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On correction: How much do you correct your students?
Dear all,
Happy Sunday to everyone
I just would like to have the opinions of you, dear fellow teachers, on the
above question; How much do you correct your students?
In particular I would be very happy to read comments by the silent
visitors of this wonderful website (I used to be one: coming here frequently,
reading comments on the forum, downloading and uploading... but never posted
anything on the forum... then as there is always a beginning to everything, I
started once and then quickly became addicted)
Returning to my question, a great part of our job, naturally, is to help our students in their learning,
which means correcting them.
I know
there is too much literature on this issue, which I partly raised in my dissertation, but that is theory.
What I want to know is how you cope with correction in practice
A great
deal of my students, adults in companies in particular, would always ask to be
corrected (Whenever I start with a group or an individual, after testing, defining
the needsand expectations, I ask them a
few questions among which �what is your attitude to correction�
The usual
trend is a general huge need to be corrected, with some students persisting to
be corrected systematically, which I don�t do of course
I rather
opt for an intermediate approach, (something in between laxism (let them speak approach) and hyper
correction) where only the most important mistakes are corrected, after the student�s
contribution
The problem, however, is the limits of correction.
Correcting something does not guarantee the mistake will never be made again
I always
recall the example of a teacher who was decided to correct, for once, the
frequent mistake �more easy than� and devoted a whole lesson to comparatives.Before leaving he asked his students �everything
should be clear now� to which one of the students replied �yes Sir, comparatives
are more easy now�
Yes, Brahim, that has happened to me many times. Over correction doesn�t guarantee that sts will speak correctly... But adults don�t believe that. They keep asking to be corrected on the spot. I think that there�s no determined limit for correction. It depends on each student. There have been several theories on when and how much to correct... structural approach.. communicative approach... and learning depends on style... I�m quite in favor of Howard Gardner and his theory on learning styles... It depends..on students� attention...which depends on students� learning style...By the way, the student who said ..."Yes, sir, comparatives are more easy now" was one who asked to be always corrected?
I usually correct the most important mistakes and pay attention to those which are often repeated to work on that a bit harder.
Depending on the class, a good technique with young adults and adults is to write down the mistake on the board (in a group class) or on a sheet of paper (in one to one classes), ask them to find out what�s wrong, cross it out and write down the correct form in big block letters (visual aid).
They have a look at those papers from time to time and there are those who even highlight some corrections in order to fix them.
In the end, I think the most important thing is to make sure the class maintains the expectation of a high level of English. I am very tough on my students when it comes to writing. I often return their writing assignments covered with corrections. I find this helps to keep the stronger students humble.�
In terms of verbal correction...I usually correct reoccurring or blatant errors right away with my moderate or stronger students but I�correct weaker students sparingly. It is such a struggle for them just to get the courage to speak. I�ll usually take them aside during quiet work to give them pointers. But I make it clear that everyone speaks and makes mistakes.�I�ll often openly correct my own mistakes when I make them. The kids love it when I tsk tsk myself over incorrect grammar.�
There�s no way you can ever correct everyone�s mistakes all the time but it�s important to just have the kids talking and have each student learn how to self correct him or her self.�
I usually work with children and they don�t like to be corrected much.They find this irritating if it is done constantly.They claim to lose their encourage so I give importance to major mistakes and make the students repeat the accurate one a few times in different tones which is quite amusing and prevents the feeling of discouragement.
One method I have found useful with the adults I work with is to hold them responsible for their own mistakes. If they always depend on the teacher they don`t self correct. In group work I appoint one member to be in charge of correcting grammar or other mistakes (they can ask me for help if they aren`t sure). I do alot of `find the mistakes` activities when there is a high frequency mistake in the group to bring their attention to the problem and they have to find and correct it. For some writing tasks I encourage peer correction. Of course there are issues of relationships between students that one must be sensitive about but I find facilitating self-correction to be very valuable.
Most of the studies I�ve looked at recommend correction occur in the following order (most effective to least effective):
- self correction; - peer correction (in a classroom context); - teacher correction.
I tend to agree with the middle ground approach you take BUT the form & frequency of correction is really dependent upon a couple of other factors - purpose of the class & level of the students� ability. If you have students who are taking conversation lessons the main thing is to encourage them to communicate - everyone makes the same sort of mistakes when learning any second language (or so the studies I�ve been reading seem to indicate) so as the students improve their confidence & understanding of English they wioll self correct and have peer correction kicking in too.
If your students are studying academic or specific more advanced Englishes, then correction should happen in a more structured manner in a way that the student can relate properly to their studies - not necessarily by interrupting the flow of their presentation but maybe as a summation.
well here I try to make everyone involved with the correction part.
Most of the time my class is divided in groups as a game so there are two to three groups per class (each group with 3 to 4 students) so during the whole class the students compete with each other to get points (that helps in order to keep the attention).
When a student is doing an exercise everyone is ready to participate if there is a mistake but besides this working on "extra examples" on the board also helps to be sure if the class understood the idea.
*while reading I like using one technique that helped me a lot.
well here I try to make everyone involved with the correction part.
Most of the time my class is divided in groups as a game so there are two to three groups per class (each group with 3 to 4 students) so during the whole class the students compete with each other to get points (that helps in order to keep the attention).
When a student is doing an exercise everyone is ready to participate if there is a mistake but besides this working on "extra examples" on the board also helps to be sure if the class understood the idea.
*while reading I like using one technique that helped me a lot.
