Learners’ should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation of bad habits

Instructor: Nguyen Tuan Ky

Student: Pham Thi Huong Trang

1. Errors show the pattern the

learners is developing • Whenever a language is learnt or acquired one is faced

with the problem of errors. Errors are an inevitable feature of learning. They are not problems to be overcome or evils to be eradicated. They in fact are part of learning and reveal the strategies that learners use to learn a language. They provide valuable insight into the language learning process

• In learning language, making mistakes is a natural step of growth.

2. When is correction useful ?

• Errors are persistent and are shared by almost all students. + In a class room situation, where almost all the students share the errors, it is usually benefit to acknowledge the problem and discuss it. It may require many repetitions for the learners to adopt the correct form

• Learners are ready for it. + If the learners are not really worried by the mistakes or they see no value in correcting them, remedial work’ ll probably be unsuccessful

+ The learners should be able to see that it is possible to make great improvement and that they are learning something useful.

• It suits the characteristics of the learners.

+ Sometimes, teachers refine the choice by choosing to let beginners and children make many mistakes while correcting advanced students often.

3. Role of teacher ?• There are two main points to this issue:

• If teacher allow students to make mistakes, teacher will reinforce the errors they are making.

• Many teachers feel that if they do not correct mistakes immediately, they will be helping reinforce incorrect language production skills. This point of view is also reinforced by students who often expect teachers to continually correct them during class. The failure to do so will often create suspicion on the part of the students.

• If teacher don't allow students to make mistakes, teacher will take away from the natural learning process required to achieve competency and, eventually, fluency.

• In the opinion of many teachers, students who are continually corrected become inhibited and cease to participate. This results in the exact opposite of what the teacher is trying to produce - the use of English to communicate.

Obviously students need to be corrected as part of the learning experience. However, students also need to be encouraged to use the language. It is true that correcting students while they are trying their best to use the language can often discourage them.

Teachers should have been aware that excessive correction can have a negative effect on motivation.

Continually correcting learners when they make mistakes may have the effect of reducing the amount of “making “ that they do. That is, the continual correction’ ll discourage the learners from speaking or from saying that might contain an error.

Tomasello and Herron (1989) suggest that some activities should be designed so that learners make errors and

they get immediate feedback to make them aware of the gap their knowledge.

→However teacher should suppose the suitable ways of correction.

• There are 3 types of correction:

• slips self-correctionex. S: I will study the new vocabulary until Friday.

T: Really, all the time? You won’t play even play soccer? S: No, no. I’ll play soccer on Thursday, but I’ll study the vocabulary

for the test on Friday

• errors peer correction ex. Anna: My mother is living in New York.

T: gestures the presence of an error, Peter’s hand shoots up. Peter: She lives in NY and she have three cats. T: Who can help Anna? Sue: She has three cats.

• attempts teacher reformulation ex. S: I’m living in NY. T: Really, that’s interesting. I live in NY as well. At what number do you live ? S: I live at number 160, in the end of the street. T: Oh, at the end of the street, that the white house with green shutters?

Thank you very much