the correction or not? If you think that they’re likely not to notice or that they haven’t noticed, then you could try something more explicit. ‘What did you do at the weekend?’ ‘I go cinema’. ‘I go cinema?’ Or, ‘there’s an error in that sentence, try again’. Or you could use your fingers to show there’s a mistake. ‘I go cinema’, ‘I went to the cinema’. Or you could use meta linguistic strategies like this — ‘past tense?’

Or if there are pronunciation problems, for example, ‘Look at my teeth see, they’re touching my lip. Now. vvvv… not berry, very’. Or you could point to the symbol on the phonemic chart.

So those are some thoughts about how you could correct, but what about when? Should you correct the error as soon as you hear it, or wait until the activity is finished and have a delayed error correction slot? Again, there’s research here that says that the most effective form of correction is that that happens immediately. But, if the learners are busy engaged in a freer speaking activity, and you don’t want to disturb them, then a delayed error correction activity might be better. I would say again as a rule of thumb, that in the presentation stage, and the control practice stage, that I would do correction on the spot — definitely correct your learners as you hear their mistakes. But when they’re involved in a fluency activity, or a freer practice activity, then collect up those errors, and show them afterwards.

There are a couple of real advantages to this, actually, after a fluency exercise, you could put up on the board about four to six different examples of errors that you heard, especially error with the target language, or error that’s particularly frequent that you think is a good idea to draw their attention to. The advantage of this is that it’s anonymous. If I said that, if I made that mistake, I know it was me. But nobody else in the class except possibly my partner does. So it’s not so embarrassing, so that’s good. It’s also helpful for the other people in the class, they get to benefit from my mistake if you like.

Now, give them some time in pairs to talk about these mistakes and try to correct them together. So it’s again a more learner centered approach to this. You could also use it as a way of drawing attention to good language. So maybe have within those four to six, have one example of some good language that you heard and tell them one of these sentences is correct, and they have to find out which one’s the correct one as well as correcting the mistakes. I think this helps to focus them a bit more as well.

So that’s it, some thoughts about error correction. I hope that this was helpful. If you found it so then there are lots of other videos on my CELTA toolkit that are about classroom management. So you might like those. Please don’t forget to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel and I look forward to seeing you on the site. Thanks very much. Bye bye

Hello Exam Seekers,

What is feedback? How can you give feedback to your students? How do you correct your students? Did you know that there are specific error correction techniques? Well, in this text, I’m talking about the relationship between error correction and feedback, error correction’s place in class, and also some techniques that you can use when correcting students.

This topic is actually one of the ways of giving feedback that you learn during the CELTA Course. You not only learn, but you should use these techniques while teaching your class, and when planning your lessons, you should write the names of the techniques you plan to use.

FEEDBACK AND ERROR CORRECTION: How are they related?

To begin with, it is quite impossible to talk about error correction without talking a little bit about feedback, right? After all, we tend to not only correct our students but also praise them during their learning process. And since feedback is mainly used to bring awareness of students’ improvement and development, both aspects should be considered when talking about the students’ progress in the learning of a foreign language.

Also, I have already talked about errors and how you should not be scared of making mistakes when learning a language – or pretty much anything. This is because mistakes are part of the learning process and it shows that learners are attempting to use the language; therefore they are, one way or the other, making progress. It is by receiving feedback on their performance that they can start realizing what is correct and what is not, so that is why teachers should point out the aspects they excelled in and also the ones they need improvement. As for the teachers, it is also by the mistakes students make by using the language freely that they can evaluate what should have more practice and what has already been learned appropriately.

There are different types of errors, though. They may include, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, coherence, and so on. So a tip would be to try and vary the aspects which you are taking into account when giving feedback to students. Additionally, the level of the student should be in mind when they make mistakes. For instance, if it is something they haven’t learned yet, what is the point of bringing the issue up, right? Instead, it is much worthy to focus on things students have already learned and are still having trouble with rather than going too much further and taking the risk of making students confused and demotivated.

