St. Petersburg State Mining University, the Russian
Federation
Modern
Approaches to Error Correction in Foreign Language Learning
Most
teachers will agree that errors are unavoidable part of learning foreign
languages. Students learn from their errors. Strangely enough, but the errors
appear to be a stimulus of the process of foreign language learning. On the
other hand, as classroom practice shows correction of errors by a teacher do
not always contribute to improving student communicative skills, especially
when teachers emphasize attention on errors. Some teachers are even more
concerned with preventing errors than developing learners’ communicative
skills. If they hear errors they get nervous and interrupt students. This
constant error correction may develop something like a barrier, and students will
be afraid of making errors. In this case error correction may cause more harm
than benefit. That’s why it is for a teacher to decide whether to correct errors
or not, which errors to correct and how to correct. Constant error correction
makes students experience steady-state stress and their motivation decreases,
while loyalty to errors can result in overestimated self-assessment and neglect
of speech literacy.
At the present time we can see a gradual shift in
classroom practice, from the immediate correction of every error in older
methods based on behavioral theories of learning to a more tolerant modern
approach. It is useless to deny that a traditional role of a
teacher is to guide students and correct their errors. At the beginning stage
of foreign language learning students make a lot of errors, even serious and
inappropriate. For example, if students say «I am study at the University», «I
very like music» or «I living in St.
Petersburg» and the teacher doesn’t correct the errors, then students
unconsciously perceive the constructions as correct and they will keep on making the
same errors over and over again. The incorrect constructions learnt
by heart will sound natural in speech.
Learning grammatical rules can’t guarantee the
application of these rules when speaking. According to many investigations
conscious study of grammar at the initial stage of language learning
substantially slows down the process of mastering the English language. The
point is that there are lots of rules in English, and even more exceptions.
English grammar is too complicated to use it logically. The fastest and most
reasonable method to study grammar is to read and listen to as much English
speech as possible so that the brain itself could distinguish grammar patterns
and feel when they are used. As a rule students stop making some errors as
their language is improving and they start feeling themselves more confident.
In the process of learning foreign languages it is
very important to keep the balance between the speech fluency and literacy. If
the objective of the activity is to develop fluency, then correction may not be
necessary and it is advisable to give an opportunity for students to express
their ideas and perform the communication task without interruption. The
student should feel that other people understand him/her and it is better not to
focus on the errors made in oral speech, particularly make an emphasis of a
student’s errors in front of the whole group. Any way the correction should be
made in the form of reminding the students of the English language norms, but
not as the criticism of their answer. In order to overcome students' fear it is
essential to create a friendly and relaxed atmosphere in the classroom.
An
experienced teacher should not only apply a tactful approach to error
correction but also be able to predict and prevent them. For instance, it is
wise to make correction of pronunciation mistakes at the stage of vocabulary
presentation. If students mispronounce a word the teacher should include it in
his/her question or answer and adjusts intonation to draw students’ attention
to it.
If the teacher notices some errors
during a role-play, then it is better to analyze them when it is over. Besides,
the probability of making errors during role-plays is the same as during other
activities and they are typical. That’s why it makes sense to define typical
errors and make their correction after the activity.
To avoid interrupting students and
correcting their errors during oral activities it is worth following the next
steps:
Before
doing the activity it is necessary to provide a visual
aid, and work out the first example together to make sure that the task is
clear to everybody. During fulfillment
of the activity the teacher may write down the most common errors and when the activity is over the teacher
should draw the attention of the group to the typical errors to prevent their
repeating in future.
Analyzing students’ errors it seems reasonable to apply different
methods for error preventing and correcting. Firstly, the most common errors
should be registered and systemized by categories. Secondly, the teacher should
guide students’ independent work so that they would be able to prevent errors
themselves.
The process of error finding and
correction can be done in the form of a game. For example, the teacher can hand
out a text with various errors (grammar, spelling and logical). The students are divided into teams and they
compete in finding errors. The winner is the team which finds most errors and
sooner then other teams. Acting as correctors students learn to pay more
attention to their speech literacy. In this way teachers can encourage student
autonomy and self-correction. The active involvement of students in the process
of dealing with errors is also important because it stimulates active learning
and creates cooperative atmosphere.
Correcting every error may take too much time.
Timesaving for oral explanation of typical errors in classroom can be achieved
by means of special visual signals. For instance, students often omit -(e)s at
the end of the verbs in the third person singular present tense. In this case
to concentrate students’ attention the teacher can use a special visual signal,
viz. a red card with letter «S». Every time when students make the error the
teacher raises the card and students can realize their error immediately and
correct it themselves. Another typical students’ error is the wrong past form
of irregular verbs. Sometimes students just forget that the verb belongs to the
category of the irregular verbs and so they can say: «He gived me a book». In
this case the teacher can show the card with the word «Irregular».
Nobody is perfect and even native speakers make errors.
But it is important to be able to concentrate on the positive side of foreign
language learning and do it with pleasure.