Luận văn thạc sĩ an investigation into teachers' correction and its effects on non english majored students' motivation and improvement in learning pre esp subject at viettronics technology college

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES VACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES w Bos NGUYEN TH] HONG LLYEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS' CORR

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

VACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

w Bos

NGUYEN TH] HONG LLYEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS' CORRECTION AND ITS EFFECTS ON NON-ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS’

MOTIVATION AND IMPROVEMENT IN LEARNING PRE-ESP SUBJECT AT VIETTRONICS TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE

(Lim hiểu việc sửa lỗi của giáo viên và ảnh hưởng của nó

đối với hứng thú và tiến bộ của sinh viên tiếng Anh không chuyên

trong học tận môn học tiếng Anh cơ sở tại trường

Cao đẳng Công nghệ Viettronics}

MLA MINOR THESIS

English Teaching Methodology

601410

Hanoi - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STULIES:

FVACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

w Bos

NGUYEN TH] HONG LLYEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS' CORRECTION AND ITS EFFECTS ON NON-ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS’

MOTIVATION AND IMPROVEMENT IN LEARNING PRE-ESP SUBJECT AT VIETTRONICS TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE

“Ứìm Biển việc cửa lỗi của pian vidn va & ZŠ ăa nó

(Iìm hiểu việc sửa lỗi của giáo viên và ảnh hưởng của nó

đối với hứng thú và tiến bộ của sinh viên tiếng Anh không chuyên

trong học tận môn học tiếng Anh cơ sở tại trường

Cao đẳng Công nghệ Viettronics)

MLA MINOR THESIS

Ficld: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Phung Thi Kim Dung, M.A

Hanoi - 2010

Methods of the study

Scope of the sindy

Significance of the study

Design of the siudy

Detinitions of texminologiss

PART B—DEVELOPME:

CHAPTER 1 - LITERATERE REVIEW

11 Perspectives on learner errors in foreign tanguage |

1.4 liror correction in an integrated-instruction form language teaching context u

1.5.1.2 Sel eorrection to writen: wark, 14

CHAPTER 2- THE STUDY

2.1 Setting of the stuẩy,

2.4.3.1 Comparison of linguists competence in pre-test between the treatment

2.4.3.2 Comparison of linguistic cơmpolenơ I-lost within

2.4.3.3, Comparison of linguistic competence between groups - 29

2.5.1 Teachers’ perceptions of arror/mistake correction and their correotive

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

NAME Chart 1 — The role of error correction in English leaming as perceived by teachers

Charl 2 — Oral mistakes most corres

ied by the teachers Chart 3 - Written mistakes most comected by the teachers

Chart 4 —"The most usefil correction type as perceived by the teachers

Chart 5 The importance of exror correction from the students’ perceptions

Charl 6 — Oral mistakes which the students most liked! lo be corrected

Chart 7 - Writtcn mistakes which the students most liked to be treated

Chart 8 - The most useful correction type as perceived by the students

Tablz 1 — Facto

s affecting teachors" decision of correction

‘Table 2 —‘Types and frequency of teachers’ correction

Table 3 —‘The relationship behween teachers’ correction and students” learning

motivation

‘Table 4 — Pre-test means of the experimental and control groups

Table 5 Descriptive statistics for the pre-test and post-test scores of the

expenmental and control groups

Tabl2 6 — Mcan gains of the experimental and control groups

PAGE

PART A - INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Making mistakes/errors is natural in learning any Janguage including English As an Italian proverb goes “Sbagliando s*impara”, which means “We learn through our errors,” it is commonly agroed thal mistakes and orrors as indisponseble parts in the learning process, and courection should be included in productive English lessons Surprisingly, the history of foreign language teaching and leaming research has wimessed contradictory opinions on the effects of correction on learner’s English improvement On the onc hand, scholars like Truscott (1996), Krashen (1978), Semke (1984), and many others found negative impacts as

a result of this classroom practice On the other hand, linguists like Chaudron (1986)

Tlendrickson (1984), Ferris (1999), Corder (1973) and Tillis (1989) maintain significant

usefulness of exror correction in learner’s learning success Moreover, despite being one form

of teachsr-student classroom interaction and closely related to learners’ interest in learning in

thal if ray ciller motivate or demotivate learners, how cor correction affects leamers’

learning motivation has not been adequately studied Therefore, the effects of correction on

motivation and improvement deserve more detailed studies

In Vietnam nowadays, with the increasingly important role of English in the society,

in most colleges where students major in information technology, accounting, business

administration, electronics and electric technology or else other than English, freshmen are

required to attend a pre-ESP course in preparation for their ESP courses At Viettronics Technology Collcg: (VTC), English is taught as a basic scicnec to assist their work in the

future In the curriculum, it is one of the compulsory subjects that have to be taken by first- year students before they ake ESP courses in their second or third year The aims of the

course are to help students improve their English communicative skills and more importantly,

enhance their linguistic knowledge so as to successfully deal with ESP materials Lifelines Flementary is chosen as (he course book Students need to practice pieces of grammar and

learn the vocabulary needed for speaking, reading, listening and writing activities They are almost at the same low level of English proficiency, so exror making is maveidable Mistakes

and errors occurring in this Lnglish course are in both spoken and written forms including those on grammar, pronunciation, word use and word/scntence moaning Understandably,

