‘Approaches to mistakes When to correct Ways of correcting learners ‘Annote on terminology: ‘Aithough in most contexts we would probably see ‘ertor’ and ‘mistake’ as being more or less interchangeable, in ELT a distinction is often drawn. ‘A mistake has been used to mean that although the learner produces an ‘incorrect utterance, or written mistake, they actually know the correct form ~ they simply got it wrong on that occasion, perhaps they weren't concentrating, or perhaps trying to speak, or write, too fast. t can be assumed that with a prompt from the teacher they would be able to correct themselves. However, we will use ‘slip’ to refer to this, clearly distinguishing it from an error. {An error is used to mean that the learner produces an ‘incorrect utterance and would be unable to correct | themselves. They don’t know how to use the piece of language correctly. An error is, therefore, by definition, systematic and, in theory, no amount of prompting from the teacher would help the learner correct the error because they don't know how to do so. ‘Mistake’ will be used as umbrella term covering both concepts ~ a slip and an error. This will be useful as it is often unclear which of the two categories an incorrect utterance, or written mistake, falls into. Giving feedback on written work Correcting learners Are there any occasions when you should not correct? Approaches to mistakes ‘Teachers sometimes have varying attitudes to correction and we will start by looking at some of these. The discussion is based on spoken language and there is a separate section which deals with written mistakes. Look at the three remarks made by teachers. Which ones do you think are/would be closest to your feelings? Rebecca: I hate it when my learners make mistakes. I don't ‘want them to learn bad habits. Helen: Correcting learners seems a bit of a waste of time they only make the same mistakes the next time. David: 1 try to differentiate between slips and errors. I try to help learners when they make errors but ignore it ifT think it is just a slip. Sophie: 1 love it when learners make mistakes. I really fel 1 can teach them something that will help. When you are ready, read the commentary on page 93. Of course, learners also bring with them attitudes about correction and itis worth the teacher asking them about these views at, or near, the start of the course. Most learners tend to see correction asan important part of learning and expect the teacher to correct their mistakes.When to correct Put a tick next to the comments you identify with. ffyou have no teaching experience you will not be able to respond to the third and fifth statements, (1 Ithink I should correct every mistake, (1) Lexy to correct most errors but I don’t think iis important to correct slips. [57 twoutd like to correct more but I find it hard to hear all the mistakes. [7] Leorrect more during accuracy phases ofa lesson than fluency phases. 1) Isometimes can't cortect the learner because I can’t ‘work out what she was trying to say! [1] Salways try co let the learner who made the mistake correct herself before Ido, [1 It the learner who made the mistake can't correct herself then 1 ask if another student can. (11 tnever just say ‘that’s wrong’ = 1 always try to show the student which bit of what they said was wrong. (77 often feet awkward correcting learners ~ it seems so wrong because I can't speak their languages at all and I don’t want to embarrass them, Try to think what has led you to tick the statements you have, Were your judgements based on your own learning experiences or more of an instinctive feeling? When you are ready, read the commentary on page 93. Are there any occasions when you should not correct? Below are five reasons why a teacher may decide not to correct, either immediately or after the activity. Do you think they are all good reasons? 11 When a new student in the dass speaks forthe first time. 2. When a leamer is communicating something which is very important to them. For example, that they have just broken up with their partner. 9 Chapter 13 Corecing letners 3 When you are doing an acty of which the main aim is to help the group relax and enjoy the following parts of the lesson. 4 The teacher is angry with the leamer because they are being disruptive '5 When you are conducting feedback on a reading or listening text, and although the leamer says the corect answer s/he makes a small grammar mistake in doing so. ‘When you are ready, read the commentary on page 94. Ways of correcting learners Fluency activities Imagine you have a class of 18 learners. You have divided them into six groups of three and they are discussing the best way to advertise a new computer game. ‘The teacher's role isto monitor ~ or to listen to what the students are saying. After the students have finished, the teacher can put some of the mistakes (or good examples of language) on the board. There is no need to identity ‘who made the errors bet the teacher can ask all the learners to look 2t the mistakes and try to correct then. This sounds easy — and itis ~ as long as you can remember what you heard! It’s a good idea to make notes as you listen. Answer the following questions. 