Language acquisition is not an easy process.Nobody can avoid making mistakes.Some students make more,others less.To achieve the result students need to know about the mistakes they make in order to avoid them in future.But ... in fact mistakes correction is a doubtful point and a hard task due to the following issues arising in my mind:
- should we correct all the mistakes or only those that impede understanding?
- should we correct the mistakes of beginner\elementary level students trying hard to start speaking the foreign language?
- should we correct the mistakes interfering in students' speech (while they remember what they've said) or waiting up to the end of their speech announcing a huge list thus making it tiresome and humiliating to a certain degree?
Dear colleagues! Could you share your experience of mistakes correction? How do you manage it?
- OxanaKhrushcheva's blog
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Hello, when my students are practicisng speaking I monitor groups and usually I don't stop their speech and correct them. But when they are done I thank them for their effort for speaking in English and focus on major and common mistakes saying: "I heard couple of sentnecs which said....Let's correct together with you". When they give an oral presentation and carry out a discussion task at times I ask them to record their performance and I give them simple user friendly criteria and ask them to watch the recording and reflect on their performance. Then we go over the video in tutorial.
I believe that thye feel very distubed when I comment on their pronunciation at the spot intervening the task; So, I learned to be tolerant and invent ways to come back to the mistakes later on when affective filters are low. And at times I let the mistakes go... :)
Dear Oxana,
When I begin teaching a class I do not focus on every single mistake because I believe learning comes with experience and a language develops over time. At the beginning of the year I just give a few remarks regarding errors. Later on I correct them and sometimes take the time to explain to the whole class. The idea is to give them confidence to speak and write and then to correct them because then they will know that you care about their language and that your aim is not to discourage them, but to help them become better.
Nahla
Hi,I agree with Nahla, I have also used the same..Nice to read it..Thanks...;)
Dear Oxana,
When I begin teaching a class I do not focus on every single mistake because I believe learning comes with experience and a language develops over time. At the beginning of the year I just give a few remarks regarding errors. Later on I correct them and sometimes take the time to explain to the whole class. The idea is to give them confidence to speak and write and then to correct them because then they will know that you care about their language and that your aim is not to discourage them, but to help them become better.
Nahla
Thank you very much for sharing!I like the idea of recording especially.
Thank you very much!I see your point and I'm sure that's a right approach.First,they need to overcome language barriers and gain confidence.And after we may achieve the ideal)
It believe it would be wrong to harshly strike out at any and every mistake made by students, as that would most certainly demoralize them (especially if they're very young) - however you have to be very careful that mistakes do not get repeated so many times they start sounding "right" to the students and even to you! When we understand what someone is trying to say we sometimes don't want to make them unhappy by correcting their grammar but it is this kind of "kindness" that is to blame for my students saying:
" I was late because I was IN the toilet" (!)
" Can we OPEN the airconditioner/TV/internet"
" I was listening music / playing computer"
" I am not here yesterday"
" I am a student for 3 years"
aaaaaaagh!!!!!
my colleagues told everything, I agree with them.. thanks, to all colleagues... and also thank for your blog...
Hello, when my students are practicisng speaking I monitor groups and usually I don't stop their speech and correct them. But when they are done I thank them for their effort for speaking in English and focus on major and common mistakes saying: "I heard couple of sentnecs which said....Let's correct together with you". When they give an oral presentation and carry out a discussion task at times I ask them to record their performance and I give them simple user friendly criteria and ask them to watch the recording and reflect on their performance. Then we go over the video in tutorial.
I believe that thye feel very distubed when I comment on their pronunciation at the spot intervening the task; So, I learned to be tolerant and invent ways to come back to the mistakes later on when affective filters are low. And at times I let the mistakes go... :)
Thanks for an important issue! While we are learning mistakes are inevitable. When my students discuss or retell something I listen to them carefully, if there are mistakes in the speech I never interrupt them but put them down and when he finishes I try to correct them and to explain. Sometimes I address the whole class with the mistakes and look forward to their explanations. In this case they remember their mistakes better and try never to repeat them.
Dear CoffeeAddict,thanks a lot for feedback and examples!
I really need other teachers' experience because my problem is rather specific (for me) or probably familiar to you (?)-as I've already mentioned in previous comments I see the importance of gaining speech fluency and developing confidence of students but most groups I've got are mixed abilities ones,there are weak students together with proficient.and if I do not correct the mistakes of the weak other students will boo them that I strongly oppose.on the other hand proficent students from time to time make mistakes as well but they are completely different,subtle,specific and my explanations in this case serve virtually no good to the weak students.
So I try to develop a certain strategy of mistakes correction but now it looks more like crisis management)
thaks a lot for sharing!I do appreciate your help.I also try to appeal to students asking them to comment on mistakes of their own or their groupmates.and I often tell them a universal truth that they'd better learn from other people's mistakes.