Another aspect to think about is the most appropriate time to have these corrections. For example, should you interrupt the student in the middle of their talk or wait for them to finish and correct them at the end of the activity?

Below is an example of how correction done at the wrong moment can impede communication:

ORAL CORRECTION: On The Spot x Delayed Correction

Some mistakes can be corrected right on the spot when students are still talking, while others can be a group problem or something that came up more than once during the lesson and should be worked on later on as a delayed correction.

For instance, if it is a structure that perhaps needs more clarification and that is still an issue for some students rather than something rare, it may be worth writing them on the board and do it as a delayed group correction. On the other hand, if it is something that may have happened as a slip while a student was talking and it is not going to compromise their talk and is not something recurrent, you can do it on the spot and deal with it the moment it happens. It is just important to bear in mind if this correction will be effective or will end up doing more harm than good.

SOME TECHNIQUES: How to correct students effectively

Exercises/Worksheets: One type of correction that can be done is bringing some sentences with the mistakes students usually make and work on them at the beginning or at the end of a lesson so that all of the students have the opportunity to think about the errors and correct them together. Some options could be a fill-in-the-blanks sort of exercise or even one with the sentences for them to spot the mistakes. Another possibility is to work with matching if students have been working with idioms or expressions and still making some mistakes on this issue.

Cuisenaire rods: this may be one of the most versatile ones, mainly because you can use it to work with pretty much everything! You can use it when students are having some issues with the order of a structure, to show the correct position contrasting to the one they are using. Also, you can work with pronunciation patterns, such as word stress – put two blocks on the stressed syllable, for instance-, the stress in a sentence, the syllable division, and even the intonation. Since each block has a different color and size – there are ten different colors and sizes in each set – they can represent each a part of speech, or a different pattern, depending on what you plan to work on.

Fingers/Hands: I believe that gestures can be used for even more situations than Cuisenaire Rods, to be honest. After all, some signs are the same in many places around the world, so it is something that can be helpful in many situations. However, I will tell only a couple of them here. For example, if a student is saying a verb in the present when they should be using the past, you can point your thumb behind your shoulders to have them think about the past situation. Besides, the opposite also works. If you need a student to change the verb for the future, you can also roll your finger forward to indicate that it is about the future.

Another gesture you can use your fingers to correct students is when they are saying a sentence and the position of a word is incorrect. You twist your index and middle finger to point out where it should be – by twisting your finger, students would understand that they were supposed to invert the sentence.

Also, you can use each finger to represent a part of the sentence and stop where the mistake is to have students come up with the most appropriate answer – or even ask them to do it after you give another example with the correct order, for example.

The picture on the side is another example of how we can use fingers. If a student said “I ate too much cookies” you can repeat the sentence by saying “I ate too _____” and hold your ring finger expecting the student to repeat the words or correct him/herself. If the student says the wrong word, with a headshake he/she will understand he did it incorrectly and will try again.

Other students: If you are teaching a big class or even one with a reasonable number of students, you can also use the students themselves to help you with the error correction in a sentence. You may have each student represent one of the words of the sentence, and then the other students have to point out where the mistake is and come up with the correction. This helps reduce TTT (Teaching Talking Time) and also has students more in control of their learning as well since they will be working together to solve the error.

SOME TECHNIQUES TO BE CAREFUL WITH

Some techniques should be used carefully when correcting students. For instance, teachers should mind their tone when students say something incorrect, as the ‘mocking tone’ may inhibit students from developing and even trying with the language. So, echoing students’ mistakes, making fun of them somehow may not only be rude but also silence a student for the rest of the course at times.

Besides that, avoid reactions such as “No!“, “That’s not right,” “You’re wrong,” the moment you listen to a student’s mistake. Wait for the student to finish their sentence and use some more positive stimuli to help them rephrase the sentence or work on what was not correct, such as asking them to try again or even showing them where the mistake is and asking for help to make that right.

