An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school = khảo sát cách thức sửa lỗi trong giờ nói tại trường thpt

The study can be helpful for teachers and Ss who are trained to be teachers with information about error correction techniques and students’ preferences.. - Finding out types of errors o

Vinh university

Foreign language department

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TrÇn Trµ My

an investigation into error correction techniques

in speaking lessons at upper secondary school

(Kh¶o s¸t c¸ch thøc söa lçi trong giê nãi

t¹i tr-êng thpt)

Graduation thesis Field: methodology

Vinh - 2008

=  = vinh university

foreign Language department

===    ===

an investigation into error correction techniques

in speaking lessons at upper secondary school

(Kh¶o s¸t c¸ch thøc söa lçi trong giê nãi

=  =

Part I: Introduction

I.1 Rationale of the study

There are a number of reasons that led me to the final choice to do my graduation paper with the title “An investigation into correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school”

English has been an international language for a long time It is considered as a powerful tool in communication More and more people desire to learn the language Speaking is one of the four important skills in this subject It seems that most English learners have difficulty with the skill little or much Therefore, teachers’ role is extremely important in helping students to progress in their fluency and accuracy in speaking

The teachers offer help when students make errors in their flow of speech However, not all of the techniques used by the teachers satisfy students That is why the author chooses to investigate error correction techniques The study can be helpful for teachers and Ss who are trained to be teachers with information about error correction techniques and students’ preferences The study is also helpful for my future career

Moreover, the author has been interested in speaking since I started to learn English I had a wish to further satisfy my interest in this skill This helped solidify my decision to choose this topic

I.2 Aims of the study

Investigating error correction techniques used by the teachers of English at high school, the thesis focuses on three objectives They are:

- Finding out types of errors occurring in the students’ utterances and teachers’ correction techniques to treat those errors at high school

- Identifying students’ preferences of error correction techniques

- Suggesting applications to help the teachers use correction techniques more effectively to meet students’ preferences

I.3 Method of the study

There are a variety of measures, which are available for research However, in the narrow scope of the study, I only use some of them They are:

- Descriptive method

- Qualitative method

- Quantitative method

- Analysis method

I.4 Scope of the study

The title of the paper “An investigation into error correction techniques

in speaking lessons at upper secondary school” reflects the scope of the study

Some error correction techniques used by Vietnamese teachers of English at Nghi Loc I upper Secondary school to treat the students’ oral errors

in speaking lesson were concentrated on in this study In addition, the survey questionnaires were designed and carried out with the participation of 156 Vietnamese students in the tenth form; the questions were designed to interview five teachers at the school

In this study, only verbal correction techniques were investigated; verbal ones such as the teachers’ gestures, facial expressions, and so on were not included

non-Besides, the researcher mentioned a brief look into the theoretical background of error definition, the significance of error in language learning and teaching; teachers’ feedback; error correction in the classroom and the treatment of oral errors

I.5.Design of the study

Except for the acknowledgment and the table of contents, the study consists of three main parts, a list of references and appendices

Part I: Introduction

The introduction presents the rationale, aims, methods, scope, and design of the study

Part II: Content

This part consists of three chapters Chapter 1 will deal with literature review, includes definition of error, the significance of the learners’ errors, and criteria for rational error correction in speaking classroom, error correction techniques, and the treatment of oral errors Chapter 2, the study, contains the research questions of the study, the research setting, description

of the subjects, instrumentation, procedure, and the results of the study (the results of classroom observations, interviews, and survey questionnaires) Chapter 3 describes the limitations of the thesis and suggestion for further studies of the study

Part III: Conclusion

This is the final part of the thesis

Part II: content

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

Definitions of error are not the same among different researchers Edge (1989: 9-11) claimed that there are three types of mistake including error They are slips, errors, and attempts

(i) Slips are caused by carelessness The learners can self-correct them if

pointed out and given the chance An example is: *she left school two

years ago and now work in a factory

(ii) Errors are wrong forms that the student can not self – correct even if these wrong forms are pointed out However, “the teacher can recognize what the students wanted to produce and thinks that the class is familiar with

the correct form” For example: *although the people are very nice, but I

don’t like it here

(iii) Attempts are almost incomprehensible mistakes, and the students have no ideas how to structure what they want to mean or their intended meaning

and structure are not clear to the teacher For instance: * this, no, really,

for always my time…and then I happy

(Edge, 1989:11)

