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

An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school Vinh university Foreign language department ===  === Trần Trà My an investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school (Khảo sát cách thức sửa lỗi nói tr-ờng thpt) Graduation thesis Field: methodology Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school Vinh - 2008 =  = vinh university foreign Language department ===    === an investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school (Khảo sát cách thức sửa lỗi nói tr-ờng thpt) Graduation thesis Field: methodology Supervisor: Vũ Thị Việt H-ơng M.A Student: trần trà my Vinh - 2008 Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school =  = Part I: Introduction I.1 Rationale of the study There are a number of reasons that led me to the final choice to 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: Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school - 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; nonverbal ones such as the teachers’ gestures, facial expressions, and so on were not included Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school 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 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 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 Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school Part II: content CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of error The answers to the question ”what is an error in language learning?” can be understood more fully when the comparison between error and mistake is made Though both error and mistake are something wrong in learning process of a language, there are differences between them Making comparison between them is helpful for us to understand the definition of error better 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) TrÇn Trµ My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school 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: Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school (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) Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school 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 Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school 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 Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 10 An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school In question and 3, Ss preferred their pronunciation and grammar errors (71% and 35%) to be treated after the utterances and they particularly liked their lexis errors to be corrected immediately with 37,82%(59 students) This can explain why 66 out of 156 students accounting for 42% choose answer E Most of Ss who chose answer E did not want their errors to be treated immediately but after the utterances Noticeably enough, in question a great number of Ss agreed that both grammar and pronunciation were important and they thought that the teachers should focus on both of them equally 32 Ss chose grammar, 28 Ss chose pronunciation, and 96 out of 156 chose answer C (Both of A and B) The information from question and showed that they were generally pleased with the ways their teachers’ error correction in speaking class More than half of them, 61,2% appreciate teacher-correction techniques and many of them like self- correction techniques with the help from their teachers (54 students) For grammar errors, A large number of student, 69,3% preferred the teacher correction, especially when teachers locates an error, provides a correct model and then asks the error-maker to reproduce it (question 7) Similarly, for both pronunciation errors and lexis ones, over a half of students needed teacher-correction techniques They are very pleased when their teacher locates an error, provides correct answers, and then give them chances to reproduce it Using the information from the survey questionnaires over, the students’ preferences of types of errors that need correcting and the error correction techniques can be concluded Section 2.6.3.2 and 2.6.3.3 present the fact Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 34 An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school 2.6.3.2 The students’ preferences of the types of errors Of all types of errors committed by the students, the students expected the teachers to correct errors of lexis, grammar, and pronunciation They liked their lexical errors to be treated immediately and their grammar and pronunciation ones to be treated after their utterance However, more students were pleased with their teachers’ correction after they finish the utterance In comparison with the types of errors that the teachers corrected in the classroom, we can see that the teachers tended to correct more grammar, lexis, and content errors 90,9% of grammar errors and 61,11% of lexis ones were treated Only 15,87% of pronunciation errors was treated and 84,13% of them were ignored (see table 2.1) They did not pay much attention to pronunciation errors and let Ss to self correct in their learning process meanwhile pronunciation errors occur most frequently in classroom and the students in fact expected their teachers to correct this kind of error From the table, we can also see that both teachers and students agreed on correcting grammar and lexical errors in priority Moreover, the result of question of the survey questionnaires shows that students preferred both grammar and pronunciation errors to be corrected but the teachers preferred to correct the former to the later and in fact the teachers correct more grammar ones 2.6.3.3 Students’ preferences of errors correction techniques In general the students were pleased with their teachers ways of correcting errors The techniques that many of them liked were teachercorrection They would like the teachers to locate an error, provide a correct answer, and ask them to reproduce answer They explained that when the teachers give correction it is more reliable and faster However, the students Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 35 An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school