Correction: A positive approach to mistakes

One of the things that puzzles many teachers is why students go on making the
same mistakes even when those mistakes have been repeatedly pointed out to
them. Error correction may prove to be a difficult task to language teachers
because it involves decision-making about what to correct, when to correct, how
to correct and how much to correct. Several approaches to correcting student
errors have been suggested. One of them holds that all errors made by learners
should be corrected at any cost. On the surface, this approach seems to be of
much benefit to students. However, a close examination will reveal that this
approach to error correction will do students more harm than good.
Yet not all mistakes are the same. For example, we can distinguish between
mistakes and errors, the former being caused by the learner not putting into
practice something that they have learned , the latter being caused by the
learner trying out something completely new, and getting it wrong. However, this
distinction is an academic one: in practice , and especially on the spur of the
moment in a class, it is impossible to distinguish between the two. But how can
we tell what a student has learned? He may not have learned a word or
structure in class but he might have heard or seen it somewhere else.

In his book on mistakes and correction, Julian Edge says that we can divide
mistakes into three main categories: slips, that is mistakes which students can
correct themselves once the mistake has been pointed out to them. This is the
wrong language caused by tiredness, carelessness, nerves, etc. In other words,
the kind of mistake that anybody, including native-speakers, could make. Then,
errors, mistakes which they cant correct themselves and which therefore need
explanation and attempts, that is when a student tries to say something but
does not yet know the correct way of saying it. Of these, it is the category of
error which most concerns teachers, though the students attempts will tell us
a lot about their current knowledge.

Another distinction which is often made is that of covert mistakes. These are
occasions when the learner says something right by accident. An example
would be: We went to some museum and then took the train home. In the
students L1, some is followed by a singular , even when referring to more than
one thing- they really mean some museums. However, some museum is
perfectly acceptable English, although it has a slightly different meaning.

It is widely accepted that there are two distinct sources for the errors which
most, if not all, students display.

L1 interference: students who learn English as a second language already

have a deep knowledge of at least one other language. Where that L1 and the
variety of English they are learning come into contact with each other , there are
often confusions which provoke errors in a learners use of English. This can be
at the level of sounds, grammar or word usage.
Developmental errors: For a long time now researchers in child language
development have been aware of the phenomenon of over-generalisation. For
example, a child who starts by saying Daddy went or Daddy came , starts
saying Daddy goed or Daddy comed. What seems to be happening is that the

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child starts to over-generalise a new rule that has been learnt. Foreign
language students make the same kind of developmental errors as well. This
accounts for mistakes like * she is more nicer than him where the acquisition of
more for comparatives is over-generalised.

People in the real world are never particularly worried about mistakes until they
impede communication. Native speakers, those who are supposed to have a
good, if not perfect, command of the language, make mistakes all the time . In
fact, it is teachers who are worried by mistakes and particularly non-native
speaker teachers. If you show the same set of imperfect compositions to
separate groups of teachers and non-teachers, the non-teachers will praise the
amount the students have managed to get right, while the teachers concentrate
on what is wrong! Non-native teachers tend to be the severest of all on
mistakes. They sometimes believe that good English means free of mistakes
and that all incorrect forms produced by learners are dangerous and need to be
fixed. However, their indiscriminate treatment of student errors may backfire
because students may not understand what is worth correcting.

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.

Assessing student performance

Assessment of performance can be explicit when we say that was really good,
or implicit when, during a language drill, for example, we pass on to the next
student without making any comment or correction.

Students are likely to receive teacher assessment in terms of praise or blame.

Indeed, one of our roles is to encourage students by praising them for work that
is well done. Praise is a vital component in a students motivation and progress.
George Petty sees it as an element of a two-part response to student work. He
calls these two parts medals and missions. The medal is what we give
students for doing something well, and the mission is the direction we give them
to improve. He suggests that we should give every student some reinforcement
every lesson and avoid only rewarding conspicuous success. If, he suggests,
we measure every student against what they are capable of doing , and not
against the group as a whole, then we are in a position to give medals for small

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things, including participation in a task or hard work, rather than reserving
praise for big achievements only.

While it is true that students respond well to praise, over-complimenting them

on their work - particularly where their own self-evaluation tells them they have
not done well, may prove counter-productive. In the first place, over-praise may
create an addiction. There are students who are so addicted to praise that they
become attention seekers and their need for praise blinds them to what
progress they are actually making. Secondly, students learn to discriminate
between praise that is properly earned and medals that are given out carelessly.

What this suggests is that assessment has to be handled subtlety.

Indiscriminate praise or blame will have little positive effect indeed it will be
negatively received, but a combination of appropriate praise together with
helpful suggestions about how to improve in the future will have a much greater
chance of contributing to student improvement.

