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Read these tips and tick the ones which are most important for you.
It is important for teachers to think hard about whether, when and how to correct learners.
We can't expect instant or immediate learning. Learning is gradual, and errors will occur.
© It's useful to think about what kind of mistake the learner is making - a slip or an error. If the mistake is a slip, the learner can correct him/herself, maybe with a little prompting from the teacher or another learner. Or, there may be no point in correcting a slip.
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• Sometimes, particularly in fluency activities, it is better not to pay attention to v: Ibaimers' ТШШкв, (i.W so that the learners have an opportunity to
develop their confidence and their fluency, and to experiment and make mistakes with language.
© Some errors may be more important to correct than others. Errors which prevent communication are more important than those which do not, e.g. missing the final s off the third person singular of a present simple tense verb doesn't prevent communication. But using the present simple tense instead of the past simple tense sometimes does.
© Some learners within the same class may need to be corrected, while others may not, depending on their stage of learning, learning style and level of confidence. They may also need to be corrected in different ways.
© Learners, particularly older ones, may find it useful to know that they make interference errors, and to he told which they are. Knowing about interference errors can help learners avoid them, especially in writing.
© Learners can react well to being told what their fossilised errors are, their danger areas! In this way, they become conscious of them and can try to avoid them, particularly in writing.
© Ways of helping learners get beyond their errors are:
exposing them to lots of language that is just beyond their level of linguistic ability through reading or listening. This provides an unconscious challenge to learners' language learning processes and helps fit the pieces of the jigsaw into place.
giving them opportunities to focus on the form of language, e.g. through exercises, reformulation (when the teacher corrects what the student has said by repeating their words correctly, but without drawing the learner's attention to their mistake) or correction.
providing them with time in class to use language to communicate and interact and see if they can do so successfully.
© Errors are useful not only to the learner but also to the teacher. They can help the teacher see how well learners have learnt something and what kind of help they may need in future. Errors can show that a learner is making progress and learning.
See Unit jo for processes involved in language learning, Unit z$ forcategories of mistakes, Unit32for how to correct /corners, and Unit 33 for how to give feedback.
(See page 240 for answers)
Here is an extract from a conversation between two lower intermediate level learners of English. They are doing a fluency activity in which they talk about dates that are important to them. The woman is Japanese and the man is Italian.
Read the extract and notice how the learners are trying their best to communicate, and giving one another help in communicating. Is it possible to say which mistakes are slips, developmental errors, interference errors or fossilised errors? Would you correct them?
N.B. The words in italics in brackets (...) are spoken by the other speaker while the main speaker is speaking.
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Unit 11 The roie of error
Man: Er, what you doing in er November 24th of er two years ago, three years
ago?
Woman: Two years ago, yes, this day l was er I going to my high school (urn) and urn I belonged to um English drama club. Maybe I, run I did exercise too, yes, but I'm not sure (in the morning, in the morning) Morning!
Man: No, I ask you in the morning (ahyeah) you ... you, go, you went to the
school?
Woman: Yes, yes, that's right.
Man: Um me (mm) um at 24 (what are you doing, yes?) I, i went to, is my
birthday (ah, is your birthday, oh) yes, birthday, and er is, was important for me because er (yes) when um, in this years 1,1 was er eighteen years old (mm) and for me very important because er I like very much er to do um in um in um by car and er when (it's a present) yes, yes, for, for my, my present was a car.
Woman: Oh, it's great present.
Man: Yes, very great present, (laughter)
(adapted from English for the Teacher by Mary Sprats, Cambridge University Press 1994}
Think about these teachers' comments. Which do you agree with and why?
If my students make mistakes, it means I haven't taught them well.
My students like me to correct all their mistakes, so I do.
Teachers can only correct each mistake and each student in the same way.
DISCOVERY ACTIVITIES
Look at a piece of writing or listen to a recording from one of your learners and identify all the mistakes. What might be the cause of the mistakes? Would you correct them all? Write your thoughts in your Teacher Portfolio.
For more about why learners make mistakes and how we can correct them, read Chapter 8 of The Practice of English Language leaching (Fourth edition) by Jeremy Harmer, Pearson Education Ltd 2007,
What do these terms mean: cognitive, natural order, independent study? Use a dictionary or the TKT Glossary to check their meaning.
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