1 Who corrects the mistakes? 2 What would the altemative be if this strategy were unsuccessful? '3 What is the advantage of delaying the correction until ater the acity? ‘When you are ready, check your answers on page 94, A variation on this is for the teacher to prepare a sheet of ‘mistakes that learners have made over the lesson, or over the last few lessons, This can be photocopied anid [earnersChapter ¥3 Coxecingleaners can work in small groups to try to correct them. Again, the learners who made the mistakes remain anonymous. When the learners have finished the task, the teacher can go through all the mistakes to ensure that they have been corrected appropriately. Accuracy activities You are teaching a group of elementary learners. You are teaching them how to talk about the past. One of the students says "Yesterday we go tothe beac Do you. a) ignore the mistake. by) say Yesterday we went to the beach” €) say‘In the past, so ‘When you are ready, check your answer on page 94. One of the differences between correcting mistakes in fluency activities and accuracy activities is that you do not have the luxury of time - the time between hearing, the mistake and drawing it to the learners’ attention. However the same principles apply. It’s important to highlight where the mistake is, or the type of mistake, and also to involve the learners in the correction process. \. ‘A.small number of gestures that a class becomes used to and immediately understands can speed up the Teachers often use gestures to indicate the type of mistake or where itis in the utterance, Inthe example above, rather than saying in the pasta teacher may choose to ‘point to the past by pointing over ther shoulder, cortection process Match the gestures with the mistakes. 1 must to phone Cindy tomorrow. 2 tis beautiful day 3 You can tell me the time? Check your answers on page 94 Using your fingers to indicate words in a sentence is particularly useful because it so clearly highlights which bit the learners should focus on, However, for obvious reasons, this technique can only be used with fairly short stretches of text and teachers need to take care to ensure that learners ‘see’ the sentence going from left to right. Because learners are usually sitting in front of the teacher, this means that the teacher needs to work from right to left. ‘There are many other corsection techniques teachers use Look at the three described below. Mark each one in the following way Lwould definitely use this idea © Imay use this idea X I do not like this idea 1 The teacher repeats the utterance up Yo the mistake Student: t depends of you. Teacher: depends Student: t depends on you 2 The teacher tells the leamer the correct form. Student: it depends of you. Teacher: On you. It depends on you. 3 The teacher indicates where the enor is by using a grammar term, For example, ‘Student: It depends of you. Teacher: Preposition. Student: t depends on you. When you are ready, read the commentary on page 94. 0Remember if the mistake is actually an error rather than a slip, the learner will not be able to self correct and the teacher could invite others fo participate by saying something such as‘Can anyone help?: Correcting pronunciation errors One easy way to correct pronunciation isto say ‘Pronunciation’ (in the same way as” above) and hope that the student can self correct. Another way is simply to ‘model the correct pronunciation and hope that the learner can copy it. However, she may not be able to and the correction process can create additional stress, making it less likely the learner will be successful. A phrase such as Thats better ~ keep practising’ can be very useful if the learner has already had a couple of tries. ‘The teacher can remember that s/he needs to give more personalised help later If the learners already know the phonemic script (see Chapter 7), this offers a simple way of correcting the zispronunciation of individual sounds. By pointing to the appropriate symbol the teacher can help the learner to make the correct sound, Below are some more methods of correcting pronunciation problems, Match the mistakes on the left with the correction on the right. 