corrective feedback - error correction- student uptake diana foran storer november 28,2012 diana...

Corrective Feedback - Error

Correction-Student Uptake

Corrective Feedback - Error

Correction-Student Uptake

Diana Foran StorerNovember 28,2012

Diana Foran Storer 1

Big Question: when and how to correct in SLA?

Oral mistakes made during class discussions: 1) Correct often and thoroughly 2) Let students make mistakes. 3) Let beginners make many mistakes but correct advanced students often. 4) “Selective correction”. The teacher decides to correct only certain errors. 5) “After –the- Fact”. Teacher takes notes, then in follow up session goes over list for benefit of all.

What do YOU think? Diana Foran Storer 2

Big Question: What to correct?

• Grammatical mistakes (mistakes of verb tenses, preposition use, etc.)

• Vocabulary mistakes (incorrect collocations, idiomatic phrase usage, etc.)

• Pronunciation mistakes (errors in basic pronunciation, errors in word stressing in sentences, errors in rhythm and pitch)

• Written mistakes (grammar, spelling and vocabulary choice mistakes in written work)


In CLIL, the added factor: Content

• Fluency is more stressed than accuracy• Aural comprehension over written

expression• Spoken expression showing

underdstanding and cognitive engagement over grammatical perfection

• Demonstration of Content knowledge


Correcting Written work

There are three basic approaches to correcting written work: 1)Correct each mistake2)Give a general impression marking3)Underline mistakes and / or give clues to the type of mistakes made and then let students correct the work themselves.


Teacher myth: By allowing students to make mistakes, I am reinforcing the

errors they are making.

• If teachers do not correct mistakes immediately, will they be helping to reinforce incorrect language production skills?

• Is this feeling reinforced by students who expect teachers to continually correct them during class.

• What do you think? Diana Foran Storer 6

Myth: By allowing students to make mistakes, I am permitting the natural learning process to achieve

competency and, eventually, fluency.

• Learning a language is a long process; many, many mistakes are made

• From not speaking a language to being fluent takes time, and patience

• Students who are continually corrected become inhibited and cease to participate-- thus opposite of what the teacher is trying to produce - the use

of English to communicate.

• Do you agree?Diana Foran Storer

7

Mistake Error

• A mistake is a previously learned grammar point, vocabulary word, or phrase which the student uses incorrectly

• Incorrectly produced language that hasn't yet been studied

• Attempt at applying rules from the native tongue to English.

• Taking a previously studied English rule and extending it to a new and unacceptable situation.


Categorizing errors

Productive: Reason for its spoken or written production-

– It is the result of a random guess – It was produced while testing out

hypotheses– It is a slip- of-the-tongue, a lapse, a

mistake (caused by carelessness, fatigue etc.)


Categorizing errors

•Receptive (faulty understanding).

Misinterpretation of the word, sentence meaning, pronunciation, etc. leading to break in communication.

• Specifically: – A lexical error - vocabulary – A phonological error - pronunciation – A syntactic error- grammar – An interpretive error - misunderstanding of a

speaker's intention or meaning – A pragmatic error - failure to apply the rules of – conversation


1. On-the-spot explicit feedback: The teacher provides the correct form indicating that what the students said was wrong.

St: There is no priest for cancer. T: No. That’s the wrong word. We say

“cure”.

Gestures Using hand gestures (tense) Wall posters (3rd pers. S)

Corrective Feedback techniques


– MouthingThis is useful with pronunciation, stress errors.

– Error Awareness Noting down errors, then ST-Teacher conference; or in class, global Recording spoken production Personal Error Awareness tables


Recasts: teacher implicitly reformulates all or part of the student’s utterance; - St: John goed to the store. T: Oh, really? John went to the store yesterday?

- St: I went in Scotland T: Oh really, you went to Scotland, did you?