‘teachers’ correction does follow as an attempt to fix these problems, However, what might be

unknown to these practitioners is the level of impact that their corrective practices assert on the language motivation and improvement of their students In the context of prc-ESP

teaching and learning of teachers and non-Hnglish majored studsnts at VTC, it is worth our

effort to investigate teachers’ corrective practices as well as how they influence students”

inotivation and improvement in learning pre-ESP subject

2 Alms of the study

‘Tho aims of this study arc threefold

- To investigate teachers’ perceptions of erormistake courection and their comective practices

- To investigate the effect of leachers’ correetion practi

What types of correction do they often use to correct stndents in pre-ESP classes”)

~ What are students’ opinious on Ihcir tcachers* correction? How da teachers’ corrzalive practices affect their students’ learning motivation?

- What is the efffect of teachers’ error correction on ths students’ learning improvement in teams of linguistic competence?

The answer to this question will reveal the acceptance of either the hypothesis that

| The students who receive error correction will make more improvement in linguistic competence than those who rcecive no error corrcetion at all,

+ There is no difference in leaning improvement {in terms of linguistic competence) between the experimental group and the control group

4 Methads of the study

‘The instrumentations employed in this study are as follows:

- ‘Iwo questionnaires to investigate teachers’ perceptions of correction az well as its relation

to students? aitilules and motivation in ]oarning prs-ESP

- Classroom observation to collect more information about teachers’ correction practices

- A quasi-experiment to work out if the teachers’ correction does fead 10 the students’ improvement in language learning,

5 Scope of the study

Given that the teachers’ perceptions of erarimistake correction and their corrective practices as well as the effects of their emor comection on students’ pre-ESP teaming motivation and improvement are the foci of the study, this paper does not try to investigate written oF oral error corrcetion in dolaits Instzad, if deals with crvor corraction af both kinds, which always occurs in a pre-ESP lesson Moreover, exror correction is too broad a part of study in Lnglish language teaching, so this paper only focuses on teachers’ correction and its effects on non-English majored students’ motivation and improvement in Tcarning pre-ESP subject at Victtronics Technology College First-year VFC students have to take two pro-ESP courses, ‘The first course aims at improving students in their four common communicative skills and the three langnage elements while the second, apart from focusing on the language areas as mentioned above, intends to enhance their linguistic knowledge so as to assist them

in processing and responding to the ESP materials Therefore, students’ improvement in this

study refers Lo thal in inguistic compelence Finally, the relationship between motivation and improvement lies beyond the scope of our investigation,

6 Significance of the study

‘This study, with the view to investigating the effects of teachers’ correction on students’ motivation and innprovernent in learning pro-ESP subjeet, hopes to bring a thorough look at one of the influential thetors to the teaching and leaming of a specific subject Additionally, it reveals a fact that though grammatical error correction is considered unnecessary by many scholars, it still reecives much attention by both teachers and students

A discussion on usefid and effective correction will also make this paper a worth-reading reference document for those who care about this pedagogical issns

7 Design of the stady

‘This stady contains three parts:

- Part A — introduction covers an overview of the study in which the rationale, aims, research

8.3 Corrcetion: A way of reminding learns

s of the fonns of standard language

8.4, Feedback: Listener or reader’s responses provided to the leamer’s spoken or written production Feedback covers two terms: assessment and correction In this paper, feedback

tefors to correction, thus, the terms “feedback”, “error correction”, “error treatment” and

“corrcetive fecdback” can be interchangeably uscd

8.5, Language acquisition: The process of learning a native or a second language

8.6 Molivation: “The exlsnt to whieh the individual works or stives lo leam the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity.” (Gardner, 1985:10)

8.7 lnprovement: The process of something becoming beiler (Oxford Advanced Leamer’s Dictionary)

(Corder, 1967:163) Thereby, errors and mistakes are viewed from two extremes: errors as

failure and errors as an essential part and positive aids to leaming Understandably, these converse perspectives, which will be discussed in more details below, decide upon how

teachers respond to sludenits’ mistakes

1.1.1 Errors as failure

With the coming into being of the Audio-lingual approach to language teaching after the Sccond World War and affected by the theory of Contrastive Analysis, language learner errors were seen as a negative phenomenon in language learning ‘This approach, derived from the behaviorist psychology and emphasizing the teaching of oral skills i.e listening and speaking skills, maintained that “language performance consists of a sct of habits in the usc

of language structures and pattems” (Krashen & Terrell, 1983:14) Accordingly it was not

necessary for learners to understand grammar rules Instead, they were expected to memorize correct forms of the Janguage and then produce error-tiee utterances As Mings (1993, cited

in Hashimoto, 2004:17) points onl, “errors were to be avoided as if they wore sinful”, this mechanistic approach stressing grammatical accuracy required that errors were treated immediately as they occurred so as to avoid compounding bad habits in the leamer Influenced by this approach, many pedagogists ticat errors as leamer’s failure in acquiring the language

