Module 5 Reflections

Jameel Alali

When should the teacher correct mistakes? What type of error correction might work? Why?
What might not work? Why not?

1. The teacher should correct mistakes:

a) when the mistake is likely to impede communication.
b) when the error is part of the target language introduced earlier.
c) when a number of students are making the same error.
2. The teacher should choose when to correct mistakes (e.g. right away, delayed
correction):
a) depending if the focus of the lessonit the focus fluency or accuracy.
b) depending on the task. If is a writing task, error correction would usually after
the writing task can be completed. ( perhaps in the Peer edit stage in a process
writing lesson)

3. Types of error corrections that might work with my students

a) repetition
b) reformulation
c) clarification request

This is because these types of error correction are not as explicit as other methods. I
have noticed that students tended to be discouraged by too much error correction,
especially explicit error correction. These methods are better than other methods as the
error correction comes from the students and therefore is learner-centered. Even
though reformulation is teacher-centered, one can argue that it is not direct.

4. Types of error corrections that might not work:

a) Metalinguistic cues- This is because students may not be interested or may not
need to know the meta-language to be able to use the target language.
b) Peer-correction- Sometimes, students may see the teacher as the source of
knowledge. Therefore, they might want the answer directly from the teacher.
They may not trust their colleagues or they might not want to hear the answer
from their colleagues. This could be the case if students are used to teacher-
centered classrooms. In a post writing task, students were peer editing each
others' work. One student pointed out that he/she can't find errors or is not
sure whether there were more errors than those identified. I told students to
share their tasks or they could work in pairs to spot more errors. This made me
realize that error correction is a skill that students need to be trained in so
students are more comfortable doing it.

Additional resources:
The British Council and BBC Teaching English website has an interesting article
about ways of error correction. Please refer to the following link to access the
article : https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/error-correction