ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Julian Edge

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Setsuko Toyama

Panelists: Julian Edge | Marc | Peter | Setsuko
Readers Comments: Abdellatif Zoubair | James Corbett
Date: May 2000

Topic: "When and how should I correct my students?"

Reader's Comments: Abdellatif Zoubair

We usually make a distinction between errors and mistakes.

Errors are usually repetitive and systematic whereas mistakes are just temporary or simple slips of the tongue. As teachers, we should know whether the inaccuracies in our students' output, be it oral or written, are errors or mistakes. A classical way of finding out is just to get the learner to edit or reformulate his/her utterance. If he/she tends to repeat the same faults, then it's a systematic error that should be addressed either on the spot or later on as a sort of remedial work.

In general, correcting mistakes can be frustrating and at times intimidating. That's why it should be kept to the minimum; and even when necessary, it should be done indirectly and in a non-threatening manner. A common procedure is the following example:

Student: I see a nice movie on TV last night.
Teacher: Oh! You saw a movie. What was it about? . . . .

We should also keep in mind the purpose of the lesson or the activity, whether it is afluency (focus on meaning) or an accuracy- oriented task. And even in the latter case, error correction should be focussed i. e. address the language elements under study.

I suppose the ideas above might help enrich and take our debate a bit further.

Reader's Comments: James Corbett

Success in communicating effectively can not come without learning from mistakes.

Regardless of the skill you are learning, mistakes are inevitable. Mistakes however, can be positive when they are used to develop our abilities. I fell off my bicycle several times when I was first learning to ride. While bowling, I cannot focus only on getting strikes; I must also consider the gutter balls and discover ways to improve my technique. Helping students discover and correct their own mistakes increases their confidence and motivation.

If the focus of a conversation class is the past tense, I pay attention to verb structures. If I hear, "go" instead of "went", I gently raise my eyebrows and ask the students to try again. In most cases, students will realize the mistake, repeat the sentence using the correct form of the verb and smile knowing that they have taken one step towards communicating clearly in English.

Instead of correcting a written error and returning the paper to the student to shove into a desk where it is never seen, I place an arrow next to the line containing the mistake. The student is responsible for finding and correcting the mistake even if it means asking other classmates to help. Although issuing this challenge may bring complaints, transforming a failure into a success is a significant accomplishment for a language learner.

Since learning is an individual process, each student should take responsibility for personal development. In the real world, a teacher is not present to monitor progress so self-correction is a practical skill to develop. With a little encouragement from the teacher, students can turn errors into achievements.

Panelists: Julian Edge | Marc | Peter | Setsuko
Readers Comments: Abdellatif Zoubair | James Corbett

<<Back Number | Top | Recent Issue>>