Er ror cor rection techniques

for English teachers

TESL Newsletter

General Issues in Error Correction

October 19 , 2008
1. Changes in Attitudes 2. Which errors to correct 3. Types of correction in Volume 1, Issue 1
toward mistakes and language classroom
Comprehensibility
correction:
Concerning Who Inside this issue:
Teacher should correct
Traditional attitudes
errors that cause - Self-correction: students General remarks for
 Mistakes are a misunderstanding or lack correct themselves
revelation of students’ of intelligibility. teachers 2
- Peer correction: students
ignorance, laziness and Oral correction techniques 2
Frequency correct each other
lack of commitment.
Errors that are constantly - Teacher correction: Discussion corner 3
 Mistakes should be
made by an individual teacher corrects students
highly avoided. Written correction techniques 3
student or the entire class
Concerning How
 A good lesson should be should be given priority. References 4
mistake-free. - Direct correction:
Pedagogical focus
Teacher stops the
The Communicative
Errors in form that student, points out
Approach
ns
 Mistakes show that
students have recently
learned in class should be
mistake, gets student to
self-correct or be corrected
students are corrected. by another student.
experimenting with the
Individual student - Indirect correction:
language, trying to
concerns Teacher takes notes of
formulate sentences and
mistakes and deals with
responses for themselves. Teacher correction varies
correction at a later time.
according to students’
 Mistakes are an
proficiency levels, needs
inevitable part of the
and personal preferences.
learning process.
 A good lesson is one full
of student mistakes and
students correcting
themselves and each
other.

Teacher correction and student performance

Teacher correction can either have a positive or negative effect on students’ language performance.

Positive (desired) effects Negative (undesired) effects

 Students become fully aware of their area of problems
and work toward solving it.
 Students are more open and tolerant of their own
mistakes and those of their classmates.
 Students are willing to try out new language items and
consider teacher correction as useful guided helps.
 Students are afraid of being criticized and play it
safe by stop trying to produce the language.
 Students become critical of their own mistakes and
those of their friends.
 Students feel frustrated and insecure during class
periods.
 Page 2
Oral correction
General remarks for TEACHERS
 Place more emphasis on correction  Avoid confusion in giving correction:
during drill (accuracy-focused activities) asking for ambiguous word choices, giving
than Genehjhj
during communication activities inexplicit directions, using vague correction
(fluency-focused activities). techniques that lead to error repetition.
 Do not interrupt the students too
quickly. Research has shown that if “the
mnm
 Make correction in a positive manner.
Correct gently and with respect. This is
teacher waited three to five seconds to especially important with oral work, since it
intervene after asking a question (instead is almost always in front of others.
of the typical one second), student
(Source: Error correction techniques for the
responses increased dramatically”.
FL classroom, Waltz J. )
 Avoid confusion in giving correction:
asking for ambiguous word choices, giving
Oral Correction techniques
inexplicit directions, using vague correction
techniques that lead to error repetition.
 Finger correction ? Question mark/ Intonation  Alternative
Use each finger of your left hand to Use a question mark, in your Give the students an alternative: tell
represent the word. Holding your voice and/or in your face. them the correct answer and the
palm towards you, your little finger wrong answer, put a question mark
e.g.: S: I go yesterday.
represents the first word of the into your voice and get them to
sentence. Point to the word with your T: [turns face to the side a bit choose the right one.
right hand. Move from left to right and frowns: go?
e.g.: S: He go to the market everyday.
(backwards) so that the student read
S: Oh. Yes. I went yesterday.
the other way around, from left to T: He go or he goes?
right.
S: He goes .
“Anyone who has never made a
This technique is often used for the
following mistakes: missing mistake has never tried anything
contraction, missing word, or too new.” Albert Einstein
many words.
Recast/ Paraphrasing BB prompt Student-to-Student correction
Model the incorrect sentence without Use the model sentences If these above techniques do not
proper substitution but without written on the board to remind work, use other students in the class
calling attention to the correction. the students of the form, word who can provide the answer correctly
order, contraction, etc. to help the student who has made
e.g.: S: I go to school yesterday.
the mistake. Point at a good student
e.g.:
T: I WENT to school yesterday. and then point at the student who
S: I’ve been here since two needs help and say “Help him/her”.
Modeling (Teacher-to-Student) years.
Repeat a good model for students to T: [point at the word “for” on Indirect correction (during pair work
copy. This technique is useful for the board] and group work)
pronunciation mistakes.
S: Oh! I’ve been here for two Go around from group to group, with a
years. notebook and pencil. Listen to the
group for a while and write down one
or two discernible and BIG mistakes
“The main job of teachers is not that they make. At the end of the class
comparing students’ use of or at the beginning of the next class
write the mistakes on the board or
language with standard English”. read them out to the class. Get the
Edge, J. student to correct the mistakes.
 Page 3
Written correction
Discussion corner
When it comes to teacher correction of students’ written work, there has been a lot of controversy as to how
teacher correction helps students improve their writing. As a result, we would like to start our discussion
board with this issue and we look forward to receiving your contributions.
The issue as to whether error On the other hand, other their writing, as English language
feedback helps L2 student writers researchers affirm corrective teachers, what is your standpoint on
improve the accuracy and overall feedback was effective when this matter? To what extent do you
quality of their writing is combined with classroom think your correction benefits your
controversial. discussions (Master 1995). students’ writing performance?
Some researcher says that Similarly, Fathman & Whalley Your ideas and opinions are
feedback on error to L2 students (1990) stated there are “positive essential to making this a fruitful
is discouraging and generally effects for rewriting from discussion.
fails to produce any feedback on both grammar and
improvements in their content”.
subsequent writing (Robb, Ross & As controversy continues as to
Shortreed 1986; Kepner 1991; whether feedback on error helps
Sheppard 1992; Polio, Fleck & L2 student writers to improve the
Leder 1998; Fazio 2001). accuracy and overall quality of  Let’s share to be shared! 

