error correction | teachingenglish | british council | bbc

7/25/2019 Error Correction | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

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This sounds obvious but it can be easily overlooked. Talk to your

students about error correction and to find out from them how

they like to be corrected. Often students have clear ideas about

how they would like you to correct them. With large groups you

may have to go with the majority, but if you have a small group

you can cater for individual needs.

One way to give students a choice on how much they want to becorrected in a particular class or activity is for them to make a

traffic light to put on their desk. A strip of card with three circles

(one red, one orange and one green) folded into a triangle with a

bit of sellotape does the trick. Students point the circle towards

you to indicate whether or not they want correction:

o Red = dont correct me at all (they may have had a rough

day or be tired!)

o Orange = correct things which are really important or

things I should know. o Green = correct as much as you can, please.

AArree yyoouu wwoorrkkiinngg oonn aaccccuurraaccyy oorr fflluueennccyy??

Before you begin an activity, bear in mind whether you are

concentrating on accuracy or fluency. For a class discussion for

example, fluency would be appropriate. The important thing is

that students are expressing themselves and thinking on their

feet. However if students have had time to prepare a role-play and

are then going to perform it you may want to encourage

accuracy. Be clear of the aims of the task and make sure students

are aware of what you expect from them. Dont present an activity

as a fluency task and then pick them up on every single mistake.

SSeellff ccoorrrreeccttiioonn // PPeeeerr ccoorrrreeccttiioonn

The first port of call when correcting can be the students

themselves. Students can often correct themselves when they

realise theyve made a mistake. Sometimes the mistake is simply a

slip and they are aware of the correct version. Give students achance, and time, to correct themselves. Often by just raising

your eyebrows or repeating the mistake students will know what

you mean and back track to correct the error themselves. Some

teachers create all sorts of hand signals to indicate the type of

error. Pointing behind you is a classic to indicate to students that

they should have used a past tense. If these work for you and

your students, go ahead and create your own correction

TThhiiss ssiittee uusseess ccooookkiieess ttoo hheellpp mmaakkee iitt

mmoorree uusseeffuull ttoo yyoouu..BByy ccoonnttiinnuuiinngg ttoo bbrroowwssee tthhee ssiittee wwee uunnddeerrssttaanndd tthhiiss

iiss aacccceeppttaabbllee ttoo yyoouu.. LLeeaarrnn aabboouutt mmaannaaggiinngg ccooookkiieess..

Yes, I agreeYes, I agree

No, I want to find outNo, I want to find out

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rror Correction | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/error-correction

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CCoorrrreeccttiioonn sslloottss

One way to focus on students mistakes is to take time out of an

activity and look at mistakes as a group. When students are doing

a speaking task in pairs or groups I often monitor the students

and listen in on what theyre saying. Students will get used to you

hovering around them although if its not your usual monitoring

style they may wonder what youre up to at first! I make a note of

the mistakes that I hear; whether they are pronunciation,

grammatical or lexical. I collect a selection of their errors and

then stop the activity. I write a selection of the mistakes on the

board and ask students to correct them. If students are working in

pairs and you have a left over student, why not assign them the

role of assistant teacher? They can have a notebook and pen and

make notes of mistakes they hear. If they do their job well they

could even run the correction slot with their mistakes instead of

you. Usually most of the mistakes can by corrected by the

students themselves.

OOnn tthhee ssppoott ccoorrrreeccttiioonn

Correcting mistakes the second they are made has the advantage

that you dont have to bring the activity to a stop as is the case

with a correction slot. Students often appreciate instant

correction. Think about what type of activity it is before deciding

whether or not its appropriate to correct on the spot. You dont

want to destroy the flow of the task by butting in. Students canalso be responsible for on the spot correction if they are

encouraged to pick up on each others mistakes.

NNeeww mmiissttaakkeess oorr tthhee ssaammee oolldd oonneess??

I always remind students that if they are always making new

mistakes its okay. New mistakes are usually a sign that they are

exploring new uses of language or experimenting with new

vocabulary but if they are always repeating the same mistakes its

not such a good sign! By noting their mistakes students have a

record of their progress and can avoid repeating the same

mistakes time and time again. Its a good idea to have a set space

in their notebooks to write down their errors and the correct

version. One way of doing it is to divide a page into three

columns:

Mistake Correction Note






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For - For periods

Sometimes its a good idea to have little tests based on the classic

mistakes students make in class. It encourages students to look

over their notes and try to learn from them.

CCoonncclluussiioonn

Whichever way you go about correcting your students, try to keep

the experience positive for the learner. Being corrected

constantly can be a really de-motivating, as every language

learner knows. As you are listening out for your students errors,

make sure you also listen out for really good uses of language

and highlight these to the group too. In the case of language

learning I really do believe the classic saying, you learn from yourmistakes.

Useful links:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/error-correction-1

(http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/error-

correction-1)

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/error-correction-2

(http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/error-

correction-2)http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/correction-codes

(http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/correction-

codes)

By Jo Budden

First published in 2008

LA Teaching tips(/category/articles-site-structure-4)

TTaaggss






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