1.1.2 Errors as positive aids to learning

It can be said that the pedagogical treatment of foreign language learner errors is closely related to the changes in language Iheories Appearing al the sams lime ax Communicative method, Eizor Analysis pioneered a positive thought of the significance of errors in language acquisition, Enlightened by Chomsky’ s idea that a child generates language through innate

tniversal struciures (Chơmsky, 1975, citeđ in Pisher, 2007:7), views on how a foreign language leamer strives to acquire the language have differed from the Contrastive Analysis

it, the making of errors is “a device the leaner uses in order to eam, It is a way the leamer has of testing his hypotheses aboul Ihe nature of the kmguage he is Isaming,” (Carder, 1967:167) ‘Therefore, his incorrect utterances can be interpreted as the “evidence that he is in the process of acquiring language” (Corder, 1967:165) This viewpoint was shared by the results of Carroll's work (1955, cited in Corder, 1967-168) thal the tmost efficient way to teach a student the correct linguistic forms is to let him test varions hypotheses and find the ripht forms himself,

In brief, foreign language teaching research in the past decades has shown a remarkable shift from contrastive analysis to error analysis with regard to leamsr error’s role in their leaming process It is clearly pointed out that errors facilitate language leaming, Moreover, they are significant to the teacher in that they tell him “how far towards the goal the leamer has progressed, and conscquontly, whal remains for him to learn” (Corder, 1967; 167), and thus enabling the teacher to decide whether to move on to the next linguistic item or to design

a remedial syllabus or a reteaching program in this way, errors also contribute to best facilitating lcarning process

1.2 Exror correction and forelgn language progress

Following such a controversial issue like learner's errs in language leaming, the discussion over the efitectiveness of exror correction in forzign language acquisition has until now not ended since teachers? and learners’ altitudes loward this issue are greatly influenced

by the teaching and learning approach that they adopt Since the mid 1960s, new approaches like the Cognitive Code theory (Carroll,1965), originated fiom transfarmational-generative grartuniar and Coguitive psychology, the Situational methad and the Conmunicative method

(Brumfit & Johnson, 1979: Widdowson, 1980) have shifted the emphasis in error correction

from teaching students to make error-ftee sentences as reqnired by the andio-lingual

approach to encouraging them to conununicate in the target language Thereby, error

correction, though not expected, but iŸ any error occrws, is considered a must in andio-lingual language classroom The case is different in a communicative language classroom, however, where cormmunicative competence is stressed rather than rcrely linguistic competence Firors arc accyptod in this context as a natwal and useful part of learning for they show Lat leamers are trying to discover the target language as they negotiate meanings through

communicative situations Hence, it is important that the teacher knows how to sensibly treat

an citor in a way that it positively supports communication On this basis, the questions of whether error treatment is beneficial or harmful, effective or inefifective have been put in the focus of attention of many methodologists in the past decade

1.2.1 Negative perspectives of error correction

lis conmmly accepled that the purpose of error treatment is Lo help learners memorive the input and then produce as perfect output as possible, In fact, there exists evidence thai in the forcign language teaching context, coucctive fecdback not only shows little or no

contribution (a learner's learning progr:ss bul also probable counter-productivensss Perhaps one reasonably outstanding advocate of this perspective is ‘Iruscott In his paper on the effectiveness of grammar correction in L2 writing classes, he argues that,

‘Veteran teachers know there is little connection between correction and leaming: Often a student will repeal the same sistake over and over again, eveu aller being, corrected many

times When this occurs, it is tempting for the teacher to say the student is not altentive or

lazy however, the pervasiveness of the phenomenon, even with successful students, argues aguinsl any such exphusation, Rather the weacher should conclude Gat coxreelion simply ig not

effective.” (Trnscott, 1996:341)

Grammar conection was proved harmful in foreign language writing in many studies Those learners who do not receive grammar correction have a more positive feeling about writing than those who wrote more, and with more complexity, than these who did receive

graromar corrections Regarding oral grammar correction, Truscott fisther stalzs thal, “Given

words, “ , correction is both useless for acquisition and dangerous in that it may lead to a

1994:584, cited in Hashimoto, 2004:22) Tn this way,

attitudes.” Therefore, the treatment of leamer errors is not only ineffective but also comter- productive

Persuasive as the ubove evideuee of the incffeetiveness of crror corection may scom, many scholars advocate thai cootion docs positively affect forcign language loaning

1.2.2 Positive perspectives of crror correction

The evidence for the effectiveness of error treatment is as much as that of its inefftetiveness Chaudron (1986) claims that,

Despile the lack of evidence that feedbuck on linguistic error in classrooms or outside die,

is consistently effective in stimulating teamers’ interlangnage progress, the possibility

remains that certain Ieamors, especially those with a formal leaming style, can derive

‘benefit #om amor conection (Chaudron, 1986:82, cited in Hashimoto, 2004:24)