According to him, the learners themselves can self correct as slips are caused by carelessness not by the lack of knowledge of a language In contrast, the learners themselves cannot correct errors and attempts since they are caused by the lack of knowledge

Distinguishing errors and mistakes H D Brown (1994:200) defined that

mistake is “a performance error that is either a random guess or a “slip” in

that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly” and an error is defined

as” noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker,

reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learners”

Sharing the same point of view, from Ellis, Rod (1997) we have

definitions that “Errors are deviations in usage which result from gaps in

learners’ knowledge of the target language”, and that mistakes are deviations

in usage that reflect the learners’ inability to use what they actually know of the target language”

As stated in the definitions above: both errors and mistakes are deviations in the usage, they are incorrect usage in target language made by the second language learners However, errors and mistakes differ in the cause It is the gaps in learners’ knowledge of target language and the learners’ inability to use what they have already known of the language that cause errors and mistakes respectively

In brief, the definition of error that has been mentioned above is used in the field of error analysis However, this study focuses on investigation into error correction techniques used by teachers at NL1 upper secondary school

In the study, two terms “error” and “mistake” are used interchangeably

though there are significant differences between them

There are many ways of classifying the types of errors In this study, errors are categorized into six types:

(i) Grammatical error: can be the learners’ wrong use of structures,

tenses, articles, nouns, and so on

(ii) Pronunciation error: refers to the cases: the students mispronounce

a word, place the wrong stress on a syllable of a word, or not articulate the final sound

(iii) Lexical error refers to (1) student used a wrong word in his/ her

utterance, (2) She/ he could not find out an appropriate word to express his/her idea

(iv) Content error refers to the teacher’s refusal of the meaning of the

student’s utterance

(v) Discourse error is restricted to the following cases:(1) the student’s

utterances consist of irrelevant information, (2) the student did not use pronoun substitutions or conjunction to link sentences in his/her utterance, (3) the student’s response was inappropriate to the teacher’s requirement

T: Why was John absent yesterday?

S: John was tired He did not go to school (My data)

(vi) Cultural error refers to cases that students’ utterance is not

accepted in other cultural environment For example: “How much does your

mother earn a month?”

1.2 The significance of learners’ errors in the process of teaching and learning

Corder (1981) stated that learners’ errors are significant to teachers, researchers and especially to learners

“A learner’s errors, then, provide evidence of the system of the language that he

is using (i.e has learned) at a particular point in the course (and it must be repeated that he is using some system, although it is not yet the right system)

They are significant in three different ways First to the teacher, in that they tell him, if he undertakes a systematic analysis, how far towards the goal the learner has progressed and, consequently, what remains for him to learn Second, they provide to the researcher evidence of how language is learnt or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in his discovery of the language Thirdly (and in a sense this is their most important aspect) they are indispensable to the learner himself, because we regard the making of errors as

a device the learner uses in order to learn It is a way the learner has of testing his hypotheses about the nature of the language he is learning The making of errors then is a strategy employed both by children acquiring their mother tongue and those learning a second language.”

(Corder, 1981:11) Learners’ errors tell teachers whether their students has progressed or not, which stage or level their students at and learners’ errors is also useful for teachers to decide what he should teach in the rest of the course To the learners, their own errors are really helpful to them to develop their target

language as “making of errors as a device the learner uses in order to learn”

1.3 Teacher’s feedback

Ur (1996:242) defined feedback as follows:

Feedback is information that is given to the learner about his or her performance

of a learning task usually with the objective of improving this performance Feedback has two distinguishable components: assessment and correction In the former, the learner is simply informed how well or badly he or she has performed, whereas in the correction, some specific information is provided on aspects of the learner’s performance: through explanation, or provision of better

or other alternatives, or through elicitation of these from the learner

Thus, the purpose of teacher’s feedback is to improve learners’ performance of a learning task Feedback has two components: assessment and correction, however, in the narrow scope of this study only correction is

focused, particularly, the correction in speaking class The terms ”error correction technique” (ECT) and “corrective feedback” are used synonymously in the study

