First, think about your own error correction strategies. How do you go about correcting speech errors in your classroom? Reflect on these strategies. Are they effective? How do your students react to them?
Correcting language errors can be motivating or humiliating. One of the highlights of Miss Formoso’s video stated that “it is important for teachers of ELLs not to correct every student error. Research has demonstrated that correcting too many student errors can hurt a student’s confidence and hinder learning. It can also interrupt the flow and focus of the lesson.” My experience as an elementary and high school student in the Philippines showed that some students were hesitant to participate and speak English in the classroom because they feared being corrected by a classmate or a teacher. Worse, some students could be ridiculed. Correcting a student, while communicating his thoughts in the classroom, might send a message that his errors will be criticized. A possible result of this situation is that a student might just listen and not speak up.
In the Filipino culture, where accuracy of the English grammar is associated with intelligence and sophistication, a speaker/writer has to communicate accurately in English. Some celebrities and politicians can become highlights in the news because their English language ability is rather fluent than accurate. I am not proud to share that many people in my country give more importance on grammar than the quality of verbal and written work. This is especially true in many situations where formal communication is observed such as the classrooms, conventions and media interviews as well as other situations. On a personal note, I remembered that interrupting my thought, in order to immediately correct my English, stopped my thinking from generating ideas. The interruption made me forget what I wanted to share in the discussion.
When I was correcting the speech errors of my former students, I corrected utterances which only concerned the lesson’s objectives. A good example was a lesson about subject-verb agreement. My interventions were only limited to correcting subject-verb agreement errors even when my students made several errors about adverbs and prepositions. In this case, English learners had only focused on a particular skill where some errors were made but remedied in hopes that the corrections would be mastered.
Another way to correct errors is by addressing them in the entire class rather than singling out a specific student. My observation is that students often react positively to this approach because they feel that the correction is not a personal attack against them. Believe me that some students take corrections personally when their teachers addressed these errors by directing specifically to them. This situation may have two negative consequences. First, students might feel inferior and second is that some students might see their classmates as being inferior when they are substantially corrected more often than the others.
It is also possible for teachers to create their own samples of erroneous communication that followed the common error patterns of their students in the classroom. In this way, students cannot guess or identify whose errors are being discussed in the classroom. The teachers can also encourage target students to participate in the error correction activities done as a lesson. Students are able to see the samples of common/possible errors in English communication without associating the errors to their classroom or their classmates. It is desirable when error corrections are associated with the lesson objectives.
These error-correction strategies were used by Ms. Linda Tong’s video when she addressed the error of a student to the entire class and not to a particular student during the lesson about apostrophe. Ms. Tong’s students did not realize they were being corrected .They were very participative and analytical to point out that Chinese language and English language get mixed up in form when indicating possession or ownership.
Ms. Cheong chose not to correct her student when the child said that mealworms eat flowers/flours. It was not clear what the student meant to say. While it is good not correct the error, it facilitates learning, on the other hand, to address the error when directed to the class, and not to the student who uttered the error. I can provide a review and wrap up time of the lesson and scaffold the error correction. If I were to correct the error, I will present a picture of flour and a picture of flower. I will then ask student to, let us say, raise their hands like reaching a tall man’s head if they think it is the flour, and spread their hands like a bird flying in the sky if they think it is the flower that belongs to the food group of the mealworms?
Maria Montessori believed that young children have an absorbent mind. I feel that I need to correct the errors in the video in a fun and nurturing manner during the summarizing and wrapping up activity of the lesson. The correction will minimize any possible confusion that students might have because of what they hear from their classmates.
On the other hand, the video of Ms. Formoso showed an error correction strategy. She corrected her student by paraphrasing student’s answers. My belief is that Ms. Formoso’s approach to error correction made the student aware of the correct answer. The student did not feel she was being corrected. This manner of addressing errors in the classroom appears to guide students in their learning rather than identifying errors from their participation. This is in compliance with one of the “Suggestions for Error Correction: Rephrase or expand on the student’s statement, correcting the mistake and emphasizing or isolating the word or phrase that you are correcting. “
While I taught my students and learned with them, I gave students homework and activities outside the school. My students needed to “find their own way, taking charge of their learning” (Brown, 2007: p. 258). I would like them to learn to communicate spontaneously without a script in their hands. My desire is for them to share and receive in a dialogue in order to be able to do their part in a real life situation. This realistic and functional approach to language learning presents “a feel for the language by experimenting with its grammar and words” (p.258). As I led my students to “make their own opportunities for practice in using the language inside and outside the classroom, they also spent time socializing with their native-English speaking peers, friends and relatives. This advances not only their cognition for English language but also their ability to acculturate themselves in the country since a few of my students were new comers.
If not all, most of the strategies, on pages 259 and 260 of the book entitled “Teaching by Principles” by Douglas Brown, were incorporated in my lessons at different times depending on the objectives of the lessons. In order for me to get students buy-in when teaching these strategies, I needed to explain the purpose of the lesson especially its direct/indirect importance and impact in their current and future endeavors. I shared with them the importance and impact of the lesson and then they prepared themselves to learn. A good example of gaining students buy-in was evident in Miss Dimoss’ video. She discussed why the skills learned from the lesson were important and how they could be utilized outside the classroom.
One of the highlights of Ms. Dimoss’ video talked about making lesson objective explicit. It was stated that “having students “buy-in” to what they are learning is an effective way to motivate them. When students buy in, they:
· Begin to realize how the information or skills they are learning fit into a bigger picture.
· Understand how they will use the information
· Are given a purpose for learning.
Allowing students to reach their own conclusions about the importance of an activity allows them to take ownership of their learning process.”
One of the strategies that I feel I have taught not as much the other strategies is for students to learn certain tricks that help them keep a conversation going. In order for the students to be interested in this strategy, I will tell them that keeping the conversation going can be a powerful skill that a person should have especially when he desires to inform, to educate and to persuade as well as to entertain in a given situation. Having mastered strategies for keeping the conversation going and for being skillful at it may lead to a success in dealing with people in the private and public settings. If I were to teach this strategy, I would like to show video clips of talk shows, debates, group discussions or even simple and good conversation when strangers meet and carry and keep a conversation going. My students will identify patterns of the video clips that kept the conversation going. The class will also discuss the strategies that people in the video utilized in order to have a meaningful conversation.
After the class discussion, I can probably utilize think, pair and share strategy. I will ask my students to organize themselves to a group of 2 or 3 and then discuss one of topics they like such as favorite movies, favorite actors/actresses, favorite games, favorite toys, countries they are interested in visiting, the person they admire and many types of topics. I will reiterate that the objective of the activity is to keep the conversation going with a partner or partners. The importance of the lesson is that students can be educated, informed, persuaded and entertained as they listened to their partners or maybe not depending on how it is performed. My students may use strategies that people in the video clips utilized. Each group in my class will share strategies they have used to keep their conversation going when they were doing their discussions.
Kindest regards,
Edward Guinto
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