Teach english new edition r

developmental errors. 
These occur 
naturally as the students’ language knowledge develops, and are the result of the students 
making apparently sensible (but mistaken) assumptions about the way language works. 
Suppose, for example, that a student, has learnt to say things like ‘I have to go’, ‘I want to 
go’ or ‘I would like to go’. That m ight lead them on to say - with perfectly appropriate logic
- things like 
‘*1
m ust to go’, not realising that the use o f ‘to’ is not perm itted with ‘m ust’.
Whatever the reason for the students ‘getting it wrong’, it is vital for the teacher to realise 
that all students make mistakes as a natural part of the process of learning. By working out 
when and why things have gone wrong, students learn more about the language they are 
studying.
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Teaching the language system
Correcting students
When students are involved in a speaking activity such as a role-play or conversation (see 
Chapter 9), instant and intrusive 
correction 
is often not appropriate since it can interfere 
with the flow of the activity and inhibit students just at the m om ent when they should 
be trying hardest to activate their language knowledge. But during study sessions, we will 
probably use correction more as it helps to clarify the language in the students’ minds.
Because correction involves pointing out people’s mistakes, we have to tread carefully. 
If we do it in an insensitive way, we can upset our students and dent their confidence. 
Moreover, what is appropriate for one student may be quite wrong for another.
In general, the teacher’s job is to point out when something has gone wrong - and see if 
the students can correct themselves. Maybe what they said or wrote was just a slip and they 
are able to put it right straightaway.
Sometimes, however, students can’t put mistakes right on their own (because they fall 
into the categories of errors or attempts), so we have to help them. We can do this by 
asking if one of their 
peers 
(fellow students) can help out, or by explaining the problem 
ourselves.
If we get other students in the class to help out, we have to make sure that the student 
who made the mistake in the first place isn’t going to be hum iliated by this (‘How come 
they all know the answer? I m ust be stupid!’). Sometimes, students prefer correction 
directly from the teacher. On the other hand, in the right kind of atmosphere students 
enjoy helping each other - and being helped in return.
The following example shows students being corrected during a practice phase in 
which they are making sentences using the comparative form of adjectives (comparing
trains and planes).
MONICA:
Trains are safer planes.
t eac h e r
:
Safer planes? 
(with surprised questioning intonation
)
MONICA:
Oh ... Trains are safer than planes.
t eac h e r
:
Good, Monica. Now, ‘com fortable’ ... Sim on?
s im o n
:
Trains more comfortable. Planes are.
teac h er
:
Hmm. Can you help Sim on, Bruno?
b r u n o
:
E r ... Trains are more comfortable than planes.
teac h er
:
Thank you. Sim on?
s im o n
:
Trains are more comfortable than planes.
teac h er
:
That’s right, Sim on. Great. What about ‘fast’, M atilde?
m a t il d e
:
Trains faster planes.
teac h er
:
Trains are faster?
m a t il d e
:
Trains faster planes? 
1
don’t know.
teac h er
:
OK. Look. Trains go at a hundred m iles an hour, planes go at 
500 m iles an hour, so planes are faster than trains. Yes?
m a t il d e
:
Planes are faster than trains.
t eac h e r
:
Well done, Matilde.
With Monica, all the teacher had to do was point out that something was wrong (by 
echoing
what she said with a questioning intonation) and she immediately corrected herself. Simon 
was not able to do this, however, so the teacher got Bruno to help him. W hen Matilde made 
a mistake, however (and was not able to correct herself), the teacher judged that she would 
be unhappy to have correction from her peers so she helped her out herself.
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Chapter 6
When organising practice, then, teachers need to listen out for mistakes, identify the 
problem and put it right in the m ost efficient and tactful way.
Before leaving the subject of errors, it is w orth rem embering that correction is just one 
response that teachers can make to student language production. It is just as im portant
- perhaps more so - to praise students for their success, as it is to correct them as they 
struggle towards accuracy. Teachers can show through the use of expression, encouraging 
words and noises (‘good’, ‘well done’, ‘fantastic’, ‘m m m ’, etc) that students are doing really 
well. But praise should not be overused because when it is, it becomes devalued, and 
therefore meaningless. Praise is only effective if students know what they are being praised 
for - and when they themselves believe it is merited.