CISELT TRAINING ERRORS AND MISTAKES CTLI 27 JUNE 2015

2.2 DISCUSS 2.2 DISCUSS a. What is the difference between ‘error’ and ‘mistake’ in an ELT context b. Should learners’ mistakes be corrected? Why? Why not ? c. When should learners’ mistakes be corrected? d. Which mistakes should be corrected? e. Who should do the correcting?

a. Errors occur when learners use incorrect language because they don’t know the correct form Mistakes occur when learners produce incorrect language despite their prior knowledge.

b. Teaching approaches that emphasise production of correct sentences, such as audiolingualism are not tolerant of mistakes. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) places more emphasis on genuine communication and less on formal correctness.

c. Mistakes in speaking can be corrected during (on the spot) or after a speaking activity d. Some claim that every mistake should be corrected while others argue that only mistakes that cause a breakdown in communication should be dealt with e. Teacher or peer correction.

COMMON MISTAKES: DISCUSS In your groups discuss the most common mistakes that you encounter in spoken English. List those types of mistakes and place them into broader categories e.g. Grammar, Lexical. You can further sub-divide the bigger categories into smaller ones.

Errors and Mistakes Grammar Phonological Register Lexical Pronounciation Appropriacy Vocabulary I am agree with you We should defend the environment In our country exist many problems Man to bank manager: “Give me some cash” Ca me ra Can you borrow me your pen Learner to teacher: “Yo! Teach!” Cho/co/late

ORAL ERROR CORRECTION In your groups identify the error correction technique used in each of the 6 boxes.

ORAL ERROR CORRECTION TECHNIQUES RECAST ELICITATION CLARIFICATION REQUEST METALINGUISTIC FEEDBACK EXPLICIT CORRECTION REPETITION

CORRECTION TECHNIQUES TYPE OF CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK DEFINITION Metalinguistic feedback contains comments/questions related to the learner’s utterance, but does not contain the answer Explicit correction the teacher clearly indicates that the learner’s utterance is incorrect Elicitation the teacher evokes a response through allowing the learner to complete a sentence Recast the reconstruction of learners’ utterances Clarification request the teacher uses words or phrases to indicate that the message has not been understood Repetition Learner’s utterance is repeated and the error is emphasised

RECAST – without directly pointing out the error the teacher reformulates the learner’ s error ELICITATION – teacher elicits the correct form by asking the learner to reformulate CLARIFICATION REQUEST – by using phrases like ‘Excuse me?’ the teacher indicates that the message has not been understood

METALINGUISTIC – the teacher poses questions or provides comments guiding the learner to the correct form e.g. “Do we say it like that?”, “That’s not how we say it in English” EXPLICIT CORRECTION – the teacher provides the correct form indicating that the learner’s utterance was incorrrect.

REPETITION – the teacher repeats the error, adjusting intonation to draw the learner’s attention to it.

Effectiveness of oral correction

Feedback: Oral error correction Recast is least effective. Probably because learners are often not aware that the teachers response is corrective. Error correction is more effective when the teacher draws attention to the error and requires the learner to repair it, rather providing the correct form her/himself. In recasts and explicit correction the teacher provides the correct form without the learner being actively involved in the correction.

ORAL CORRECTION VIDEO

YOUR OWN TECHNIQUES for correcting mistakes YOUR OWN TECHNIQUES for correcting mistakes Do you know any other techniques for correcting mistakes in the classroom? In your groups discuss your own techniques and demonstrate one to the class.

APPROACHES TO ERROR CORRECTION AUDIOLINGUALISM COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) LEXICAL APPROACH Read about the 3 approaches on P7. Which of these approaches do you favour? Do activity 6.2

CORRECTING WRITTEN WORK a.)How do you correct learners’ written work? b.) Do you find it effective to provide learners with the corrected version or just indicate their mistakes without correcting them? c.) Do you ever ask learners to rewrite their first draft and resubmit their work? How do your learners feel about it?

CORRECTING TECHNIQUES Do you have a system of marking symbols? Do your learners understand your marking codes? Do you think it is effective in improving the writing of learners? Do you provide additional feedback?

Correction codes WWWrong word WOMistake in word order SPSpelling mistake VVerb used wrongly PWrong punctuation XExtra word ?Meaning unclear TWrong tense Something missing

Reflection How important is accuracy? Is it always necessary to correct learners’ mistakes? What effect can correction have on motivation?

Thank you! Thank you!