Written Correction techniques

Basically, there are two kinds of techniques that teachers can use to correct students’
written work: direct and indirect feedback.
Direct feedback is given when the
teacher provides the correct form
for the student writer; if the
student revises the text, s/he
needs only to transcribe the
correction into the final version.
Indirect feedback occurs when
the teacher indicates in some way
that an error exists but does not
provide the correction, thus
letting the writer know that
there is a problem but leaving it
to the student to solve it.
Second language acquisition
theorists and ESL writing
specialists alike argue that
indirect feedback is preferable for
most student writers because it
engages them in “guided learning
and problem solving” (Lalande,
1982), leading to reflection about
linguistic forms that may foster
long-term acquisition (James and
Reid).
Error correction researchers who
have examined the effects of
these two contrasting types of
feedback have reported that
indirect feedback helps students
to make progress in accuracy over
time more than direct
feedback does (Ferris et al.,
2000; Ferris & Helt, 2000 and
Lalande) or at least equally
as well (Frantzen and Robb).
“Error correction is one of the
language teacher’s most important
functions and is one of the things
that distinguishes classroom
interaction from interaction outside
the classroom.” – David Nunan

Suggestions for correcting students’ written errors

1. First, identify and record the error types that each learner produces frequently. Then, student
reads his written work to search out and correct all high-frequency errors.
2. Use different color inks for distinguishing more important errors from less important ones.
3. Underlining a word and providing a verbal tip such as “use subjunctive”, crossing out superfluous
words and supplying correct form or structure.
Page 4
MODL 4/570
Dr Smidt This publication is part of the Multi-Genre Research Project on the
Armstrong Hall
128 Armstrong Hall
Mankato, MN 56001
Phone: 507-389-5445
Editors
Brian Durgin
Kizuna Yamamoto
Mai Nguyen
Ellis, R., Sheen, Y.,
Murakami, M., &
Takashima, M. (2008). The
effects of focused and
unfocused written corrective
feedback in an English as a
foreign language context.
System, 36, 353-371.
Ferris, D. R., & Roberts B.;
(2001). Error feedback in L2
writing classes: how explicit
does it need to be?. Journal
of Second Language Writing,
161–184.
topic of
“The effects of teacher correction on student achievements in TESL”
References
Hendrickson, J. M. (1978). Classroom. Unpublished
Error correction in foreign Alternative Plan Paper,
language teaching: Recent Mankato State University
Theory, Research, and
Practice. Modern Language Walz, J. C. (1985). Error
Journal, 62, 387-398 correction techniques for the
foreign language classroom.
Washington DC: The Center
Hyland, K., & Hyland, F.
(2006). Feedback on second for Applied Linguistics.
language students’ writing,
Language Teaching, 39, 83–
101.
Lee, S. (1994). Oral Error
Correction In The ESL/EFL