So, what do you think about these suggestions? And what about you? Do you use any other error correction technique when working with your students? And during the CELTA? Have you planned on using one, but in the end decided on another? Tell me in the comments. And if you have questions or comments, just leave them in the comment section below.

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Have a great week,
Patricia Moura

Introduction

Whenever anyone learns to do something new, it is extremely rare for them to be able to perform it perfectly on their first attempt. The same must also be true with learning a new language. Children acquiring their mother tongue within the critical period will often also make errors, however, they will often naturally be corrected over time.

The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), was proposed by Lenneberg in 1967, which suggested the learning of a child’s first language happens naturally before the age of puberty. Although other writers disagree to an extent over where CPH is true, most people accept learning a new language after the Critical Period is over is more difficult (Newport et al 2001).

When Krashen based his “Natural Approach” (Krashen, 1983) on the CPH, he believed that errors were signs that natural development was occurring. Krashen further defined acquisition of a language, as developing language proficiency by communication, as opposed to learning which required formal teaching and error correction. Moerk, (1994) showed that even when acquiring your mother tongue correction is needed to improve. This essay will be looking into what, how and when errors should be corrected.

What should be corrected in language learning?

There is a clear need to give correction however, the impact of too much feedback can also be detrimental to student motivation (Hattie & Yates, 2013). This makes it more important to prioritise which errors to correct. When considering which errors to correct Hendrickson, (1978) suggested correction based on the student’s ability, starting with errors that affect commutation, then common errors, finally errors that will irritate. Following on from this, it is clear that you will need to correct beginners differently from advanced students. Furthermore, it is worth considering abstaining from correcting specific errors until you have introduced that area of knowledge to the students, for example, if you were correcting sentences for students trying to use the past perfect continuous when the students are still coming to grips with the simple past.

Teachers should correct mistakes based on what the students have previously learned, rather than errors they use from trying content they are as yet unready for. This is in line with Chaudron’s work (1988), which summarised students should be corrected when their error is the focus of the lesson. It is also important to correct mistakes in things previously studied, as peers hearing the mistake will question their understanding of what they’d previously learnt (Allwright,1981).

When to correct mistakes in language learning?

I will concentrate on when, to correct errors and mistakes occurring in oral speech, as written mistakes are not as time-sensitive and will be visible for much longer. The time at which you correct may depend on several factors such as what you are teaching. For example, if you happen to be teaching new vocabulary words and a student mispronounced one. You will likely correct the mistake right away, whereas if you were teaching reading fluency and a student mispronounced a word, you would probably wait until the end of the reading to correct it.

Other factors which will determine when teachers choose to correct mistakes are student confidence and class flow. Teachers should be careful not to interrupt the flow of class with excessive feedback. For example, you could share feedback with a single student after the next task has started, this will also help to reduce embarrassment. I should also mention the possibility that if errors are left uncorrected, the students will develop a habit of repeating the same mistakes. This is known as the error becoming fossilised, which will be more difficult to correct, at a later date.  

How should teachers correct mistakes?

There are many ways to correct mistakes that occur in oral speech. A teacher will often use many different ways in a single lesson. I will list a few that are commonly used.  

• Echoing, or repeating the mistake, can be used with a questioning tone. This will give the student a chance for self-correction. Echoing is often useful if you believe the mistake was a slip. Common slips like she/he or third person can be brought to students’ attention by this method.

• Gestures indicating an incorrect tense, for example, behind could mean you were expecting the past tense. Even raising your eyebrows could be a clue that something isn’t correct. 

• Another example I remember reading about a teacher who stuck a big “S” on a wall and pointing to it every time students forgot to use the third person. Later the «S» was removed, but they would still point to the wall. Teachers can agree on gestures with the class previously.

• Repeating the sentence up until the mistake will give the student a chance to understand where in their sentence the mistake had occurred. This would again give them the opportunity to self-correct.

• Using fingers again while repeating the sentence to show where a word was missing. Can be used when students miss words like “a” or “the”.