1.4 Criteria for rational error correction in speaking classroom

Freiermuth from Okalahoma state University highlights factors that are considered to develop criteria for error correction as follows:

1.4.1 Exposure

If promotion language creation is one of the objectives in L2 classroom, then learners’ inferences and guesses about T.L using new or unfamiliar structures when they speak should be encouraged Once, learners are encouraged to make inferences and guesses, they certainly make errors

These errors should not always be corrected According to Allright & Bailey’s, it is “unfair” to punish Ss for errors when they lack of knowledge of new forms, functions in target language In contrast, T encourages or truly praises Ss to “attempt to push the boundaries of their language abilities”

Besides, when Ss receive encouraging signals from T, their motivation can be higher, and Ss attempt “new language in unfamiliar linguistic waters”

1.4.2 Seriousness

T should decide whether or not a particular error is serious It means that T should consider gravity of an error However, in many classrooms, in which Ss are under pressure of having to practice accurately in T.L, Ss may feel nervous or anxious then they make mistakes with unfamiliar structures Corder (1981) claimed that “true” errors couldn’t be self-corrected by Ss without T’s help Hence, classroom is a more comfortable place for Ss if they are not stopped or interrupted quickly when they make mistakes

To decide when T should address an error, T can consider the error’s

seriousness; “It may be useful to view errors according to their seriousness:

(1) errors that significantly impair communication, (2) errors that occur frequently, (3) errors that reflect misunderstanding or incomplete acquisition

of the current classroom focus, and (4) errors that have a highly stigmatizing effect on the listeners (Hendrickson 1979)

Concerning about the seriousness of an error, Burt & Kiparsky focused

on two kinds of error: global errors and local errors “An example of a global

error is if a student says “I buy car, after I have trouble with car”, it is apparent that there is a problem between the independent clause and dependent clause Global errors should almost always be corrected because they cause confusion when regarding the relationship between constituent clauses, whereas local errors occur within a clause should be ignored or corrected afterwards Once the global errors are addressed, the utterance becomes easy to be manageable and understandable, “After I buy car, I have trouble with car” the remaining uncorrected article and tense errors in this example are called as local ones, so the teacher needs to evaluate their relative importance as they relate to other factors before messing them”

1.4.3 Students’ needs

Another criteria for rational error correction are students’ needs This is

an integral criterion Considering students’ needs helps T to provide Ss with suitable correction, for example: Ss who are capable can get benefit from even minor correction, meanwhile weak and slow Ss should probably receive correction only when they make major errors

In order to know what Ss need to be corrected, T should observe Ss’ process of learning, listen to their utterances and then take note the

frequency and gravity of errors After making a list of errors, T works with those specific Ss on the errors that are in the list

Sometimes, the majority of the class have problem with the same specific error, some extra activities for practicing are very helpful and effective

1.4.4 Consistency

Consistency is considered to be the most important criteria First, consistency helps T to avoid giving correction arbitrarily Without it, T may give correction basing solely his/her patience, mood, motivation, or attitude

Stocks offers a perfect example of a teacher who gives correction without consistency

T: when did you leave Venezuela?

Eulyces: I left Venezuela the eleventh of January

T: good

… [Later in lesson]

T: when was he born?

Eulyces: Twenty… twenty- first of January nineteen sixty- there

T: Come on Eulyces, you missed something here Just say it over again Eulyces: twenty…

T: The twenty-first

Eulyces: Twenty-first of February nineteen sixty- three

T: good (P.7)

In the example above, the S uses article “the” correctly at first, but later

in lesson, she makes an error with the article The T in this situation gives up helping Ss to self-correct error after the S fails to correct it The S may suppose that he/she was successful in correcting the error meanwhile he/she is

not in fact The teacher with consistency will not abandon the effort until Ss can recognize their mistakes or can self- correct if possible

1.5 Error correction techniques

Improving accuracy and language acquisition are purposes of giving correction To achieve the purposes, many ways of correction are employed According to Walz, there are three distinct types: (1) self-correction with the teachers’ help, (2) peer-correction, and (3) teacher-correction Among them, the first type should be used as much as possible in classroom Language learners should be always encouraged to self- correct before engaging in peer-correction If it is, Ss will speak more independently They can even self-correct without being addressed errors by the teacher Teacher-correction should be used only when self-correction and peer-correction do not work

