ERROR CORRECTION

 

Basic Concepts
 Correcting students’ errors in the EFL classroom is an issue of concern for every EFL teacher.  What should we correct, when should we correct it, and how should it be corrected?
How do we give students the feedback they need and want to improve, without damaging fluency and motivation?
Research tends to indicate that three types of errors should be addressed: high frequency errors, stigmatizing errors and errors that block meaning or the understanding by the listener.  We might add another, errors in using the target language of the lesson.
When and how should these errors be corrected?
Unfortunately, there is no conclusive evidence/research about these issues.
Research seems to indicate that the most effective ways to deal with errors
and offer corrections include:
.when hearing an error, speak the corrected statement
.listen for errors and make a general review of them at the end of the activity segment
.encourage peer correction
(be cautious here as some peer correction,
given by students with stronger personalities, might also be incorrect!)
.correct the student personally (use this less than the other methods)
EFL teachers always need to be careful of the balance between fluency (ability to speak quickly and smoothly without much thought) and accuracy (ability to speak in a grammatically correct manner).  There is a tension between fluency and accuracy where too much desire or struggle for accuracy denies a student fluency.  Too much emphasis on fluency can result in spoken gibberish that follows no rules at all.
Teachers need to stay tuned in to how their students are doing and attempt to keep a good balance of fluency vs. accuracy in the classroom.  This is not an easy task but generally, it is better to erron the side of fluency in a speaking or conversation class .

When it comes to error correction we are dealing with one individual's reaction to a student's piece of writing or utterance. ...

As for students, we not only have to consider their age but also their approach to learning. Some students are risk-takers, while others will only say something if they are sure it is correct. While being a risk-taker is generally positive as it leads to greater fluency, some students only seem to be concerned with fluency at the expense of accuracy. The same can be true when it comes to writing. Some students take an eternity to produce a piece of writing as they are constantly rubbing out what they have written while at the opposite extreme the writing is done as fast as possible without any planning or editing.

Categorising errors

We can categorise an error by the reason for its production or by its linguistic type.

• What's the reason for the error?
• It is the result of a random guess (pre-systematic).
• It was produced while testing out hypotheses (systematic).
• It is a slip of the tongue, a lapse, a mistake (caused by carelessness, fatigue etc.) (post-systematic).

To be sure about the type of error produced by a student we need to know where the student's interlanguage is (the language used by a student in the process of learning a second language).

• What type is it?
  We can classify errors simply as productive (spoken or written) or receptive (faulty understanding). Alternatively we can use the following:
• A lexical error - vocabulary
• A phonological error - pronunciation
• A syntactic error- grammar
• An interpretive error - misunderstanding of a speaker's intention or meaning
• A pragmatic error - failure to apply the rules of conversation

                                  

 Correction techniques

•  
• 
  It can be difficult to decide on what and how much to correct in a student's piece of writing. Students can develop a negative attitude towards writing because their teacher corrects all their errors or if the teacher only corrects a few, they might feel that the teacher hasn't spent sufficient time looking at their work. 
• Students then try to identify the errors and make corrections.

.Put students into pairs / groups. They correct each other's work using one or more of the techniques above 
.When a learner has made an error, the most efficient way to teach him the correct form is not by simply giving it to him, but by letting him discover it .
. Many errors are due to that the learner uses structures from his native language. Corder claims that possession of one’s native language is facilitative. Errors in this case are not inhibitory, but rather evidence of one’s learning strategies.

 

ESL Coaching Techniques: Error Correction

On the Spot (Selective)

On the spot can be dangerous to your students’ confidence. Do so with caution and not too often, and choose an appropriate technique that doesn’t slow down the pace too much. Be careful not to ‘jump’ on one student for making a mistake.  
Echo the Error: Quick and easy, be an echo to your student’s error.
 Ask for Repetition: Just say “please repeat” or “please say that again”.
 Repeat up to the Error: Echo up to the error; let it hang for students to finish..
. Ask a Question: Highlight student’s error by asking a question that will expose the error.
 Provide Options: Without stopping the flow of the lesson, write options on the board.
 Gestures: Especially useful with phrasal verb and preposition mistakes.
 Write on the Whiteboard, Underline: The standard whiteboard technique. Highlight the error with an underline

Delayed Error Correction (After)

At an appropriate stop in the lesson, do some error correction. A good place to do this is at the end of a section, practice, or activity (error correction makes a nice transition between parts of the lesson). Don’t make student’s feel bad about their errors; they often don’t know the correct thing to say. Instead of saying “You said ~”, say “I heard ~” or just simply write the error(s) on the board. When possible, change the sentence for anonymity; we don’t want to embarrass students.  
Echo the Error: “I heard ~”  
Ask for Reformulation (questions): Can you change this question to get the same answer?
 Repeat up to the Error: good for vocabulary errors, write the sentence on the board up to the error, have students finish the sentence. This can be done with all students, thus re-enforcing the correct form to be used by hearing several variations.  
Ask a Question: Good for concept checks and getting students to repeat a section where they made an error, simply ask them a question that will bring up the error. The question can be directed at any student or all students.  
Repetition of the Correct Answer: Once the error has been corrected, have students repeat the correct answer. This technique works best with low level students or when the error seems to have become a bad habit.
 Provide Options: Write the error on the board and provide several options. Have students choose the option they think is best.
 Use a Visual Aid: Draw a timeline, pie chart, picture or other visual aide on the board to help students to understand the error. Have them self-correct.
 Write on the Whiteboard, Underline: The standard whiteboard technique. Highlight the error with an underline.  
Highlight the Issue: Rather than bringing up a specific error, when you notice repeated errors of the same type, highlight this issue and discuss. If necessary, mark students’ files and teach the appropriate curriculum item as soon as possible.

Other Technique Notes

Here are a few other notes to help you develop your error correction techniques. Anonymous Error Correction: With delayed error correction:
 Try to make the correction anonymous.
 For a grammar mistake, try changing the nouns so that the sentence is unidentifiable by students but still helps them learn their mistake. For example: if a student said “Yesterday, I go to Kyoto”, change it to “Last week, I go to Daimaru”. Also say “I heard…,” rather than “Mr Suzuki said….” This anonymity will help students feel more confident by not highlighting a specific student’s mistake in front of peers.
Confident self-correction habits lead to students depending less on others (i.e. their coach) and thus speaking more freely, knowing if they make a mistake they can correct it themselves. They will become more confident speaking outside of the classroom, which is the true goal of ESL education.
Coaches should further encourage students to correct each other (peer correction). Peer correction will increase student talk time and also increase student interaction. This is particularly easy to do with homework and written work, but can be done on the spot and with delayed correction on the board.

PERSONAL REFLECTION

First of all, It's improttant to let the students to notice the errors by themselves instead of given them the answers inmediatly . : As much as possiblewe have to try to encourage self-correction. If students can fix their own mistake, it shows that they understand and allows them to feel more confident in their knowledge.


LINKS:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/error-correction-1

http://www.proz.com/translation-articles/articles/633/

http://bathtubber.hubpages.com/hub/ESL-Coaching-Techniques-Error-Correction