Approving of this positive extreme, Hendrickson (1984) argues that

for those adults, error correction helps to discover the functions and limitations of the

grumuulical structures and lexical Zorms of the language Uuey aro using (Hendrickson,

“negative feedback in the context of commumicativs activities may promote interlanguage development” (lillis, 1998, p 53, cited in Chang, 2000-2) Similarly, Chang (2000) reports on Doughty and Varela’s finding (1998) that in their communicative content-based science class, providing sindenls correetive feedback on their oral prosonlation and written reports

could significantly promote inlsrlanguage development

“The significance of corrective feedback, or negative evidence, was also affirmed in some other studics such as Thompson’s, In her study, she insisted that “the student docs not improve his skill if his wark is ual corceted™ (Thompson, 1965, cilsd in Hashimoto, 2004:26) If errors and mistakes are not treated, they will become fossilized and thus inhibiting the leamer’s language acquisition

From all related literature reviewed above, it can be concluded that error correction is bzneRcial in all kinds of language classroom activities from grammatical practice to oral communication or wrillen work Tn this comlexl, it provides learners with effective assistimec

in developing both forcign language knowladge and skills As Chaudron (1988) perecives il,

Leamuers can use feedback as the powerful source of improvement in bolh target language

development and olher subject malicr knowtedge, (Chaudron, 1988:133, cited in Inoue &

Kubota, 1994: 11)

While the outcomes of teachers’ error correction in terms of students’ foreign language improvement have still been controversial, it is apparent that there exists a close relation belween teachers’ conection and lcamers’ Icaming molivalion How this classroom interaction affects leamers’ motivation in foreign language leaming will be the focus of the hereunder part

1.3 Error treatment and learning motivation

ce foreign language learning was studied It

is one of the most important factors that help to foster the process of language acquisition

Yet, though very closely connected, error correction and motivation have never been under

thoraugh investigation This paper, lherefore, hopes lo go into delails about this relation

‘The term “wolivation” in second language learning is defined by Gardner (1985) as “the

extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do

so and the satisfaction cxpericneed in this activity.” (Gardner, 1985:10) According to him, motivation must be the combination of three elements namely “effort and desire to achieve

the goal of learning the language” and “favorable attitudes toward leaming the language”

Therefore, “the individual may want to learn the language and may enjoy the activity, but, if

this nol linked with a striving to do so, then iLis not truly motivation.” (Gardner, 1985:10) Despite the fact that until now the connection between error correction and motivation has not been studied systematically, much research on error correction has more ot less paid

attention to this issuc For example, Ferris (1999) thal the abscn

nf corrzation may frustrale and demotivale learners Also, as far us they are concemed, Laverxo and Dunford (1293) report on the opinion of a teacher of English about her English tainers “We find that there is practically no correcting, at all, and this comes to us as a big disappointment.” Lavezzo and Dunford (1993.62, cited in Harmer, 2001:2)

‘On counting the factors affecting the sindents” motivation in the context of foreign language learning we can find three most influential ones including teachers’ factors, learnars’ faclors and toaching and learsing conditions

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Many researchers believe that error correction tonches not only the cognitive skills, but

also the affective aspects of language leaming including leamers’ feelings and attitudes

(Krashen 1987, Amold and Brown 1999, Cathear! and Olsen 1976) Regarding this

interrelation, Hendrickson (1984) proposos four learner factors affecting Leacher correction as follows

© Leamuers’ level of proficiency in the largel language

© Leamers’ purposes of target Janguage leaming,

© Types of errors

œ = Individual learners’ attitudes toward error correction

(Hendrickson, 1984:146-7, cited in Hashimoto, 2004:42) From learners” side, it is believed that a good teacher should be able to correct people without offending them As we see it, classroom interaction, as well as human interaction in general, is an art, Whether the teacher offers correction or not, the correction techniques they apply, (heir attiindes toward learnors’ errors, or whalever aspect of their corrcelive practices can negatively or positively affect the Jeamers’ motivation for learning Obviously, for the reasons of self-esteem and face, people tend to dislike their error being pointed out or treated

by ollters In this uspeel, the carreetion, if nol offered al the right time, in the night place and

in the appropriate way, may threaten their face and thus causing them to lose enthusiasm for leaming, Ancker interestingly found out that “the most frequent reason given for net wanting correction was the negative impact on students’ contidence and motivation” (Ancker, 2000: 22), Hence, the [aelors coming from the leamers should be taken into close consideration when the teachsr makes policies on corrective practices

It is clear that teachers play an important role in determining the level of interest and enlhusiasm of learners in forcign language learning, In their corrective practices, they play

different roles such as judges, designers, scholars, trainers and motivators According fo Jimena et.al., generally, it1s unpleasant experience to be corrected and some of leamers may gct fustrated and demotivated because they might not know what to do with the correction given by the lcacher, especially when corrections are given without explanation Tn this case, leamers who lack the confidence about their foreign language knowledge are the most likely people to be discouraged with corrective feedbacks Thus, it is necessary that foreign Tanguage teachers know how lo maximally facilitate favorable learning condition through their corrective practices,