Omaggio (1986) followed Wales’s model and he described the most common subtypes

1.5.1 Self-correction

When Ss can correct his own errors with or without teacher’s help, it is self-correction Of the three types of correction techniques, self-correction is the most effective way and it should used first when Ss have errors

The first type that omaggio (1986) offers is pinpointing T repeats learners’ utterance, raises the intonation right at the words is before the error

By this way, Ss can realize the point where the error has been made and correct it

S: next Saturday, I will go to cinema with a girlfriend of mine

T: I will go to … (raise the intonation)

S: I will go to cinema with a girlfriend of mine (p.296)

Rephrasing a question is the second type of self-correction When Ss cannot answer the question (because of any reason), T should replace the original question by another question, which is easier for Ss to understand:

T: why did he come home so late?

S: uh… (Hesitates)

T: why is he late? (P.296)

Another way is to offer help with cues Ss may hesitate to utter the answer, stumble while answering, or make an obvious error, so T in this case can give them signals or suggestions for them to finish their utterance:

T: when did you come to this part of the United States?

S: I…I … (hesitates over verb form)

T: come, came, have come…

S: I came last year (P.296)

Besides, T can rephrase a question if Ss response incorrectly T can offer help by repeating the question and give some cues so that Ss will be able realize their inappropriate response:

T: when are you leaving for vacation?

S: I am going to Florida

T: oh, that’s nice! But when are you leaving? Monday, Tuesday…? S: Uh, I’m sorry, I am leaving on Sunday (P.297)

T may provide Ss with explanation on the board or other ways to clean

up their confusion When T asks Ss a question but there no response from them, this technique can help:

T: where did you come from?

S: (no response)

T: (write on the board)

S: oh! I came from Kentucky (p.297)

Questions can be used to ask when students’ utterance is incomprehensible like example below:

S: I would like to study (Incomprehension)

T: Oh, would you like to study that?

S: I like to help people

T: How do you think that will help them?

S: If I help them, they will see better

T: Yes, being an optometrist is a good choice (p.298)

Moreover, Ss can self-correct if T makes a model T gives a question and answers it as a model With the model of a correct structure, Ss can response in her own way using teacher’s model

T: What time do you usually get up on Sunday?

1.5.2 Peer-correction

When one student makes an error and another or several members in

the class correct, that is peer-correction According to Porter (1986), “the

classmate treated each other’s errors very infrequently but when they did, they were five times more likely to be right than to incorrect.” Thus, peer-

correction is essential in the classroom as it appears to be effective and it also takes some of the focuses derived from fellow classmates The teacher can give students chances to work in pairs or groups, ask and answer with each other and correct one another Moreover, the teacher can also elicit

corrective feedback from the whole class during structured exercises when a student is stuck

1.6 The treatment of oral errors

Effective treatment to students’ oral errors is very important to help learners to get closer and closer to the target language norms Allwright and Bailey (1991:99) suggested that the teacher must provide learners with the feedback they need to modify their hypotheses about the function and linguistic form they used However, it is not easy to offer feedback to the learners

without discouraging them The answer to the question: “How teachers react

to learners’ oral errors?” is a key for effective error correction, in other words,

feedback The following questions posed by Hendrickson (1978) can be helpful for the teachers when deciding how to treat to students’ oral errors:

1 Should learner errors be corrected?

2 If so, when should learner errors be corrected?

3 Which learner errors should be corrected?

4 How should learner errors be corrected?

5 Who should correct learner errors?

For the first question “should learner errors be corrected?” many of

linguistics supported the correction to learner errors Hence, learner errors should be corrected Cathcart and Olsen (1976) explain that many learner expect their errors to be corrected and can feel disappointed or resentful if they are ignored Schmidt and Frota (1986) state that it is dangerous when learner errors are not treated Sharing the same point of view, Murphy (1986) thinks that corrective feedback can speed up the process of learning by providing information about the rules and limits of language use, which other take students a long time to deduce on their own Though learner errors should be corrected and feedback is beneficial, it will be only effective if students are willing to receive teachers’ correction Therefore, to be sure that the students are receptive to teachers’ comments, the teachers should give comments at suitable moments

