Error Correction

Can you remember these terms?

• Authentic material• Extension activity• Productive skills• Receptive skills• Aims / stage aim• Assumptions• Controlled practice

• Elicit• Free practice• TTT / STT• PPP

Authentic material

Written or spoken texts which a first language speaker might read or listen

to. They may be taken from newspapers, radio etc. The language

in the texts is not adapted or made easier for learners or the language

learning process.

Assumptions

• When teachers think about what they believe their learners will or will not know or how they will behave in a particular lesson. For example, a teacher plans to teach the present simple using the context of jobs and daily routines. The teacher may make the assumption that learners will know basic job vocabulary and so knows s/he will not need to spend time in the lesson presenting these words.

Elicit (verb)

• When a teacher thinks that some learners will know a piece of language or other information, s/he asks targeted questions or gives clues to get, or prompt learners to give the target language or information rather than simply providing it to the class her/himself.

TTT and STT

• TTT and STT: Teacher Talking Time. The trend in ESL/EFL pedagogy has been to limit the amount of time that the teacher is talking and increase STT (Student Talking Time). TTT is often associated with a teacher-centered classroom and STT with a student-centered classroom.

• However, there are some problems with the view that student talking is good for students. For one, communication should be meaningful. Two, at the lowest levels, students may not be able to communicate effectively with each other. Three students may teach or reinforce each other's bad habits or incorrect expressions and grammar. Four, students will lack pragmatic competence in English and will not be able to pick it up from each other. A lot of research has shown that language is for the most part input driven. That is students learn most

when they are being given sufficient comprehensible input.

Spoken errors correction

Discuss these questions in groups:

Make some notes!

1. Are errors a good thing or a bad thing?

2. Why do sts. make errors? – 3 reasons

3. 3 different ways to correct spoken errors

Are errors a good thing?

• They show learning

• No errors = probably no input of new language

• Who needs more correction: strong or weak students?

Why do students make errors?

• Language interference (L1)

• They haven’t learnt sth. yet (error)

• They confuse 2 similar things

• Not enough mental power (attention)

• ‘Slips’

I goed to a movie last week

Over-generalization

Form or meaning?

I have ever been to Shanghai last year

Form or meaning?

I saw a movie about a big sheep …It’s name is Titanic

pronunciation

In a shopping roleplay:S1:Can I help you?S2: Yes. Give me an MP4 player!S1: Certainly. Here you are.S2: Thank you

Is it ‘right’ or ‘wrong’?

Appropriacy

Ways to correct spoken errors

Think about, for example:

1. A student is telling a story (fluency activity)

2. Students are repeating sentences or making substitutions (a drill)

3. Students answer comprehension questions

Is it a ‘fluency’ or ‘accuracy’ activity?

You probably can’t do both at the same time

Ways to correct spoken errors

1. Ignore the error2. Post-fluency correction (teacher takes notes to

correct later)3. Teacher interrupts student and corrects4. Student corrects him/herself5. Another student corrects6. Teacher ‘reformulates’ the language7. Teacher provides help for student to correct

him/herself– word prompts– finger prompts

Spoken error correction

Prompt types

• hand gestures

• facial gesture

• finger-highlighting

• key word

• echo correction

• concept question

• translation (?)

1. I've been to Paris. Have I been to Paris?

2.You should come

with us.Is this mild or strong obligation?

3.He's bought a new

suit:Did he buy a new shirt?

4.

If I hadn't drunk so much, I wouldn't have overslept.

What was the result of my drinking too much?

Concept Checking

1. I've been to Paris.

Have I been to Paris?

Uses target language

Did I go to Paris? Yes.Do I know when? NoDid I come back? Yes

2. You should come with us.

Is this mild or strong obligation?

Too technical (dictionary definition)

Is it a good idea? (for you to come) Yes. Is it necessary? NoCan I choose? Yes

3 .He's bought a new suit?

Did he buy a new shirt?

Irrelevant to structure

Did he buy a new suit? Yes.Do we know when? No.Can we see the result? Yes.

4. If I hadn't drunk so much, I wouldn't have overslept.

What was the result of my drinking too much?

Need short & simple `Yes/No' questions & answers

Did I drink a lot? Yes.Did I oversleep? Yes.Why? Because you drank a lot But if....

What piece of language are the following concept questions checking?

Is this about present or future? FutureIs it a 100% or a 50-50 possibility? 50-50

I ...................... go out this weekend

Do I think he went home? Yes Am I sure? Yes Do I have a reason to be sure?(Did he say he was going home?) Yes

So he ............................ (go) home

Clue:

Both answers are modal auxiliaries

What piece of language are the following concept questions checking?

Is this about present or future? FutureIs it a 100% or a 50-50 possibility? 50-50

I might go out this weekend

Do I think he went home? Yes Am I sure? Yes Do I have a reason to be sure?(Did he say he was going home?) Yes

So he must’ve gone home

Work in pairs. Can you think of CCQs to check the meaning?

1. I managed to climb the mountain

2. I used to smoke

3. I was crossing the road when the accident happened

4. sensible (not sensitive) e.g. She's a sensible girl

Do you like marking sts’ written work?

How is correcting written English different from correcting spoken

English?

Abert Einstein was famous inventor of the twenty century. He were born at Germany. But he lived USA.

Can you find the mistakes.

How can we correct it?

Correcting writing

Abert Einstein was famous inventor of

sp ↑↑ ww

the twenty century. He were born at

adj/n s/v prep.

Germany. But he lived USA.

p. ↑↑

Error terminology

• error • slip • self correction • inter-language• de-motivating

• L1/L2• L1 interference

(negative transfer)

• developmental error over-generalisation

• teacher-induced error• controlled practice • accuracy

fluency• peer correction• reformulation

facial expression • hand gesture

Mistakes are divided into:

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.

The other type of mistakes:

Slips are the result of tiredness, worry or other temporary emotions or circumstances.

Slips can be corrected by learners once they realise they have made them, maybe with little prompting from the teacher or another learner.

Key concepts

We need to think hard about whether, when and how to correct learners.

In fluency activities it is better not to pay attention to learners’ errors—ignore them—so that the learners have an opportunity to develop their confidence and fluency, and to experiment with language.

First reason why L2 learners make mistakes

Interference or transfer: influence from learners’ first language (L1) or their mother tongue

Learners may use sound patterns, lexis or grammatical structures from their own language in English.

Developmental error: Learners are unconsciously working out and organising language but this process is not yet complete.

Overgeneralisation = when learners wrongly apply a rule for one item of the language to another item

Second reason why L2 learners make mistakes

Errors are part of learners’ interlanguage (the learners’ own version of the 2nd language which they speak as they learn).

Interlanguage is not fixed because learners unconsciously process, i.e. analyse and reorganise it.

More key concepts

Errors which prevent communication are more important than those which do not.

Different learners may need to be corrected or not depending on their stages of learning, learning styles and level of confidence.

Ways of helping learners

To expose them to lots of language that is just beyond their level, through reading and listening

To give them opportunities to focus on the form of language

To give them time to use language to communicate and interact and see if they can do so successfully