Error Correction is indeed one of the great concerns of any L2 teacher. In fact, I think it is something we have to deal with in a daily basis and we need to find better ways to make it work, bringing better learning results for the students.
When the author questions whether “… our efforts in error correction actually translates into student leaning…” I find myself thinking about the students we teach at a certain level - for example, A3 - and who, repeatedly, come back to us in later stages (Int 2, Hint 1, etc) presenting the same type of problems they had when they first “belonged” to us! And this is so frustrating! It gives us the idea that neither we, nor any other teacher did the job well.
The author then presents some ideas on how to deal with the problem of error correction in a more strategic way. She argues that we should “… correct errors selectively rather than comprehensively …” when the students are at a beginning level of proficiency. On the other hand, she suggests a “reformulation” correction (meaning = “… having a native writer of the target language rewrite a learner´s composition …. So that it sounds more “native like”.) for students at a higher level of proficiency. This way, “…error correction strategies need to be tailored to the linguistic ability of the individual student.”
My observation is that, as teachers, we are so anxious for proficiency to be established that we do not wait for the learning process to occur, respecting the time each student needs. We correct and correct every little detail and think this correction will help the learning process to occur faster…! Maybe we need to think more, reflect more and become more patient… What do you think, teacher Catron?
Ana Maria
October, 2007
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1 comment:
I think selective correction is an interesting idea. I agree that we want to correct ALL of our student’s errors without really considering what would benefit the student. I would like for use to develop a criteria based on the different levels and use some type of "glossing" (see the other article) and error chart with our students. I think we need to point out specific errors so that they begin to think about them when they are writing. It is impossible for a student to get everything correct, but if we create some type of parameters for that student, they will at least know where to start.
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