Another question that the language teachers should consider to achieve

the best reaction to learners’ errors is “When should learner errors be

corrected?” In order to decide when is the most appropriate time to

correct-immediately or later, the teachers should base on the objectives of activity, accuracy-focused activity, or fluency-focused activity

When accuracy is the aim of the activity, Ss are involved an accuracy work such as the study of a piece of grammar, pronunciation exercise or some vocabulary work, It is essential of the teachers to point out and correct students errors (Harmer, 2001:105) Moreover, students should be given sufficient time and should be encouraged to correct their own mistakes It is also found that increasing wait-time by an extra second or two enables learners to self-correct 50-90 percent of their errors (Walz 1982)

When the aim of the activity is fluency, the teachers in this case should delay the corrective feedback until the end of the activity (Huge, 2000:2)

Harmer (2001:105) also agrees to avoid interrupting the students’ flow of speech and states that:

“During communicative activities it is generally felt that teachers should not interrupt students to point out a grammatical, lexical or pronunciation errors, since to do so interrupts communication and drag an activity back to the study of language form or precise meaning”

Besides the aims of activity, the language teachers should also notice the stage of the activity, the types of errors and the students’ expectation of assistance

To make the teachers’ correction more effective, the question “which

learner errors should be corrected?” should be answered One answer for the

question is that the error that occurs most frequently by one or more students and the one that is the most serious should be corrected According to Hendrikson (1978), three types of errors should be corrected:

“Correcting three types of errors can be quite useful to second language learners: Firstly, errors that impair communication significantly; secondly, errors that have highly stigmatizing effects on listeners or readers; and thirdly errors that occur frequently in students’ speech and writing”

Back to the type of errors, in the students of the teachers’ corrections or errors done by Fanselow (1977), Courchene (1980), Salica (1981) and Chaudron (1986), the learners’ errors are categorized into phonological, grammatical, lexical, content and discourse errors However one more type of error is mentioned in this study, that is “cultural error “ For example, the

question” How old are you?” or “How much is your salary?”

One more question is “How should learner errors be corrected? “ The

teachers should decide how to correct learners’ errors in order not to embarrass learners The techniques for correction are various, however, it seems to be impossible to decide which one is the most effective technique

James (1998) suggests some options and principles for error correction

as follows: first, that is “correct effectively”, teachers’ correction techniques

help learners to progress in accuracy and fluency; second, correction should

be sensitive and non-threatening form; third, correction must be matched to student preferences; fourth, the correction should have two stages: form-focused correction at the practice phase and function-focused correction in the production phase

The last question is “who should correct learner errors?” In classroom

the teacher, the student who makes the error or other students can correct errors

Most of language teachers expect the learners to self-correct their errors Once, Ss can self-correct, they can recognize the wrongness in his/her cognition In fact, Ss are encouraged to self-correct but not all of them success So teachers should increase the wait-time for them

Peer-correction is beneficial Edge (1989) indicates the benefits of this technique as follows:

Firstly, when a learner makes an error, and another learner corrects it, both

of the learners are involved in listening to and thinking about the language

Secondly, when a teacher encourages learners to correct each other’s errors, the teachers gets a lot of essential information about the students’ current TL competence at that time

Thirdly, peer-correction helps learners cooperate and helps make them less dependent on teachers

Fourthly, students will be able to help each other learn when they work

in pairs and groups, when the teachers cannot hear what is said

(Edge, 1989:26) When error maker and other members in class cannot correct a particular error, the teacher must offer help by giving correct answer, explaining again and using other ways

Chapter 2: The study

2.1 The research questions of the study

The aims of this study are to find out the answers for the three researcher questions below:

1 What error correction technique is the most frequently used by the teachers of English at NL1 upper secondary school in the speaking lessons?

2 What are students and teachers attitudes towards different correction techniques?

3 What suggestions can be given in order to help the teachers at NL.S use errors correction techniques effectively in teaching speaking skill?