Foreign language learning is different from other subjects in that leamers’ interest in leaming is greally influenced by both the physical and psychclogieal teaching and learning

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environment, Thereby, a healthy, relaxed and tively classroom atmosphere and a harmonions teacher-student relationship can help the students, especially those with bad English foundation or intzaverted charactor

ics, lo overcome the fecling of shyness and annxicty Thoy should bo encouraged ta make mistakes and de uptake and repair in order to improve their language competence ‘Therefore, by providing appropriate treatment of students” crrors and mistakes, the teachers can oreate a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom

1

Errer correclipn Ìn an intepraled-instruction Farm language teaching context

‘Those who have been following the debate over corrective feedback may get ambivalent when looking back on studies on its effectiveness in foreign language acquisition These studies, however, focused on error treatment in a particutar language task, for example, oral work, written work, or grammar practice by means of aclivities tike tole play, essay writing

or doing exercises Little has been revealed on how positively or negatively error treatment affects the Ioarner’s success ina gencral English course where both kinds of instructions, namely mcaning-focused and forrer-focused arc integrated Fike pro-FSP caurse This paper,

as a result, aims to bridge this gap

In fact, the past decade have seen considerable attention to error correction in a language class in which language structures are incorporated within a meaning-focused activity This complex teaching context requires that the teacher should take some questions into consideration so as to best utilize error correction as a tool to improve the learner’s linguistic competence and communicative competence, The questions framed by Hendrickson (1978, cited in Tedick, 1998:2) arc as follows

» Should leamers’ errors be corrected?

* When should leamers’ errors be corrected?

«© - Which cmors should be comecied?

* How should errors be correcLrd?

* Who should do the comecting?

When the teachers suocessfully control the answers to these questions, they can take full advantage of comective feedback in facilitating learning process

It is difficult for teachers to decide whether to correct or not in practical situations because of the temptation lo do so as well as the feeting of guilt if the teamners’ mistakes are ignored, As a result, leamers often feel discouraged when their teacher does too much comreetion, Lewis and Hill agree that “Probably even more important, however, in undermining the learners’ confidence, is the teacher over-zealous correction of mistakes.”

(Lewis and Hill, 1992:96) ‘This practice is ineffective in that it causes the leamers such great

confusion beeause of too many errors corrected in ane lesson that they find it hard to attend

to and memorize any of them Further, the learners’ confidence in their ability to succeed in the lasks is reduecd {o # level at which they dare not take a risk on accouml of being afraid to commuil mistakes Thersfore, when cneountering a learner enor, teachers should carofully

consider whether to comect it ar not Often, it is advisable that in tasks focusing on fluency, teachers should let mistakes go unless they are the cause of anisunderstanding and

conversation breakdown Such global crors deserve correction while local onc, those not

hindering the comprehension of the message can be ignored Similarly, in correcting

grammatical mistakes, teachers should provide weatment on errors relating to the piece of grammar in focus rather than others Therefore, global errors must receive high priority for

correction

As regards the timing of correction, many teaching recommendations favour delayed

feedback arguing that Icarncr should not be interrupted “in the middle of what he is saying,

which can be frustrating and discouraging” (Rartram & Wallon, 1991-41) Morcover, when the main aim of using language is for spoken communication, constant interruptions to

correct errors, great or small, will simply create a barrier to communication, rather than

facilitate it

‘Among many questions raised on error correction, the qnestion of how learner shonld be treated is probably the most interesting one Although providing the leamers with the correct

forms appears fo be the most popular teclinique, it is preferable that the teachers use various

lypes of treatment methods Hashimeto (200437) reporls on Holley and King’s argument (1971) that “teachers should not use the methods which make learners feel embarrassed or

frustrated” ‘I'herefore, how to respond to leamer errors emerges as a sensitive issue, which

requires that tcachcrs should be thoughtful about sclecting the appropriate and cffcctivc

correction techniques In a word however correction is carried out, it needs to be done with

sensitivity to avoid embarrassment and demotivation

1.5 Forms af error correction

Tn an English course where all four skills are integrated, the leachers lave to deal with

errors of both spoken form and written form Whatever forms of errors may come up, the

teachers can apply the following three forms of correction

- Selfcorreetion

- Peer-correction

- Teacher-correction.

