Let's
talk about error correction.
Before we
get to the point, let's think about what exactly we mean by an error.
Some people like to make a distinction between errors – things you
get wrong because you don't know the answer – and mistakes –
things you get wrong through carelessness or inattention, even though
you should know the answer. It's a distinction of terminology that I
personally don't find useful, particularly as most people use the
terms interchangeably.
Terminology
aside, though, these are definitely different types of error. Think
about it this way. If you are writing a letter and write “it's”
when you meant “its” or vice-versa, it's unlikely that you, as a
professional English teacher, don't know the difference. But don't
tell me you never did it. We all have. Honestly, in this case, it
doesn't matter and would never prevent or damage understanding. But
you have done it. So have I. So has everyone. This is an error of
inattention. On the other hand if you consistently misspell
“misspell” as “mispell” or mispronounce “mispronUnciation”
as “mispronOUnciation” this is probably because you
genuinely believe your version to be correct.
When you
see that a student has something wrong in their writing, it's easy to
identify the difference. Point at the wrong word and wait. If the
student looks at you blankly then it's likely that they think what
they have written is correct. If, after a moment's though they change
it then it's likely that they knew the correct answer and just
produced the wrong form through haste or carelessness.
There's
one more thing to consider before we look at error correction – the
reason we are in the classroom in the first place. As foreign
teachers in China, our role isn't to teach reading, writing or
grammar. It's to teach speaking and listening. Of course it's
virtually impossible to do it without involving some reading and
writing, but our main focus is speaking and listening. So we need to
consider separately what we do about errors in the skills that we are
here to teach and errors in the incidental work that is supporting
those skills.
When I
begin teaching a new class there are two things I try to get through
to them very quickly. The first is that I want to hear lots of
speaking. The second is that I'd rather have them speak with mistakes
than not speak at all. No student in my class will ever be punished
for getting something wrong. This is often not the case in their
other subjects. Getting students to understand that if they make a
mistake all I will do is help them to fix it can be an uphill
struggle, but it's important that they understand this.
Right.
Time to get to the important bit.
There are
three questions that you need to answer.
What do I
correct?
When do I
correct?
How do I
correct?
What do I
correct?
Students
will get things wrong. Some students will get lots of things wrong.
You have a whole range of possible responses available to you from
“correct nothing” to “correct everything.” Neither extreme is
productive. While accuracy is important it shouldn't be at the
expense of fluency. Stopping to correct every little thing will not
only eat up far to much of your limited lesson time it will actually
hinder learning and understanding rather than helping it. If you make
half a dozen corrections to a reply of a couple of sentences then by
the time you have finished the student, the class and most likely you
too will have completely lost the thread of what the answer actually
was. As well as that, there is the problem that by actively fixing
every error you are discouraging the students from speaking as they
become so focussed on not getting it wrong
that they are reluctant to say anything at all.
When I
worked in college in England I wasn't just teaching speaking and
listening, I was teaching all the skills. Occasionally I saw teachers
correct pieces of writing to the extent that the red ink on the page
obliterated sections of the original text. This is disheartening and
demoralising.
Of course
correcting nothing is no better. If you leave every error not just
uncorrected but unacknowledged then the students won't be able to
tell what's right from what's wrong and there is no point in your
being present at all. There's no learning going on.
Like
everything in life the best answer lies somewhere between the
extremes.
I take a
threefold approach to what I correct. Small, easily corrected errors,
where I am fairly sure it's something the student knows but has just
got wrong this time, or individual errors that seriously impede
understanding, I will correct as we go. (We'll come to how and when
to correct later.)
Errors
that relate to whatever the specific point of the lesson is, I will
also correct, either as I go along or as a separate phase of the
lesson.
Finally
errors that aren't necessarily related to the specific point but that
many students or groups are making I will either correct in the
lesson or in another lesson.
Other
errors may incidentally get fixed simply by the fact that when
speaking to the students I won't have those errors in what I say, but
they won't be specifically mentioned or discussed unless a student
actually raises a question about them.
When do I
correct?
There are
of course different types of activity that we do in the classroom.
Sometimes we ask directed questions to individual students. Sometimes
we ask open questions to the whole class. Sometimes we encourage the
class to offer opinions or to simply speak up on a topic. Sometimes
we walk around and monitor pair and group work. Whichever you are
doing, having made the decision to correct, the choice of when to do
it comes down to a) immediately, b)at the end of the activity or c)
sometime later (maybe in another lesson).
