Second edition

Echo correcting means repeating what a learner says with rising intonation. Repeating with rising intonation will show the learner that there is a mistake somewhere, because the rising intonation sounds like a question. This technique is effective 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 technique is more commonly used with errors. We might say 'Are you sure?' to indicate that there is a problem. We could then go on to provide the correct version.

Delayed correction. Sometimes it is best not to indicate or correct mistakes at the time they are made, for example when learners are taking part in role-plays or other oral fluency activities. As we monitor fluency activities we can make a note of any serious mistakes we hear. At the end of the activity, we can say the mistakes or write them on the board and ask learners what they think the problems are, and to suggest corrections without telling learners who made which mistakes.

Peer and self-correction. Peer correction involves learners correcting 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. We can provide learners with prompts, for example repeating part of the utterance and stopping just before the part we want them to correct. Other prompts we can

use are gesture and facial expressions. Sometimes learners notice the mistake themselves and quickly correct it. Peer and self-correct ion help learners lo become independent of the teacher and more aware of their own learning needs.

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