3. Elicitation: teacher directly elicits a reformulation from students by asking questions such as

T: “How do we say that in English?” 4. Metalinguistic: Teacher interlanguage “Should we use past or present? 5. Pausing to allow students to complete teacher’s sentence, T: When we speak we use the …..? The ton…..? St: tongue T: Yes, the tongue6. Reformulations T: What do you mean by “ quiet talk”? St: when no sound when speaking T: Oh, you mean whispering. St: Yes, whispering


Interactional Modifications

• Comprehension Checks—

Do you understand me? Do you follow me? OK? Are you with me?

• Confirmation Check—

Is this what you mean? Are you trying to say that…?

• Clarification Requests—

What? Huh? Excuse me? Sorry? I don’t

understandDiana Foran Storer 15

Summary: HELP STUDENT ERROR AWARENESS, NOTICING

• Deferring correction to end of an activity• Taking notes on typical mistakes made by

many students• Correcting only one type of error at a time• Giving written clues, but letting them

correct themselves• Peer correction: from written • work, from oral work


One of a teacher´s role in the language classroom is to give

feedback on errors, but different corrective feedback has different

rates of language uptake

Needs repair. Vs. Student acknowledges errorCorrects different errorRepeats same errorHesitatesTotally off targetPartial repair•-

RepairRepetition of corrected errorIncorporation of correctionSelf-repairPeer-repair


Examples of uptake • T: Okay, and what about Janet’s education?• S1: Uh, Janet from Mount Allison University.• T: So Janet graduated from? (Recast)• S1: Uh, graduated from. (uptake, successful)

• S2: …Three years teaching English to children in Spain. And native of English.

• T: So she is a native speaker of English? (Recast)

• S2: Yeah, yeah. (uptake, unsuccessful)


Example of no uptake

• S3: I can’t uh oh sometimes I can’t understand.

• T: Mmmm.• S1: really?• S3: Especially movie.• T: Movies? (Recast)• S3: If I don’t- If I English- British movie. • (no uptake)


How often do you use corrective feedback?

• In a normal one hour lesson, a teacher will approximately use

* 55% recast feedback 14% elicitation feedback 11% clarification feedback 8% metalinguistic feedback 7% explicit correction 5% repetition feedback


Summary of Corrective Feedback

• Explicit correction has a very low rate of uptake since the student doesn’t have to self-correct and the mistake could be easily forgotten.

T: No, that’s wrong. It is “bought” not “buyed”. • Recasts result in the lowest rate of uptake

since they don’t lead to any self-repair. T: Oh, so you bought a book yesterday.• Elicitation: Teacher asks for a reformulation,

‘How do you say that in Spanish?’ or pausing to allow student to complete teacher’s utterance.


• Metalinguistic clues: Teacher provides comments, information, or questions related to student output.

T: You need past tense…• Clarification: Teacher uses phrases such as,

‘I don’t understand’, or ‘What do you mean?’ Pardon?

• Repetition: Teacher repeats the mistake adjusting intonation to highlight the error. T: You buyed a car???


NON LINGUISTIC SUPPORT FOR COMPREHENSION - TEACHER TALK

Making sure eyes, mouth can be seen

Facial expresiones; gestures, body language

Regular comp. checks; eye contact with students

Referencing materials: maps, wall decorations, diagrams

Regular pauses, wait time

Slower speech, higher pitch, exaggerated intonation and stress


• Isolated explicit error correction is usually ineffective in changing language behavior.

• Error feedback can be effective, but it must be sustained over a period of time

• It must be focused on something which learners are actually capable of learning.


• Instruction is at its most effective when it reflects the stage just beyond the learners’ current stage of interlanguage.

• Instruction then draws learner’s attention to language features and permits them to develop knowledge of those features if they are developmentally ready to do so.

• The rate a teacher has to give corrective feedback to her students is usually a good indication of what current stage of interlanguage the students are on.


Teacher Self Awareness


corrective feedback - error correction- student uptake diana foran storer november 28,2012 diana...

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