1 student produces “willage for ‘village A teacher repeats the utterance, while indicating the direction of the voice by waving their arm, 2 student puts the stress con the first syllable of ‘photographer’ B teacher says ‘bite your bottom lip when you say i. 3 student uses an € teacher says‘de DA de inappropriate de intonation pattern Check your answers on page 95. o Chapter 13 Conocting leaners Giving feedback on written work Approaches It is important to differentiate ‘giving feedback on’ and ‘correcting’ written work. Giving feedback implies that good elements ofthe language will be praised, as weil as mistakes highlighted. Correction is part of giving feedback, but without praise and encouragement writing activities can demotivate learners. For this reason, it is better to try to avoid too many errors occurring by ensuring that the learners are suficiently prepared to undertake the task set. This may involve brainstorming activities to gather ideas, the pre-teaching of any essential ‘words and phrases, and ensuring that the task is not beyond the scope of the majority of karners in the group. There are many ways of giving feedback. Perhaps the easiest is or the teacher to write comments on the paper, including what sfhe assumes to be the correct versions any mistakes, (This is not always easy because s/he may not know what the learner intended to say.) We should also remember some of the principles of error correction that we have identified earlier in the chapter. These included: @ Iris a good idea to involve learners in the correction process and see if they can correct their own mistakes. @ It isa good idea to tell the learner the type of mistake made. © Itis a good idea to indicate the position of the mistake As we can see, if the version the learter does not have the chance to be eacher simply supplies the correct involved in the correction process and i therefore less likely to learn from it, The challenge isto find a way of involving learners even when they may not be physically present when the teacher reads the text. One way of achieving this isto use a system of symbols which indicate the position and nature of the mistakes. The teacher then returns the work, the learner corrects it and resubmits. The teacher then checks that the cosrecteit has been done successfully ‘The following is a simple ‘code’ which could be adopted by teachers,Chapter 13 Comectngleamers WO = wrong word order Sp = spelling = grammar Tense P= Punctuation un = unnecessary word + =add a word, o: part of a word This code isa rough guide for learners. Mistakes are notoriously difficult to classify and the categories overlap. All tense mistakes are grammar mistakes, and sme ‘grammar mistakes could be classified as being the result of a wrong word choice, or even a spelling mistake. However, the code is likely to give sufficient guidance for learners to to re-draft their work and therefore to benefit. Example Look at the following piece of writing, Intermediate level learners were asked to writea letter to @ British Council office asking for information about English language ‘exams. All of the mistakes were made by the clas, although they have been edited together here to form one text. Correct the writing using the symbols above and then compare your corrections with those in the ‘commentary on page 95. Dear Sir/Madam am writting to ask for some informations. ‘My English is not pertect but lam studing English for several years in a lange langauge school at ‘Santiago, Chile. I want take a exam in the nearest future. Ido not do any English exams before If possible I would lke to have IELTS exam. I would like to know how many parts does the exam consist of? ‘Should I registrate in advance? How much is it costs? Iam also interesting in some practice material Can you give me any advices. Please send ‘me all necessary detail Thank you for your help. I look forward to hear from you Yours sincerely Alejandra Gomez Many teachers find this technique useful. However, one drawback with it is that itis very time consuming because the work is handed in once, marked, handed back and then has to be re-marked. An alternative approach, which still involves learners in the correction of mistakes, is for the teacher to write out some of the mistakes made and photocopy it for learners to correct in small groups. For more controlled activities, where written answers are more predictable, the teacher can involve learners by giving them answer sheets when they complete an activity and asking them to look for their own mistakes. For example, if teacher uses a dictation activity, she can then give a ‘correct’ version to the learners and ask them. to look for differences. Either before this, or as an alternative to it, learners could be asked to compare their answers with a partner’s version of the same activity. Seeing differences between the two versions may lead to earners seeing and correcting mistakes. ‘Summary © Correct a lot — leamers general expect it and want to be corrected # Correct cleatly and briefly. «Involve leamers in correction work through self and peer corretion — avoid simply teling thern the correct version all the time, + You do not always have to correc immediately Delayed contecton can also be useful ‘© Mistakes that involve breakdown in communication do need to be dealt with immediately, whatever stage of the lesson itis. ‘¢ Feedback on writen work should be encouraging and correction should aim to involve lems as far a5 possible.