2.2 Research setting

The research was carried out at Nghi Loc 1 upper secondary school, Nghe An province where English is taught as a foreign language The research took place while the researcher was practicing teaching English at NL1.S

2.3 Description of subjects

Two groups of participants are included in this study There are give

Vietnamese teachers of English at NL.S In the first group, all are females They graduated from different university including Vinh University They are from 29 to 51 However, in the data analysis of the study, the teachers’ ages are not focused

The second group of the participants consists of 156 students who are

in the 10th form They learn English textbook 10 (new edition) where the level of the syllabus is rather high They have 3 periods of English a week They aged from

14 and 16 and are studying in four classes in NL1 upper secondary school (10A2, 10A6, 10A7, 10D) They have been learning English four or five years Many of them also take part in extra English classes The author would like to investigate the types of errors committed by the students, the kinds of oral error correction techniques used by the teachers at the schools and their preferences of these techniques

In the study, all teachers who are participants are Vietnamese teachers and have been teaching English for at least 4 years Further more they have been teaching these classes for the first term and now they are also teaching them

2.4 Instrumentation

In the study, such instruments as classroom observations, interviews and survey questionnaires are used to collect 4 kinds of data: They are (1) students’ oral errors, (2) errors correction techniques, (3) teacher’s preferences and (4) students’ preferences of their teachers’ correction techniques

2.4.1 Classroom observations

Classroom observations provide the researcher with real data including (1) the number and types of student errors and (2) the number and types of errors correction techniques, which are used by the teachers at upper secondary school

There were in total 11 items on the classroom observation sheet (.See Appendix I) These items described particular situations in which the teachers used each type of error correction technique to treat students’ errors The first item refers to “ignore” technique Item 2,3 and 4 indicate that the teachers used self-correction technique Item 5 refers to peer correction technique

Item 6 and 7 show the employment of teacher-correction technique Item 8,9,10 and 11 refer to mixed-correction technique The numbers of using each technique were noted down on the second and third column

2.4.2 Interviews with the teachers

A list of questions to be asked is prepared beforehand The purposes

of these interviews are getting information on the teachers’ preferences of when, how, and which types of errors should be corrected Also, the explanations of the reasons why they corrected certain types of errors in the lesson were given

2.4.3 The survey questionnaires

A questionnaire with seven questions was delivered to 156 students The questionnaire is used to investigate the students’ preferences of the types

of errors that need correcting and the teachers’ error correction techniques

2.5 Procedure

The procedure for this study can be described as follows:

The researcher observed eight forty-five minute lessons taught by four different teachers While the researcher observed the lessons, the information was noted down on the observation sheets The observation sheets was used

to collect the data on the number and types of students’ errors and types of ECTs employed by the teachers in classrooms

The interviews were conducted with the five teachers Four questions used for the interviews were prepared beforehand During the interviews, the teachers’ answers and their explanations were noted down

156 students were delivered the survey questionnaires The information from the survey questionnaires could provide the researcher with students’ attitude toward their teachers’ ECTs

2.6 The results of the study

There are three sections in this chapter: section 2.6.1 describes the results of the classroom observations The findings of interviews with the teachers can be found in section 2.6.2 Section 2.6.3 presents the results of the

survey questionnaires

2.6.1 The results of classroom observations

2.6.1.1 Types of errors made by the students

There were (totally) 166 errors collected from classroom observations These errors were classified into six kinds: pronunciation, grammar, lexis, content, discourse, and cultural errors The frequency of each type of errors occurring in the students’ utterances is shown in chart 2.1

Chart 2.1: Types of errors occurring in the students’ utterances

Note: The total number of students’ errors is 166

It is clear from the graph that the highest percentage of errors committed by the Ss is the pronunciation, 37,95% meanwhile the lowest percentage is culture errors with 4,21%

Lexis ranks the second with the percentage of 21,68%, and this category is nearly twice higher than grammar and content errors which account for 13,25% and 14,45% respectively Discourse errors are among the low categories, accounting for 8.43% The category is twice higher than cultural ones but four times lower than category of pronunciation The reasons why grammar errors are among three lowest categories can be explained as follows: In each speaking period, T often presents new structures, elicits vocabulary relating to the topic and provides situations before asking Ss to practice speaking Moreover, the topics or situations are not too difficult; they are simple so it is easy for Ss to speak without being afraid The topics themselves are in some ways interesting enough to motivate Ss

2.6.1.2 The number of Students’ errors corrected by the teachers

The table 1 below shows the types of errors occurring in the students’ utterances and the teachers’ treatments of the errors

Table 2.1: Students’ errors and teachers’ treatments in the four classes

Types of

errors

Students’ errors Teachers’ treatments