ERROR CORRECTION
BRIEF PERSPECTIVE
Since I approach much of the language acquisition/learning process from
the point of view that language should be gained and used in meaningful
contexts, the likelihood of my students making the kinds of errors made by
language students that I have seen during hundreds of hours of observation
is fairly small. [I teach foreign language education majors enough
Russian to give them an idea of both acquisition and the principles
underlying the techniques used to facilitate this acquisition.] The
underlying problem for the most typical kinds of errors is speaking from a
native language orientation to the situation one finds oneself in and the
normal, native language, response to communication needs in such
situations. Since one's utterances in any language are prompted by
one's reactions to the interaction going on, it is rather logical that
second language learners will have a ready, native language, response even
if they are in a situation wherein they are supposed to be speaking
another. What is needed, equally logically, is to facilitate their
linking these unique images (how they perceive the situation) to the
meanings inherent in the new language patterns of grammar, vocabulary and
social-cultural orientations surrounding the use of language:
socio-linguistics.
How to do that is the appropriate question, for me, rather than how to
correct errors that may not have been necessary in the first
place.
GENERAL TECHNIQUE In spite of all attempts to gain, or success in
establishing, the kind of control with language forms that leads to fewer
errors, I strongly suggest ignoring the error qua error. In most
utterances which exhibit an error, the part that is in error is seldom
something that does not exist in the language. Rather than try to
force, although humanistically, attention to the error, try to think of a
context in which the incorrectly used pattern or vocabulary item is
"correct". An example given in FLTEACH comments about error
correction contained the following, indirect approach at trying to help
the student see the "error" in his utterance: "Quiero salir son las
doce." (For the non-Spanish speaker, this is a case of stating the
hour within a context where "at what hour" is required. "I want to
leave at vs It is twelve o'clock.")
The teacher asked why the student wanted to leave "at twelve" (probably,
with emphasis on the "at") in hopes that the student would see his error
(obviously, having learned that there is a grammatical difference between
the tow kinds of statements.) I would ask what was the context in
which the student made that statement. Was it, too typically, a
textbook exercise wherein students made cued statements? Or, was it
some free conversation about when someone was leaving for the beach on
Saturday, or the like? Without much context to go on, one is left with
the impression that the student was answering a single question and that
there was no attempt to explore the "conversational" aspect any further
once the error was made. If one considered the former, a follow up
to the student's statement (with error) might be, "So, twelve o'clock?
(Pues, las doce? Entonces, a qué hora quieres llegar? Como
a las dos o a las tres?) At what time do you want to arrive, say
at two or at three?" Consistent with the Natural Approach, the
teacher makes a number of statements to which the learners need only
respond with "Yes" or "No", or with other simple responses. The
teacher is providing comprehensible input in a natural situation without
focussing attention on the error that the student made. What this
does is divert attention from the grammatical orientation of the teacher
(keep in mind how quickly she responded to the error part of the message
rather than the context within which it was made - hopefully, some
communicative change.) If one accepts that every message from a
student is more like a gift than a programmed response to teaching (too
often, testing), then we may spend more time dealing with the message in
its logical context that to the few errors which should occur, at any
rate, if the teaching has been effective. Later, the teacher can
take the mistaken form and put into a context in which it is
correct/appropriate. Clearly, the students had instruction on
telling time, so there is every reason to think that the indirect
technique will be effective.
I do not subscribe to the image given in other FLTEACH comments that imply
some form of embarrassment if students are not corrected in class.
A recent article reinforces the realization (which all anglo second
language teachers have experiences) that knowing the grammar cold does not
mean you won't make, potentially, embarrassing remarks among native
speakers of your second language!! I would far rather have students
feel comfortable about speaking at all!! Teaches might do well to
ask themselves. realistically, how many of their students at Level II or
above, can hold an extended conversation about a single topic much less a
number of topics. In this article, it was reported that people
considered competent in the language felt inadequate in casual
conversation, the kind where topics come flying in from all angles.
While worrying about the social embarrassment and grammatical accuracy,
ponder the more realistic situation of language interchange: nbsp; people
in the other language are not likely to point out the second language
speaker's errors or make fun of them, if the outsider is conscientious
about getting to know the culture and the people. In the case of
someone who, I imagine was a language student, goes a long time hearing a
native speaker respond, obviously correctly, to the novice's incorrect
greeting, I wonder how long it takes to hear the difference. Why
should the native speaker "correct" the person making the mistake?? The
evidence was there to learn from? That person should have asked
someone about it rather than feel that the native speaker should have
corrected him!!
No doubt, there will be those who disagree with much that I have said. In
this section, "The Doctor is In", I am not trying to create a dialogue as
we have on FLTEACH. I do want to encourage ideas for amleliorating
some of the vexing problems that seem to occur, perennially, in teaching
foreign languages. Send either suggestions or further discussion
points to the fle Email address. I will post any techniques or
strategies. The discussion points I will forward to
FLTEACH.
gurney@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
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