Error Correction

Teaching methods and attitudes to errors

GRAMMAR TRANSLATION Accuracy is emphasised. The learning process
is seen as a process of memorising rules and examples. The learner would
learn everything by heart. The teacher is expected to correct all mistakes for
students to maintain accuracy.
Generally speaking, mistakes are considered to be bad. Learning is a
question of forming good habits and any deviation from them should be dealt
with immediately to stop the formation of bad habits (so, error bad / teacher
corrects).
COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH Since learning only takes place during
communicative interaction, problems of error should only be dealt with if they
lead to communication breakdown. Errors are seen as part of the learning
process (so, error good / student self-corrects)
The problem is that society’s view towards error hasn’t changed much over
the years and students are still afraid of making mistakes.
Making mistakes should be seen as a learning step and it brings new
problems: it’s no longer how do I prevent students from making errors, but
more of how do I deal with the student once they have made an error.

Types of errors

Pre-systematic error: The learner is NOT yet aware of the rule or has
confused the rule so it is not part of their system of using language. Students
haven’t learned it yet. This is an error of competence and as such the student
would be unable to self-correct.
Systematic: the learner has move on so that they have applied or transferred
a rule but as they are still making errors they have not yet mastered the rule.
The difference with this and pre-system is that the student can probably give a
reason for the language they have chosen. There is often a clear pattern to
the error. It is still an error of competence and the student would be unable /
might not be able to self-correct.
Post-systematic: The learner has now mastered the rule and can use this
part of the language accurately. However, use in situations when
communication is paramount to accuracy might cause the learner to use the
language inaccurately. This is an error of performance and as such the
student would be ABLE to self-correct.

Types of error and what cause them:

From a student:

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● False analogy: The student has made a false assumption, e.g. the ough
sound in ‘rough’ is the same as that in ‘through’ and thus s/he
mispronounces the word.
● Incomplete learning: Coursebooks and teachers often don’t reveal all
about a piece of language (consider how many levels the students are
introduced to the uses of the perfect aspect or the white lie told in
elementary coursebooks that ‘some’ is only used in positives and ‘any’ in
questions and negatives). As such, the learner possibly doesn’t know /
hasn’t learnt the whole story. This is therefore arguably a teacher
(coursebook)-induced error.
● Ignorance: This is the equivalent or the pre-systematic error.
● Over-generalisation: The student is applying the rule to everything, e.g.
to make the plural in English add ‘s’, so the student adds it to irregular
plurals as well. It could be argued from a positive light that this is also
experimentation.
● Over-learning / Avoidance: Czech students and the present perfect or
articles. As this is very difficult for them when they first learn it (it is not in
their mother tongue), they tend to avoid using it at all costs and then go to
the other extreme and use it when they should use the simple past.
● Fossilisation: As a result of NOT being corrected at an early stage of their
learning, the student has stored the language incorrectly and always says
it incorrectly (with this, correction would probably never work).
● Other: factors such as tiredness, L1 interference, once-a-week lesson,
external stress so the student isn’t focused, mishearing the teacher and so
on.
From a teacher:
● Unclear language presentation
● Overloading the students: (e.g. trying to go over all the uses of a tense
in one lesson).
● Not giving the students enough controlled / freer practice
● Over-generalizing (see student / incomplete learning above)
● Pitching the language too high (e.g. teaching elementary students the
mixed conditional.

Look at the examples and decide: what is the error type and what is the cause
of the error?
1. T: Are you angry? S: No, I had lunch 2 hours ago.
2. In street there was man with large dog.

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3. T: Ask her where she went last night. S: Where you went last night?
4. I was a host at a party last night. My best friend was celebrating her
birthday.
5. He gave me some useful informations.
6. He gived me some useful information.

1. T: Are you angry? S: No, I had lunch 2 hours ago.

Student misheard the teacher (receptive error).
2. In street there was man with large dog.
Lack of articles (could be L1 interference / grammar)
3. T: Ask her where she went last night. S: Where you went last night?
Mimicking the teacher
4. I was a host at a party last night. My best friend was celebrating her
birthday.
Lexical, wrong word caused by L1 interference
5. He gave me some useful informations.
Over-generalisation of plural rule / experimentation
6. He gived me some useful information.
Grammar, over-generalisation, experimentation

When and how should you correct your students?

Every teacher has different views on this and different ways of correcting their
students. It’s a case of finding out what both you and your students feel
comfortable with.
Look at the following scenario and decide what you think of the teacher’s
correction.

The lesson has started; the teacher and students are discussing together, in
open class, the answers to the homework exercise that the teacher set the
previous week (on phrasal verbs). There is a knock on the door and in walks a
student who is late. As the student enters he says: “I’m sorry I’m late. My
father has taken to hospital.” To which the teacher replies: “No, not has taken
but has been taken.”

You will probably think that the teacher should not have corrected. Some
possible reasons:
● Insensitive as the student was most likely upset
● Embarrassing – the student was in front of the whole class.
● Irrelevant – it was not the focus of the lesson.

Correction depends on:

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● The level of the class.