It is sometimes tempting to concentrate all our feedback on the language which

students use, such as incorrect verb tenses, pronunciation or spelling, for
example, and to ignore the content of what they are saying or writing. Yet this is
a mistake, especially when we involve them in language production activities.
Whenever we ask students to give opinions or write creatively, whenever we set
up a role-play or involve students in the writing of a report, it is important to give
feedback on what the students say rather than just on how they say it.

Feedback during oral work

Though feedback- both assessment and correction- can be very helpful during
work, teachers should not necessarily deal with all oral production in the same
way. Decisions about how to react to performance will depend upon the stage of
the lesson, the activity, the type of mistake and the particular student who is
making that mistake.

A distinction is often made between accuracy and fluency. We need to decide

whether a particular activity in the classroom is designed to expect the students
complete accuracy, that is make their utterances as near to a native speakers
as they can which implies intense correction or whether we are asking students
to use the language as fluently as possible, where students can work on their
capacity to communicate within the language which, therefore, means a period
free of correction.

Most students want and expect teachers to give them feedback on their
performance. During communicative activities, however, it is generally felt that
teachers should not interrupt students in mid-flow to point out a grammatical,
lexical or pronunciation error, since to do so interrupts communication. Teacher
intervention can raise stress. Perhaps there is nothing more disconcerting or
intimidating to students than to be interrupted every time they make a mistake in
oral practice. Distracted and discouraged in this way, they may forget what they
intend to say or feel that they will never be able to say anything right. and stop

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the acquisition process in its tracks. When teachers intervene, not only to
correct but also to supply alternative modes of expression to help students, they
remove that need to negotiate meaning, and thus they may deny students a
learning opportunity. In such situations teacher intervention may sometimes be
necessary, but it is nevertheless unfortunate- even when the teacher is using
gentle correction. In Tony Lynchs words, the best answer to the question of
when to intervene in learner talk is: as late as possible. As students react to
correction in different ways, teachers should avoid reacting to absolutely every
mistake that a student makes if this is will demotivate that particular student. It
means judging just the right moment to correct. A good rule for the teacher is:
Your biggest asset is your knowledge of the class, not your knowledge of the
language. Remember that you dont correct a mistake, you correct a
person!

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

1. Repeating: we can ask the student to repeat what they have said,
perhaps by saying Again? Which, coupled with intonation and
expression, will indicate that something isnt clear.
2. Echoing: we repeat what the student has said, emphasizing the part of
the utterance that was wrong, e.g. Flight 309 GO to Paris?
3. Gestures and facial expressions: when we know our class well, we can
use simple gestures and facial expressions to indicate that something
doesnt quite work. For example, a wobbling hand ( open hand, rotating
wrist, palm down, see fig. 1) or a wave of the finger ( fig. 2 ).

Teachers can
also shake the head, frown or use a doubtful expression. This should be

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 done with care as the wrong expression or gesture can, in certain
circumstances, appear to be mocking or cruel.

4. Non-verbal sounds: Saying Mmmmmmmmmmh with doubtful intonation

or Errrrr..
5. Simple phrases: we can simply say Good try, but thats not quite right or
Nearly, Good, but
6. Reformulation: a correction technique which is widely used both for
accuracy and fluency work is for the teacher to repeat back a corrected
version of what the student has said, reformulating the sentence, but
without making a big issue of it. For example:
Student: She said me I was late.
Teacher: Oh, she told you you were late, did she?
Student: Oh yes, I mean she told meSuch reformulation is just a quick
reminder of how the language should sound. It does not put the student
under pressure, but clearly points the way for future correctness.

If students are unable to correct themselves or respond to reformulation, we

need to show them where the mistake is. To do this, we can use the finger
technique. This involves the teacher representing each word of the sentence
with the fingers of one hand, and the index finger of the other hand, tapping
or holding the incorrect (fig 3) or missing (fig 4) finger / word.

If the mistake is in word

order, the teacher can
cross over the arms in
front of her.

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For a pronunciation mistake, the teacher can cup her hand behind her ear, as if
she hasnt heard properly.

The teacher may also pretend to have misunderstood what the student has
said. This has the double advantage of involving no criticism on the part of the
teacher, and also resembling what happens in real life. For example:

S: She went on holiday with your husband.

T: My husband????
S: No, sorry, her husband.

S: We went to the Bahamas on a big sheep.

T: That must have been very uncomfortable.
S: (sighs) Ship, ship

We can also ask students to correct each other. This works well where there is
a genuinely cooperative atmosphere. However, it can go horribly wrong where
the error-making individual feels belittled by the process, thinking that they are
the only one who doesnt know the grammar or vocabulary. Therefore, it is
worth asking students which techniques they personally feel comfortable with.

