Hi
Hi,
I would like to thank you Penny for your enlightening tips.
I want to share with you my experience with error correction:
1- I was facing a hard time with the way my students pronounce certain words. I was using recast to correct them. for instance, they mispronounce, child, children, pupils... I started using different techniques. Yesterday, I used elicitation and metalinguistic feedback. So, I noticed the difference and it was fruitful. it's only the begining and I will diversify the techniques for better learning.
2- I'm a novice teacher. I was anxious when correcting mistakes. When I correct them every time they did the mistake, they seemed to be bored. So, I decided not to correct every single mistake. then, I felt guilty and I thought I was not doing a good job. But now I decide to correct their mistakes. However, In speaking, I will not correct every mistake because it will affect their fluency.
3- I support the TIP number 3. I correct the mistakes of my students. It happened to me once when a student corrected another student's mistakes (she was shy). So, the second student felt uncomfortable.
generally-speaking, what I've noticed that in my country (Tunisia), students seem to do the same errors mainly in pronunciation. for example, they pronounce dad (d ae d) as (d e d). it's worth mentioning, that this has been started for the last 10 to 5 years. As Tunisians, we don't normally pronounce English like that. to overcome this issue, I tend to have an audio dictionary with me to correct their mistakes and show them how the utterance should be pronounced.
sorry for the long post. I would like to read your comments on the last point I talked about.
I would like to thank you Penny for your enlightening tips.
I want to share with you my experience with error correction:
1- I was facing a hard time with the way my students pronounce certain words. I was using recast to correct them. for instance, they mispronounce, child, children, pupils... I started using different techniques. Yesterday, I used elicitation and metalinguistic feedback. So, I noticed the difference and it was fruitful. it's only the begining and I will diversify the techniques for better learning.
2- I'm a novice teacher. I was anxious when correcting mistakes. When I correct them every time they did the mistake, they seemed to be bored. So, I decided not to correct every single mistake. then, I felt guilty and I thought I was not doing a good job. But now I decide to correct their mistakes. However, In speaking, I will not correct every mistake because it will affect their fluency.
3- I support the TIP number 3. I correct the mistakes of my students. It happened to me once when a student corrected another student's mistakes (she was shy). So, the second student felt uncomfortable.
generally-speaking, what I've noticed that in my country (Tunisia), students seem to do the same errors mainly in pronunciation. for example, they pronounce dad (d ae d) as (d e d). it's worth mentioning, that this has been started for the last 10 to 5 years. As Tunisians, we don't normally pronounce English like that. to overcome this issue, I tend to have an audio dictionary with me to correct their mistakes and show them how the utterance should be pronounced.
sorry for the long post. I would like to read your comments on the last point I talked about.
Hi Marwa, could you please clarify "I would like to read your comments on the last point I talked about." Do you mean [Tip # 3: Correcting during fluent speech is OK!] in regards to your point 2 of not correcting every mistake as it would affect fluency?
ReplyDeleteWith regards to pronunciations of certain sounds, I have found it useful to have a small hand held mirror so students can see their mouths making the shapes. I have also found it useful, funnily enough, to watch interesting youtube videos presenting Erik Singer, a dialect coach evaluating Hollywood actors movie accents. His discourse on the production of sounds has helped me help my students on the production of particularly tough sounds. (Like Japanese students pronouncing "l/r")
Sounds like an interesting video, Scott, can you send us the link?
ReplyDeletethe mispronunciation of the English 'ae' sound as in 'dad' is very common - in my country too, they can't tell the difference betweeen 'man' and 'men'! Need a lot of help with this.
I watched for entertainment, but found that the next time I had a student struggling to properly produce the sounds, what I learned from his descriptions helped me better understand how the sounds are made.
ReplyDeleteyoutu.be/NvDvESEXcgE
youtu.be/lZSCGZphjq0
hi Scott van Leenen , I meant that I'm the one who have to correct students' mistakes as the majority of students don't like peer correction especially in speaking. thank you for the link.
ReplyDeleteI do think with error-correction, if students are making a lot of mistakes, it's a good idea to pick and choose which ones you correct. I've had students that ask me to correct every mistake they make, and make two or three mistakes in their request. "Please, teacher when I am making the mistakes, you are correcting me?"
ReplyDeleteSo I tend to focus on persistent errors, errors related to whatever we are doing or practicing in class, or errors that truly impede meaning. I don't know if that's best practice, but it does help keep a balance. And during housekeeping like attendance or talking about what students want to do in class, or questions about homework and so on, I tend to not correct errors.
Scott van Leenen Thank you for the links. This is so much fun!
ReplyDeleteMarwa Talbi Finding a balance between what to correct and what not to correct is difficult. So if I don't want to discourage a shy student, I tend to focus on the mistakes connected only with the material that is being studied (besides the errors which can lead to miscommunication).