who are capable and who are really interested in this subject expected their teachers to provide them with some suggestion and let them self correct In other words the students preferred their teachers to use more frequently teachers-correction and self-correction techniques Comparing these findings with the results semi-structured interviews with the teachers and classroom observations, there were some similarities and differences in teachers’ and students’ preferences of the two abovementioned aspects In regards to the types of errors the teachers and students agreed on correcting lexis and grammar errors but the teachers and students did not agree on pronunciation errors Students would like their teachers to correct more frequently pronunciation errors, which occurred most often in speaking class, but the teachers ignored most of them In addition, between grammar and pronunciation errors, the students liked both of them to be corrected In preference with correction techniques, Ss expected their teachers to use more self-correction and teachers-correction techniques than peercorrection ones In reality, the teachers used more mix-correction techniques that are the combination of the three ways Mix-correction techniques could be satisfied the taste of most students TrÇn Trµ My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 36 An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school Chapter Implications, limitations of the thesis and suggestion for further studies 3.1 Implications Basing on the methodologists’ suggestion that has been stated in chapter and basing on the results of the investigation, I would like to recommend some ideas for more effective error correction at high school as follows: First, it is necessary that the teachers clarify the aims of the lesson or activities, the types of errors and the seriousness of errors Making sure whether an error is of accuracy or fluency is really helpful for teacher’s treatment If the objective of the lesson or activity is fluency, then the errors of accuracy should be ignored Second, the teachers should encourage students to self correct as much as possible by increasing the wait-time to create more opportunities for students to correct their own errors The teachers should also encourage the peer-correction in classroom by getting students into more pair work and group work When self-correction and peer-correction are not successful, it is the time the teacher could help Third, for each difference individual student, the teacher should give error correction in different manner For example, with capable and selfconfident students, their minor errors should be corrected; with the weak students, the teacher should probably treat their major errors Fourth, from the result of the classroom observation we can see that students’ cultural and discourse errors occurred infrequently It does not mean Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 37 An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school that they not make these errors in fact The reason here is because they practice speaking in classroom, not outside classrooms so many of activities are not real-like In the new national English books, there are plenty of activities in each speaking lesson so the teachers should create more real situation based on the activities in each lesson to find out more discourse and cultural errors and correct in time In communication, Students may encounter much of these errors Particularly, as a would-be teachers, we need to self-train without stop to set a good example for our students to follow If we are careless in class, our own mistakes may bring bad effect to our students To conclude, the suggestions above can be a good advice for more appropriate and effective treatments in classroom 3.2 Limitations of the thesis and suggestion for further studies The results of the study unavoidably have a number of limitations First, only four classes and five teachers are involved in the investigation; the results would have been more reliable if a larger number of students and teachers from different high schools had participated Second, the time for observations, interviews seem to be short, nearly seven weeks Third, the factors such as gender, age, and teaching experience of the teachers were not focused at all Meanwhile these factors certainly have some decisive effects on teachers’ error correction techniques Fourth, only a limit of background knowledge on error correction is mentioned in the area of the study Further studies can be investigation into teachers’ written error correction techniques, which is far from this study Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 38 An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school Part III: conclusion My study focuses mainly on the teachers’ error correction techniques in speaking lessons at NL1 upper secondary school After analyzing the results of the classroom observation, interview with five teachers and survey questionnaires, I would like to come to some conclusions First, there are six types of errors occurring in classroom including pronunciation, discourse, grammatical, lexical, content, and cultural errors Among six types of errors, pronunciation occurred most frequently, followed by lexis, content, and grammar; a large number of lexis and content were treated but most of pronunciation errors were ignored In total, nearly a half of students’ errors was treated and the rest were ignored Second, with regards to the preferences of which types of error should be corrected and the error correction techniques, there were similarity and difference in teachers’ and students’ attitude The teacher preferred to correct grammatical and lexical errors but the students expected their pronunciation errors to be treated So both teachers and students agreed on grammar correction In classroom, teachers use more mix-correction and peercorrection than teacher-correction and self-correction techniques The students prefer the self-correction and teacher-correction However, mixcorrection can satisfy students’ preference I hope that the study can be beneficial