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1.3.1 Self-correction The first and probably the most recommended form of error treatment is self-correction Makino claims thal “iL is importmnt for teachers nol to corel leaner crrors or give the right

answers to them immediately; giving cues to the students so they can correct their own errors

will further activate their linguistic eampetence” (Makino, 1993:340, cited in Chang, 2000:3) Edge (1989:24) adds that “People usually prefer to put their own mistakes right rather than be corrected by someone clsc.” Indeed, sclf-correetion gives the leamers a sense

of achievement and confidence [lete, correction is like a task which the leamers have successfully fulfilled Meanwhile, they are more likely to memorize the mustakes they have corrected themselves and thus hopefully not recommitting them in the future Moreover, teachers are advised to teach the students Lo edil their own writing or ufterances because they will not succeed outside the classroom unless they can leam how to reduce their errors, As

for teachers, by using this type of correction, they can gain an insight into the students’

The icachcr asks the student to repeat the sentence containing the crrer Then, the

student notices a mistake caught in their utterance, thus self-correcting it

«® Grammatical terms

Llere, the teacher localizes an error by mentioning what finetion it plays in the sentence

It is a form-focused technique and is only usefidl with students who understand the vocabulary and who are fairly proficient,

© Gestures Nonverbal crror corrcetion can occur by means of gestures, This technique idcally

makes teachers’ correction attractive to the students by the teachers’ interesting actions on

the condition that both learners and teachers can interpret the meaning of these actions

Other techniques (Edge, 1989) can be,

* Pretending to misunderstand

The toacher pretends to wisunderstand the learners’ idea on account of the mistake and then the learners will corract it themselves

= Echoing

The teacher repeals the incorreel utterance with a tising tone ai the end to make it a

clarifying question This is considered bad practice because it sounds as if the teacher is trying to make fan of the student

* Clarification request

The tcacher uscs pluases like “Excuse mc?”, “Pardon?” or “Sorry?” to indicate that there

exists at least one mistake in the student’s utterance and asks for a repetition or

reformulation

© Metalinguistic clues

The teacher poses questions or provided comments or intormation related to the formation of the student’s utterance, for example, “Do we say it like that?” Or “We need a noun here.”

1.5.1.2 SeMW-correction to written work

= Symbols and abbreviations

Like gestures in correcting oral mistakes, symbols and abbreviations, for example, Sp” for ‘spelling mistake’, are only useful in case there is an agreement in decoding them

* Reference to grammar miles

The teacher provides reference to a specific rule of grammar on which the student makes

student rather than th inc and this in lurns builds confidenee in comploting the given lask In peer correction, students gel more focused and involved in the task, [hus avoiding the risk that only the students who are responsible for completing the task really work, Also, pect correction is grcat way of promoting team work in the classroom

1.5.2.1 Peer-correction te oral work

‘The teacher can apply any techniques for self-correction to peer correction by simply calling on another student who can correct the mistakes After the comect form has been

pointed oul, the student who comms the errors is required ta repeal the correct ulleranice

1.5.2.2 Peer-correction ta written work (Walz, 1982)

for adall learners in thal il reduces the sk that the learner fecls ashamed if corrected by their

peers Moreover, the teacher can actively manage the timing of correction so that it will not

affect task organization in a lesson However, students who do not comnut the etror often fect Less involved when correction takes place

1.5.3.1, Teacher-correction to oral work (Lyster & Ranta, 1997, cited in Tedick,

"The loacher iinplieily rofomnulatos (he sludcnUs crror or provitles the correct form,

1.5.3.2 Teacher-correction to written work (Walz, 1982)

«© = Direet correction

‘The teacher undertines a word to craw attention to a hint written near if A misplaced word can then be bracketed and placed in its proper order with an arrow, Unnecessary words are crossed oul,

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CHAPTER 2— THE SILDY

2.1 Setting of the study

Students ai VTC have Lo attend two courses of pre-FSP in their first year These courses sim at developing sludents’ English communication compotonce by offering: four-skill practice and preparing stndents for their ESP courses by revising and consolidating their

prammar and vocabulary knowledge The first aim is set for the first semester, which ends

with an oral final cxam while the sceand onc is the focus of the second semester ending with

a written test In other words, we put our focus on fluency and English communicative

competence in the first term whereas the second term is for accuracy and linguistic competence As cited in Wikipedia, linguistic competence was detined in 1965 by Noam

Charisky as the syslsm of tinguislic knowledge po

sessed by nalive speakers of a language

‘Therefore, in this study what is meant by improvement in learning pre-KSP is the

improvement in students’ linguistic competenec Morcover, the students arc almost at ø low

level of English proficiency, thus, the contents as well as aclivitics designed in the comse

book Lifelines lementary (by ‘om Ehitchinson, Oxford University Press, 1999) are deemed

suitable for them

2.2, Subjects and instrumentations

2.2.1, Subjects

The subjects chosen for this study include 5 teachers of English from the English

division of VTC and 100 students, each 20 of whom come from a class taught by one of these

teachers Additionally, for the quasi-cxperinent lo earry oul, bwo groups of students of IT

will be divided into the treatment group and the contral group, which will be elaborated in

perceptions of stndent’s errors and error correction as well as their corrective practices In

addition, another questionnaire with 15 items was delivered to 100 stsdents to investigate

their opinions on and preferen

for their toachers’ corrcetion (he frst 8 ilzms) and their motivation in teaming pre-ESP (the last 7 items), ‘'he questionnaires included both closed- ended multiple-choice items and open-ended items ‘The items 12, 13, 14 were designed basing on the Gardnerian theory of motivation in learning a second language (Gardner, 1985)