• Recasting, I am not a fan of this one, as it gives students the correct answer and doesn’t give them a lot of chances to reflect on the mistake. I can see this being used for words that have been mispronounced as they should hear a good model rather than continuing to guess as to what the correct pronunciation is. 

• Contrast the correct and the incorrect forms, for example, “I’m loving it” or “I love it” which do you think is correct? Let’s discuss. (sorry McDonalds).

• Peer-correction, if the student is unable to self-correct, maybe a peer can help correct it. This can be done by asking another student to help. This may also be achieved by allowing peers to give suggestions and let the student chose which is the correct answer.  

Correcting written errors

Similarly, to correcting oral mistakes too much correction can be disheartening for students. Many teachers will use a correcting rubric this can be shared with students so that they try to correct their mistakes. Examples of such a rubric may be using “sp.” to indicate a spelling mistake. It is advantageous for students to have a chance to try to self-correct their mistakes before the teacher looks again to share the correct answers.

Tasks where students share and critique with their classmates’ work is also useful to help students become aware of their mistakes. It’s also useful to help them become more aware of different writing styles and gain ideas for their works. When giving feedback on written work it is important to understand feedback received is not the same as feedback understood. The most effective feedback is that which includes what the next step is (Hattie, 2013).  

Conclusion

A lot of research has gone into what, how and when to correct, however the final decision usually lies with the teacher. Although most researchers agree that students need feedback and correction, the methods are left down to the teacher. Teachers should consider carefully when giving feedback as not to upset the flow of the class. Teachers must also be careful not to try to correct every error as too much correction can demotivate students. Teachers have many different kinds of ways to give feedback and corrections and teachers should not be afraid to use other students to suggest corrections.

by Vojtech Fiser

References citied.

Allwright, R.L., 1981. What do we want teaching materials for?. ELT journal, 36(1), pp.5-18.

Arora, S., 2015. Defossilising the errors of ESL learners through feedback. Innovation in English Language Teacher Education, 192.

Chaudron, C. (1988). Second language classrooms: Research on teaching and learning. Cambridge University Press.

Clark, E. V. ,2009. First language acquisition. Cambridge University Press.

Hattie, J., & Yates, G. C. ,2013. Visible learning and the science of how we learn. Routledge.

Hendrickson, J. M., 1978. Error correction in foreign language teaching: Recent theory, research, and practice. The modern language journal, 62(8), 387-398.

Hendrickson, J. M., 1980. The treatment of error in written work. The Modern Language Journal, 64(2), 216-221.

Hoxha, E. K., 2015. Errors in the foreign language learning process. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research and Development, 2(1), 97-100.

Ingram, D., & David, I. ,1989. First language acquisition: Method, description and explanation. Cambridge university press.

Krashen, S. D., & Krashen, S. D.,1983. Natural approach (pp. 20-20). New York: Pergamon.

Lee, I., 2003. L2 writing teachers’ perspectives, practices and problems regarding error feedback. Assessing Writing, 8(3), pp.216-237.

Lenneberg, E.H., 1967. The biological foundations of language. Hospital Practice, 2(12), pp.59-67.

Moerk, E. L., 1994. Corrections in first language acquisition: Theoretical controversies and factual evidence. International Journal of Psycholinguistics.

Newport, E.L., Bavelier, D. and Neville, H.J., 2001. Critical thinking about critical periods: Perspectives on a critical period for language acquisition. Language, brain and cognitive development: Essays in honor of Jacques Mehler, pp.481-502.

Roberts, M., 1995. Awareness and the efficacy of error correction. Attention and awareness in foreign language learning, pp.163-182.

Touchie, H. Y., 1986. Second language learning errors: Their types, causes, and treatment. JALT journal, 8(1), 75-80.

Walz, J. C. ,1982. Error Correction Techniques for the Foreign Language Classroom. Language in Education: Theory and Practice, No. 50. Center for Applied Linguistics, PO Box 4866, Hampden Station, Baltimore, MD 21211.