Friday, April 11, 2008

ESL/EFL Student Mistakes: How much correction is good?

When English students make mistakes in their speaking (whether they be related to grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation), under what circumstances should the teacher correct them? In other words, should the teacher correct every mistake a student makes in their speaking, or should the teacher make corrections depending on the purpose of the activity? How do you feel when a teacher corrects you in front of other students? Share your opinions and thoughts on this topic.

Randall

6 comments:

  1. I think teachers should correct students because this is the major goal in education.Learning is by trial and error and making mistakes is making progress.Therefore, I am not afraid of making mistakes specifically in speaking.So,not only I will not be upset or embarresed if my teacher corrects my speaking but also I will be so happy and thankful.

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  2. I would appreciate it if the teacher corrected my English even it was in front of the other people because I would never make the same mistake again. Some teachers don't do that and just continue the conversation but I've been studying, and I really want to improve. I'd like the teacher to understand it.

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  3. I think that depending on the purpose of the activity a teacher should apply different correction techniques or criteria. If I were a teacher, I'd alway try to keep in mind if the mistakes my students made would potentially interfere in the communicative event they're engaged in, and I'd aso give them some thinking time to see if they'd go backwards and self correct..., which I believe is more effective than giving the student the correct sentence right away.

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  4. My experience as an ESL teacher has been that many students do continue to make the same mistakes even after I correct them, sometimes many times for the same mistake! I conclude that they may not be ready to acquire this particular aspect of language (cf. Stephen Krashen's hypotheses). I continue to correct mistakes, but not everything, which would be impossible.

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  5. I am an ESL teacher. I think that when students are learning English and experimenting with the language, correcting them is a very interesting issue. If you correct every single word the students may feel overwhelmed. I think there are a few things to consider. When you choose to correct a student explain to them why they need to change the way they are talking. You also need to know the student's personality. If the student has never tried to talk in English maybe you can let it slide and correct them the next time. If the student is more used to speaking in English correct them and give them the reason why you are correcting them.

    I just started a blog you can check it out at
    www.esl-melissa.blogspot.com

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  6. i think teacher should correct student all the time of they make mistakes. it's there job.. i know some of the teacher don't care and they are not corret students.. i fell sorry for students becouse they want to learn english and teachers are not helping them...

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Thanks for posting a comment. I appreciate your interesting in sharing your ideas.

Best,

Randall

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