2.2.2.3 Quasi-experiment

To test the effects of teacher’s srror correction on students” improvement, the author carried out a quasi- experimental study The subjects were 100 students coming ftom tivo classes of informatics majors (50 each), who then non-randomly constituted two groups for the treainent, i.¢ the experimental group and the controt one They wers given the same materials, instructions and tasks given by the same teacher during the treatment, ‘The ratio of male and female students in the two groups was approximatzly cqual at 4:1, and they wore virlually equally motivated and allontive in learning, as perceived by the teacher, Before the treatment, in order to eliminate the possibility that some students may be familiar with the language knowledge to be presented during the treatment whereas others do not, which might falsify the results of the study, the teacher presented the new language without any tasks

given to the students The students then took a written pre-test on the language relating to

what they had just learnt, During the treatment time of 1 forty - five - minute periods, the teacher elicited what the students had leant and organized activities for practice on that

Tangnage withoul, assigning any homowork or giving in-clas

homework and tests, ths possibility that the students” better performance in the post-test, if there were any, was due to their efforts in revising what they had learnt would be limited toa

inaximum level Thus, the findings on the cffeets of the teacher’s correction on the students’

is By not assigning

improvement, if there were any, would be more reliable Hor the treatment group, the teacher applied the oral and written correction techniques most commonly used by the teachers in the college, as collected fiom classroom observation, to correct students’ mustakes and errors white the contrel group received no correction al all Afler the treatment, the sturenls look a post-test to check whether they had made improvements on the mistakes/errors corrected or

‘The tests, to measure student's linguistic competence, were designed in the way that

they included the questions on the language easily mistaken by the students during the

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activities The questions were on the phonological rules, grammatical rules and vocabulary presented in the lessons In order to maximally limit the students’ feeling of familiarity, the question types in the pre-test were changed when uscd in the post-test

The validity and reliability of the test

As regards the test validity, which is defined as “the extent to which the test measures what it is intended to measure” (Harrison, 1991:11), the contents of the questions were taken from the Progress Tests in the book Lifelines Elementary Teacher's Book and they were also designed on the basis of what was presented in the course book This ensured that the test tested what the students actually leamt Moreover, for the purpose of investigating the students’ improvement in using the language they leamt in terms of the mistakes/errors they made, the pre-tes! had lo cover many examples of their mistakes and errors diwing the treatment ‘This was done by the author’s consultation with other teachers who had had four

to seven years of experience in teaching this subject

In addition, this Lest had a high level of rdliabilily because cach question had only onc correct answer ‘Thus, the measurements of the tests kept unchanged under any circumstance

of administering and marking,

2.3 Data collection

The survey in the form of questionnaires was conducted from May 3 te May 9" Out of

the 120 questionnaires delivered, 115 were collected back and no items were left blank The

open-ended questions were fully answered as well Classroom observation was also done at

« Peer-correction to in-class written work

The experimental study took place from May £0" to May 30% The teacher created the

same toaming condition for beth groups except that she provided cxror corrcetion im the

forms of the above mentioned techniques for the treatment group while the control group

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received no correction The pre-test and post-test were strictly and carefully marked by the author The t-value was calculated by Excel T-test function

2.4 Data analysis

2.4.1, Analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire

- What do teachers think of the role of mistake/error correction in English learning?

On being asked what they thought of students’ making mistakes/errors, all the teachers

saw this as an essential part of learning process rather than a sign of students’ failure,

Accordingly, four of them agreed that error correction is important in English learning, and

the other one viewed it as very important None of them denied the important role error

treatment plays in this process

Chart 1 — The role of error correction in English learning as perceived by teachers

- What factors affect teachers’ decision of correction?

Error treatment can be said to be one of the most difficult practices of foreign language teachers, In order for this practice to be effective, there are some factors needed to be taken

into consideration before a teacher gives correction Those factors, from the teachers’

viewpoints, are stated in the following table:

Students’ individual attitudes toward error correction 3 60%

Table 1 — Factors affecting teachers” decision of correction

accounting for 60%, took students’ attitudes toward correction as well as their English

proficiency level into consideration when deciding to give corrective feedback Most

surprisingly, only one teacher cared about the timing of the lesson

~ What kind of mistakes do teachers correct most?

Undeniably, in a pre-ESP course, non-English major students often commit mistakes

and errors both when they speak and when they write As regards speaking activities, teachers have to deal with students’ mistakes on grammar, phonology, word use and

word/sentence meaning, and idea organization in case they have to talk about a topic

According to the teachers’ responses, grammatical mistakes and mistakes on word use and

word/sentence meaning were most noticeable 40% of them corrected mistakes on grammar

and the same number paid attention to mistakes on word use and word/sentence meaning

Treatment of mistakes on phonology, one feature to distinguish spoken English from written

English, is however, preferred by only one teacher Finally, no one chose to put their focus on

mistakes on idea organization

Chart 2 — Oral mistakes most corrected by the teachers

As for written errors, perhaps because accuracy is the most important criterion for a good piece of writing, 80% of the population put grammatical mistakes on the top of the most

O Mistakes on word use and word/sentence meaning

O Mistakes on idea organizing

Chart 3 - Written mistakes most corrected by the teachers

- What is the amount of correction do teacher offer in a pre-ESP lesson?

