Error Correction- Module 5 Output
“If I correct your mistakes, I improve MY English. If you correct your mistakes, you improve YOUR English.”
Oh, error correction, how troublesome you can be! As a language learner myself, I really hate being corrected unless I specifically ask to be corrected. When I am speaking Portuguese, I want to be understood but most importantly, I want to be able to have a conversation that flows beyond “Hi, how are you?”. When I am studying and practicing verb conjugations with my tutor, I want to be corrected at some point but not throughout our lesson. Correcting throughout the lesson would frustrate me and ruin any confidence I have in the language.
So, as ESL teachers, we have quite a few questions to ask ourselves before we begin offering error corrections. We need to decide how, when, and how often we should offer error correction. We might even ask ourselves if we should be the ones offering error corrections or if someone else should.
Below you will find a visual comparison between teacher and student centered error correction. You will also find examples of both and how to implement them in your classroom!
Teacher Centred Error Correction
In the Classroom
The most common way to offer teacher centred correction is to explicitly correct the students’ errors.
Tips:
Plan what you are going to correct for that specific task. This is very important so you do not overwhelm your student. For example, only correct the past tenses if you have been studying past tenses.
Make it very clear to the students what you will be correcting. Be sure to do this before the activity so they have some control over their success.
Write the most common mistakes you hear or see during the activity. After the activity, write them on the board and have the students correct their own mistakes. This makes it so the students are more involved in the process.
To give students more input and control over the corrections, ask them if they prefer to be interrupted and corrected right away, or if they’d like corrections given after. It might be hard to remember but in my experience most of them wanted corrections right away.
Ask the students to write in their notebooks their most common mistake. This will require them to be more active in the process. You can also have them set goals for how they can improve for the future based on their most common mistakes. For example, if a student kept mixing up pronouns, they can create a study plan that includes more pronoun practice.
Student Centred Error Correction
The chart above shows the process of student centred error correction. As you can see, it begins not with the teacher but with the student. The student has the autonomy to decide on what they think they need to improve. The student then chooses what they want to focus on for that specific activity. During the activity, they will monitor their own speaking or writing. At the end of the activity, they evaluate their own strengths and weakness for a second time and then decide on future goals.
Although this type of error correction may be difficult to conceptualize, once you get a feel for it, it is actually quite versatile. In my experience, I’ve found student centred error correction to be more motivating and rewarding for the students. The best part is they are active throughout the entire process so the entire process in a learning experience! What more could a teacher want? J
In the Classroom
Activities:
“Error Correction Snap”
Materials:
cut up pieces of paper (or anything the students can collect throughout the activity)
Instructions:
Put students into groups of 4 or 5.
Give each group a pile of cut up pieces of paper or whatever else you are using (paper clips, game pieces, popsicle sticks).
Tell students they are going to play a game where they need to listen for and correct each other’s speaking errors.
Give the students the speaking task. This game works well with conversation questions.
While the students are speaking, they must slap the table when they hear a mistake. They have to state the mistake and try to correct it to get a piece of paper. They get one piece of paper if they identify a mistake but don’t correct it, and two pieces for identifying and correcting.
The object of the game is to catch and correct as many mistakes as possible. The winner is the one with the most pieces of paper at the end of the game.
“Name Tags”
This activity was inspired by my childhood classrooms where we all had to wear name tags on the first week of school.
Materials:
paper for each student or blank name tags
Instructions:
Ask each student to fold a piece of paper so that it will stand upright on their desk. Alternatively, if you have access to blank name tags, you can use those!
Tell the students to discuss with their partner their most common speaking errors and challenges. Prompt them by giving examples or mentioning the different parts of speaking (pronunciation, use of vocabulary, grammar).
Ask them to get even more specific about each challenge. For example, if a student says they want to improve their pronunciation, prompt them to get more specific by stating exactly what sound causes them difficulty.
After they have discussed for a few minutes, ask them to write their most common mistakes (two or three) on the piece of paper so everyone can see.
They will then work in groups of 3 or 4 to do the speaking activity (again, this works well with conversation questions).
Tell them they are going to help each other (and themselves) by correcting each other’s mistakes. Remind them that the goal is to correct others so they can begin to correct themselves.
While they are speaking, the students need to focus on what that particular student has identified as a challenge. So, for example, if one student has said “I can’t pronounce ‘L’ or ‘R’”, the other students should listen and help her correct her pronunciation as she is speaking.
Your role is to help prompt the students to correct each other. If you hear a mistake, you can pause them and repeat what the student said. However, try to let the students do most of the work!
At the end of the activity, the students can write down which speaking difficulty they want to work on over the next week or two.
Tips:
Until your students get used to this style of error correction, you may have to keep repeating this statement: If I correct your mistakes, I improve my English. If you correct your mistakes, you improve your English.
Engage the students in your methods. Ask them why you are doing error correction in this way. Ask them why they are benefiting from this activity.
Make sure the students always take notes on their most common errors so they become aware of them. They should also set goals to try and improve outside of the class (based on their common errors).