For those
activities where I am getting responses from class members –
whether in directed questions or more open discussion – I like to
correct immediately, if it's something that can be done quickly.
This, as we'll see later, needs to be done sensitively. It should
never seem as if you are picking on someone for giving a wrong
answer. If the error is something that you think it would be useful
to explain to the whole class, you have to decide whether to
interrupt the activity and give an explanation or acknowledge but
defer it. This is obviously a judgment call. More often than not I
will give a brief explanation or, at the end of the phase of the
lesson I'm in tell the class that we will take a brief time-out from
our speaking and listening to to a quick bit of grammar. I never
spend more than a few minutes on it though. If it's going to take
longer than that I tell the class we'll look at it another time.
When I'm
walking around and monitoring class activities correction is almost
always done immediately, though the specific form of the correction
varies. It's far easier, and far less damaging for the student if you
do this correction carefully and just for the small group than
publicly in front of the whole class. The only exception is that if I
see lots of people in different groups making similar mistakes AND
THEY ARE RELATED TO THE TASK, I will talk about it at the end of the
task, not indicating any particular group or student, but just in
general. Rarely, if one group has raised a point that I think is
important to the whole class I will also raise that at the end of the
task but I always tell the little white lie that it is something many
groups did, so that the group that actually made the mistake don't
feel singled out.
How do I
correct?
This is
the most important question. There are lots of techniques that you
can use and lots that you shouldn't use. The most basic rule is not
to correct in a way that will belittle, humiliate or alienate the
student. The best form of correction is always self-correction, so,
if you can, you should respond to an error in a way that lets the
student fix it rather than you fixing it. Repeating the sentence with
a questioning tone or simply the word that was wrong will often
result in the student realising what was wrong and changing it.
Similarly when looking at something a student has written just
pointing at the word with a questioning look on your face can get the
same result.
A good
tip is not to step in too quickly. A few seconds silence and a
questioning tilt of the head will sometimes be enough of a prompt for
a student to realise they made a mistake and try to fix it without
you doing anything at all.
Of
course, rather than repeating the sentence and hoping they figure it
out you can always simply repeat the sentence, as if checking that
you understood, but with the error fixed or change it to a
comprehension checking question, modeling the correct form. So if the
student says,
“Yesterday
I go to the park?”
You can
respond with
“You
went to the park? What did you do there?”
which
simultaneously corrects the error and opens up the possibility of
further interaction.
As I
suggested above, when you are monitoring group or pair work you will
come across errors that are either being commonly made or that you
think need to be explained to the whole class.
If you
decide to do this after the activity then it's a good idea to
paraphrase the original error to disguise which group it was and then
write it on the board and invite corrections. I usually ask one of
the groups that I explained it to as I was walking around to explain
it to the class, without indicating in any way that it was their
error to begin with. Then, to make sure that it's I clear, I explain
it again and ask a few questions around the class to check that
everyone got it.
Things
you should avoid are mostly a matter of common sense.
Don't
make a point of telling students that they are wrong, especially in
front of their classmates.
If a
student is repeatedly failing to get it right then don't labour
the point endlessly. (Instead, let it go for now and then, during the
next group activity, take time to try to help that student
individually rather than openly).
Don't get
frustrated or angry at students mistakes. The fact that they are
speaking enough to make mistakes proves that they are trying.
Never
tell students that this is something they should already know so why
are they getting it wrong?
(If this
really is the case you can ask the students if they would like you to
go over it again with them. I usually find that they really do want
to get it right and are grateful that you will explain again.)
Don't
begin your error correction by telling students that they are
bad/terrible/awful or whatever. It's better to help them feel good
about their achievements not feel bad about their failings.
Finally,
if you want to read more just search the internet for “ESL Error
Correction”. There are many people out there writing advice and
making videos on this topic. Some I agree with. Some I disagree with.
You should look at as many as you can. It never hurts to get a
variety of different views on a subject.
Oh, one
final thing. You may have seen the viral video where a Russian
teacher is soundly chastising a little girl who, having finally had
enough, turns and gives him a powerful kick where it hurts most.
That, were it true, would be the most appalling kind of error
correction. But you should always check your facts. Though it's been
presented as true, a bit of research reveals it to be a cunning bit
of PR marketing for Russian TV channel. That doesn't mean you can't
learn from it though.