In terms of the amount of correction teachers offer in a pre-ESP lesson, two teachers, accounting for 40% of the population, gave correction whenever they caught a mistake from

the students, which means that they offered 100% of correction during a pre-ESP lesson They both argued that the students needed to acquire as high a level of accuracy as possible

The rest 60% were of the opinion that teachers should not offer complete error correction

They reasoned that only important errors should be dealt with so that the students would not

have to suffer from bewilderment and confusion, which lessen the effectiveness of correction However, they did not deny the importance of giving corrective feedback by asserting that

from 70% to 80% of students’ mistakes should be dealt with

- When do teachers often give correction?

On being asked what corrective practice the teachers preferred in terms of the time of

correction giving, two out of five teachers preferred immediate correction, another two teachers supported delayed correction, and the last one chose neither of these two options This teacher stated that sometimes she corrected students immediately and sometimes she

employed delayed correction, reasoning that it depended on the task she asked the students to

do According to her, immediate correction was best utilized in grammar practice whereas

OF

delayed correction was more ideal in speaking tasks when students’ flow of talking should be

interrupted as little as possible

- What types of correction do the teachers often use to correct students in pre-ESP classes?

With regard to the type of correction employed by the teachers, the frequency of use as

shown from the data collected is presented as follows

case of peer-correction Self-correction was moderately perceived as the most helpful by only one teacher

Teacher-correction Peer-correction ‘Self-correction

Chart 4 —The most useful correction type as perceived by the teachers 2.4.2 Analysis of students’ survey questionnaire

- What are students’ opinions on their teachers’ correction?

Chart 5 — The importance of error correction from the students’ perceptions

‘As apparent from Chart 5, the significance of error correction was solidly affirmed by

99% of the respondents, among whom 85% saw it as very important Despite this remarkably

persuasive result, still there was 1% of the opposing opinion that error correction was not important to their English learning

- How much correction do students’ expect in a pre-ESP lesson?

Whereas over a half of the teachers favoured selective correction, the majority of the

students, 87% exactly, preferred to be corrected whenever they committed a mistake, They

explained that the teachers’ correcting every mistake they made would indicate to them what

‘was right and what was wrong so that they would not recommit it anymore They added that

they preferred the English they produced to be perfect, and this would be impossible without

their teachers’ help Moreover, correcting all the students’ mistakes meant that their work was being carefully attended to by their teachers The other 13% of the informants did not

favour comprehensive correction, reasoning that correcting too many mistakes arising in their

work would make them feel less motivated in completing the tasks Nevertheless, they claimed that an amount of 85%-90% of correction should be done per lesson

- What kind of mistakes do the students like to be corrected most?

In speaking activities, phonological errors were most expected to be corrected by 49%

of the informants The second in the list was grammatical ones with 36%, and the least favoured was mistakes on idea organization with only 2%

0 Mistakes on word use and word/sentence meaning

O Mistakes on idea organizing

Chart 6 — Oral mistakes which the students most liked to be corrected The case was a bit different in written tasks in which 47% of the students liked their

grammatical mistakes to be treated most Mistakes on word use and word/sentence meaning

were ranked second in the list with 43%, and those on idea organization and spelling seemed not to have much attention by the students with only 7% and 3% respectively

0 Mistakes on word use and word/sentence meaning

O Mistakes on idea organizing

Chart 7 - Written mistakes which the students most liked to be treated

- When do the students want correction?

As for the time of correction giving, 63% of the respondents preferred immediate

correction whereas 30% favoured delayed correction The rest 7% said that it depended on the kind of mistakes If the mistakes were on grammar or word use and meaning, the teachers

could correct them later, but if they were mistakes on pronunciation, stress or intonation, they needed to treat them immediately so that they would not have to recall the students to the

incorrect English they had produced.

Chart 8 - The most usefull correction type as perceived by the students

Itis clear from Chart 8 that teacher-correction was the most useful correction type from 58% of the students’ viewpoint Peer-correction was deemed the most helpful for 32% of the population Like the teachers, the students perceived self-correction as the least useful means

of correction with only 11 advocates

- What are the teachers’ attitudes towards the students’ making mistakes/errors? How

‘would the students like to receive correction?

As regards the teachers’ attitudes towards the students’ making mistakes/errors, an

impressive percentage of 88% of the students revealed that their teachers gave correction

with sympathy and enthusiasm Only 14 respondents, accounting for 12%, saw a feeling of annoyance and dissatisfaction from their teachers In terms of the students’ preference in correction receiving, 80% were of the opinion that they preferred correction with encouragement whereas 20% believed that criticism in correction giving might help them improve their English learning

~- How is teachers’ correction related to their students’ learning motivation?

‘The above is the analysis of the collected data on the teachers’ perceptions and practices

of correction in pre-ESP lessons as well as the students’ opinions on their teachers’ correction

practices The other 7 items of the student questionnaire are designed to investigate the effect

of the teachers’ correction on the students’ learning motivation.