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.

This illustrates some of the essential differences between speaking and writing.
When speaking, you can modify what you say by repeating, rephrasing,

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hesitating, starting again, gesturing. You can improve your message by looking
angry or encouraging, raising your eyebrows, etc. As a listener, you can check
the message by asking for repetition or clarification, by looking doubtful or
puzzled. When writing, you do not have these possibilities: your message must
be understandable and clear first time. Furthermore, outside the classroom,
written work that has a lot of mistakes, even if these are relatively minor, tends
to be frowned upon.

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. When students do
workbook exercises based on controlled testing activities, we will mark their
efforts right or wrong. However, when we give feedback on more creative or
communicative writing (whether letters, reports, stories or poems), we will still
approach the task with circumspection and clearly demonstrate our interest in
the content of the students work.

The Red Pen Syndrome

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

(add example of composition)

What are the effects of this kind of correcting?

This way of correcting has a negative psychological effect on the student.

Therefore, it is important to remember that we shouldnt expect perfection. We
should concentrate on where the students writing is effective, as well as where
it is defective. Moreover, mistakes are a sign of learning, they come and go.
Similarly, a students correctness goes up and down from day to day. Good
writing, like all language learning, is a long-term process and some mistakes
are more important than others.

When we respond, we say how the text appears to us and how successful we
think it has been (we give a medal) before suggesting how it could be improved
(the mission).The comments we offer students need to appear helpful and not
censorious. It is important to be encouraging even when or especially when the
students work is weak overall. There is much to be said for interesting work
containing mistakes, rather than perfect but dull, safe, writing. This also needs
to be encouraged, especially if you have given writing assignment where
creativity is one of the aims.

When giving back written work, what room do you leave for
a. praising accurate work?
b. praising interesting / creative work?

Any reaction by teachers to a piece of written work by their students has to run
a fine line between letting students break the rules, and telling them when they
do. Any creative writing does break the rules. On the other hand, breaking the
rules means knowing what the rules are, and a lot of writing by foreign students

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is a conscious testing-out of the rules. Even elementary students do this: trying
out bits and pieces from various sources, from pop songs, from films they have
seen, from advertisements and so on, to see if it works. Sometimes it does,
sometimes it does not. Students must not be discouraged from experimenting
but they must be allowed to know the results of their experiments. The ideal is
that students learn to monitor their own output and the feedback they get. The
teacher provides an important element of this feedback. What is important,
however, is that the feedback is positive in its overall effect if it discourages or
depresses the student, it may be counterproductive. The purpose of teacher
feedback should be to have a long-term effect on the students ability to monitor
his or her own output.

As far as writing is concerned, the key to this is communication: before, during

and after the writing process. We need to talk to and prepare the students
before they start writing. We need to give students help and support during the
writing process, it is often the feeling of isolation which makes writing into a
frustrating and demotivating experience. And after they have finished writing,
we need to give as much useful and constructive feedback as we can: first we
need to talk to the students to discover what they were trying to do, and we
must help them discover if their efforts were successful.

Unfortunately, time does not always allow us the chance to communicate in this
way. It is not always possible to ask 30 students what their aims were in a
particular piece of written work. However, we can be sure that time spent in this
way will not be wasted.

There are various ways of giving feedback to students. Many teachers use
correction codes to indicate that students have made mistakes in their written
work. Different teachers use different symbols but for students to benefit from
them, they should be trained in their use.

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There are those who correct by putting ticks against good points and
underlining problems. Others write summerising comments at the end of a
students work saying what was appropriate and what needs correcting.

No matter the type of feedback we adopt and if students are to benefit from it on
their writing, they need to know what we mean and what to do about it. This
involves training them to understand the process.

Students can also be encouraged to give feedback to each other. Such peer
review has an extremely positive effect on group cohesion. Certain students
accept and learn much more readily from self-correction and correction by other
students than from the teacher. The active involvement of students in the
process of dealing with mistakes is extremely beneficial as it engages the
student intellectually and is therefore likely to be more effective. However, it
would be true to say that 99 % of students, even those who enjoy and see the
value of self- and peer-correction, like to have the final decision, the final
judgment, made by the teacher.

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.
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. When he saw the policeman, he breaked suddenly.
20. When Im boring, I look TV or read.

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 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.

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. So teachers have to be open to the fact that mistakes made by
learners are natural and inevitable. What is more important, not all mistakes are
regrettable and should be condemned; they have a role to play too. 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 mistakes, never makes anything but never forget that you
do not correct a mistake, you correct a person!

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