● The ability and confidence level of the student (a weaker, less confident
student would react more negatively than a more confident one).
● How the student is feeling (do they look different from usual?)
● The focus of the lesson (is it relevant to correct?)
● How will correction take place? (Can the student self-correct? Peer
correction? Teacher?)
● The stage of the lesson (is it a fluency stage or an accuracy one?)
● When will correction take place? (if it’s accuracy, the argument might be to
correct immediately; if it’s fluency, then perhaps delayed correction is
better; some might argue for an intermediate correction, e.g. in a task, the
class is all making one error that is impeding the task, so the teacher stops
the task, corrects the error and then lets the task continue).

Accuracy work – students are encouraged to make their utterances as near

to the norm as possible which usually needs more intense correction.
Fluency work – students work on their capacity to communicate within the
language, generally free of correction.

The key principles of correction:

1. How serious is the mistake / what kind.
2. Who is the student?
3. Who can correct it? (self / peer / teacher)
4. Is correction relevant? If so, when? (immediate, intermediate, delayed)

Think about these questions:

● How could the teacher do immediate correction without causing too much
disruption?
● What other ways of non-immediate correction are there?

Possible suggestions for immediate correction:

● Echoing what the student said

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● Using gestures
● On the spot correction, i.e. echoing what the student said but without the
error (reformulating)
● (Repeating and emphasising the error to highlight it so the student can
self-correct)
● Inviting peers to correct
● Prompt self-correction
● And so on…

Possible suggestions for non-immediate correction

● Noting answers and then using the whiteboard after an exercise
● Hot cards (the error is noted and each student is given a piece of paper
with their own errors on it to correct)
● Grammar auction exercises
● Homework
● Recording the students
● And so on…

Advantages and disadvantages

Echoing
+ Provided that the student realises the echo is for an error, it allows the
chance for self-correction
- The student is unlikely to realise an error has been made. It might be seen
as mimicking the student and be embarrassing for them.
Gestures
+ Assuming the students are familiar with the gestures then they don’t
interrupt the flow of the conversation and the student can self-correct /
students can peer correct
- If the students are not familiar with the gestures, it might be distracting.
Typical gestures
● Hand over should to indicate the past
● Using fingers to highlight a missing / wrong word
● A quizzical look

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● Mouthing (to highlight a pronunciation error).

Reformulation
+ Students hear the correct form in a sensitive way
- As with highlighting, the student might not realise there is an error.
Repeating to highlight the error
+ Provided that the student realises the repetition is for an error, it allows the
chance for self-correction
- The student is unlikely to realise an error has been made. It might be seen
as mimicking the student and be embarrassing for them.
- Errors shouldn’t be repeated
Self correction
+ Useful for dealing with post-systematic errors; it can be done quickly; it is
involving and therefore more likely to be remembered; it gives the student
the feeling of satisfaction.
- Only works if it isn’t a pre-system or system error; if it is, then the student
cannot self-correct so it would put them on the spot and could be
embarrassing.
Peer correction
+ It can be more sensitive then the teacher doing it. It helps to foster the class
dynamic and helps the other students remember the language item.
- The student may be embarrassed; the correction may be incorrect.
Delayed using paper / whiteboard
+ Does not interfere with the task; it gives all learners the chance to think
about the errors; it fosters the class dynamic as all are in it together and
can help each other; it can be used for future work.
- Learners might not be involved as they do not perceive the errors as
theirs.
- Context is lost.

Consider each situation and decide:

1. What type of error it is.
2. Whether you would correct it. If so, how and when?

Situation 1

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You are doing a grammar drill to practise the present perfect tense. It is being
done in whole class and you are simply going round each student. You ask,
“Have you ever been to England?” A student responds, “I’ve went on England
in 2006.”
Presuming this is a low-level class the error is probably a system error
as they have already been introduced to the language. Since it is a
controlled grammar practice drill and therefore accuracy-focused, there
is an argument for immediate correction using gestures to allow self- /
peer correction.

Situation 2:
You are doing a warm-up activity with your class. They are talking together in
pairs about what they did in the previous week. You overhear one of the
students telling her partner that she went to her aunt’s five and fiftieth birthday
party.
Presumably this is post-systematic error but it depends on the level of
the class. Given that it is a warm-up activity and only one student is
making the error, there is an argument for doing no correction. Or you
may note it for later correction.

TIPS:
● Ask the students how they want to be corrected
Might be obvious, but really, talk to your students about error correction
and to find out form them how they like to be corrected. Often students
have preferences / ideas about how they would like to be corrected.
Besides, it gives you a chance to cater for their / individual needs.
● If students are working in pairs and you have a leftover student, why not
assign them the role of assistant teacher? They can have a notebook and
pen and make notes of mistakes they hear.
● By noting their mistakes students have a record of their progress and can
avoid repeating the same mistakes time and time again. It’s a good idea to
have a set space in their notebooks to write down their errors and the
correct version. One way of doing it is to divide a page into three columns:

Mistake Correction Notes

It depends of the It depends on the Revise prepositions. Not

weather. weather. the same as in Spanish
– depende de

I’ve lived in Barcelona I’ve lived in Barcelona Since – for points in

since six years. for six years. time
For – for periods of time

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● Sometimes it’s a good idea to have little tests based on the classic
mistakes students make in class. It encourages students to look over their
notes and try to learn from them.
● Try to keep the learning experience positive for the students. Being
corrected constantly can be really de-motivating. Make sure you listen out
for really good uses of language and highlight these to the group too.

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