Correction 1

by Alicia Carranza
 mistakes

slips errors attempts

L1 interference Developmental errors

Grade the mistakes in the following sentences from 5 - 0 where 5 is a very

serious mistake, and 0 is no mistake at all. You must define for yourself what
serious means.

1. She asked me where did I work.

2. The cat was into the basket.
3. The problem is that the door isnt opened.
4. She likes cooking herself and for me.
5. Peter and I was watching the news.
6. She didnt wrote many books.
7. Could you tell me where is the toilet?
8. She is about herself very sensible.
9. The phone have been ringing twice.
10. There are a lot of furnitures in my house.

Assessment of student
performance

explicit implicit

Correction 2
by Alicia Carranza
 Praise

medals missions

It is important to give feedback on what the students say rather than just
on how they say it.

Feedback during oral work

accuracy fluency

intense correction free of correction

Showing incorrectness: This can be done in a number of different ways:

Repeating
Echoing
Making gestures and facial expressions
Making non-verbal sounds
Using simple phrases
Reformulating
Showing where the mistake is in the sentence
Pretending to have misunderstood what the student has said

Correction 3
by Alicia Carranza
Feedback on written work

Dealing with written mistakes is not the same as working with spoken ones.
Writing and speaking have different rules themselves, and different things are
important. Look at this conversation extract:

A When I saw him the other day, well, it was yesterday, actually, he was
looking down.
B What, you mean, at the pavement?
A (shakes head) No, I mean, depressed he was looking depressed, as if he
was still thinking about Lucy
B Well, he always does.
A Does what?
B Look depressed. He did even before he met Lucy.

The way we give feedback on writing will depend on the kind of writing task the
students have undertaken, and the effect we wish to create.

The Red Pen Syndrome

Many students of a foreign language are asked to write compositions which,
when returned, resemble a battlefield:

Correction 4
by Alicia Carranza
Giving feedback on written work

Using correction codes

Summerising comments

Peer review

What is your attitude to mistakes?

Read the sentences below and identify the mistakes in each one. Then, using
the symbols in the table in the previous page, categorise the mistake and mark
each one using the following code:

0 points= a slip which is so unimportant as to be hardly worth mentioning.

-1 point = a mistake of form, but where comprehension is not empeded.
-2 points= shows a fundamental misunderstanding of a particular structure.
-3 points= serious mistakes where you do not understand what the student
means.

1. People is very gentil there.

2. We must paid extra for the dessert.
3. The back journey was tired.
4. Dont loose this oportunity! You wont regret it.
5. Between the most important cityes is Buenos Aires wich is the capital of
the country.
6. The air and coach transports were used only for a day.
7. How is your mother like?
8. If Emma had revised, she would passed the exam.
9. My fader is as older as my mother .
10. Everybody were happy.
11. I am interesting in english and other idioms too.

Correction 5
by Alicia Carranza
 12. I have for breakfast coffee and milk.
13. She remembered me to not to forget to feed the dog.
14. I wont to go home. I dont fill well.
15. I never arrive late to school .
16. If he had driven less faster, he has not died .
17. The exercises were difficults.
18. She put the ingredients in a recipient and mix well.
19. An obituary is a publish of someone died with the biography which is in
charge of the family.
20. When Im boring, I look at the TV or read.

What type of corrector are you?

Are you a heavy corrector or a non-corrector?

Teachers have to let students know that mistakes are:

1. necessary
2. acceptable
3. will be dealt within a non-judgmental, supportive and effective way.

Bad mistake-management is worse than none at all. But good mistake-

management helps everyone. Good mistake-management enables teachers to
continue to maintain a professional position in front of students, colleagues and
authorities alike.

If you are a heavy corrector,

correct less!
correct at specific points of your lesson.
give your students more room.
correct better-use better or different techniques.
boost their confidence!
help them overcome their fear of making mistakes!

Correction should be

non-judgemental

encouraging

supportive

effective

Correction 6
by Alicia Carranza
 positive

When giving feedback, remember that the teachers job is not to criticize the
product but to aid the process. After all, students do not make mistakes
deliberately. Many teachers worry about their students communication being
defective. It would be more fruitful to concentrate on ways of making it more
effective. To do this, concentrate on what is good, encourage progress and
be patient. The person who never makes a mistake, never makes anything
and remember:

You do not correct a mistake,

you correct a PERSON!

Correction 7
by Alicia Carranza