for better feedback in teaching speaking Trần Trà My - 45A1 Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 39 References Jack C Richards (1974) Error Analysis Singapore Long man Singapore Publishers (Pte) Ltd Allwright, D &Bailey, K (1991) Focus on the Language Classroom: An Introduction to Classroom Research for Language Teachers New York: CUP Brown, H D (1994) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (3rd ed.).USA: Prentice Hall Regents Corder, S P (1967) The Significance of Learners’ Errors International Review of Applied Linguistics 4: 161 – 70 Edge, J (1989) Mistakes and Correction Addision Webley Longman Hendrickson, J (1978) Error Corrections in Foreign Language Teaching: recent theory, research, research, and practice Modern Language Journal 60: 387 – 398 Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching CPU Walz, J C (1982) Error Correction Techniques for the Foreign Language Classroom In Language in Education: Theory and Practice Series, 50 Washington D C Omaggio, A C (1986) Teaching Language in context: Proficiencyoriented instruction Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers 10 Murphy, D (1986) Communication and correction in the classroom ELT Journal 40 / 2: 146 – 151 11 James, C (1998) Errors in language learning and use: Exploring Error Analysis Addison Wesley Longman Limited 12 William Ancker (2000) Errors and Corrective Feedback: Updated Theory and Classroom Practice University of technology Sydney, January 20, 2008 from http://www.iml.uts.edu.au/about.html 13 Hugh, M (2000) The Correction of Students’ Oral Errors Retrieved January 22, 2008 from http:// www.bristishcuoncilpt.org/journal/j1127.html Appendix I The classroom observation sheet Oral correction techniques Class observed:………………………………………………… Teacher observed:……………………………………………… Teacher’s responses to students’ errors Indicating there is a mistake, but does not provide any further information about what is wrong Indicating something was wrong, eliciting an acceptable version from the error-maker Indicating something was wrong, eliciting an acceptable version from the error-maker, and asking him/her to reproduce the corrected version Indicating something was wrong, eliciting an acceptable from the member(s) of the class technique in a 45 minutes class Ignore all version Numbers of using each other Notes Saying what was wrong and providing a model of acceptable version Saying what was wrong, providing a model of acceptable version, and offering an explanation of why the mistake was made and how to avoid it Indicating something were wrong, eliciting an acceptable version from other member(s) of the class, and then asking the error-maker to reproduce the corrected version Saying what were wrong and providing a model of acceptable version, and then asking the original error-maker to reproduce the corrected version 10 Indicating something was wrong and eliciting an acceptable version from the error-maker, and providing an explanation of why the mistake was made and how to avoid it Appendix II Survey Questionnaires The survey questionnaires are used to obtain the students’ views on their teachers’ oral error correction techniques in classroom We are carrying out a study to investigate the teachers’ error correction treatments on speaking lessons Your completion of this questionnaire is highly appreciated The data are used in the research paper only, not for any other purpose Part A: personal information Please complete the following blanks: Full name:……………………… School:……………………… Class:………………… ……… Age:………………………… Part B: answer the following questions (You may circle more than one option) Which one you prefer, your teacher treat your errors immediately while you are speaking or after you finish your utterance? A Immediately B After finishing utterance While speaking, you make one of the following errors: grammar, pronunciation, lexis, content, which type you first want to be corrected immediately? A Grammar B Pronunciation C Lexis D Content E Other Among the following type of errors: grammar, pronunciation, lexis, content, which type you want to be corrected after finishing your utterance? A Grammar B Pronunciation C Lexis D Content E Other Two following types of errors: grammar and pronunciation, which one you think the teacher should more frequently focus on correcting? A Grammar B Pronunciation C Other Generally, you feel pleased with the ways your teacher correct your errors in class? A Very pleased B Rather pleased C Neutral D Not pleased at all Following were situations in which the teachers corrected errors, which one you prefer? A Teacher (T) locates an error and elicits an error-maker to self-correct B T locates an error and elicits another or several members to correct it C T locates an error, provides a correct model, and then asks the errormaker to reproduce it D T locates an error, explain why it is wrong and provides its correct model When you make an error of grammar, how you like your teacher to correct that error? A Teacher (T) locates an error and elicits an error-maker to selfcorrect B T locates an error and elicits another or several members to correct it C T locates an error, provides a correct model, and then asks the errormaker to reproduce it D T locates an error, explain why it is wrong and provides its correct model When you make an error of pronunciation, how you like your teacher to correct that error? A Teacher (T) locates an error and asks an error-maker to self-correct B T locates an error and elicits another or several members to correct it C T locates an error, provides the correct pronunciation, and then asks the error-maker to reproduce it D T locates an error, explain why it is wrong and provides the correct pronunciation When you make an error of lexis, how you like your teacher to correct that error? A Teacher (T) locates an error and asks an error-maker to self-correct B T locates an error and elicits another or several members to correct it C T locates an error, provides a correct answer, and then asks the error-maker to reproduce it D T locates an error, explain why it is wrong and provides its correct model Appendix III Teachers’ treatment of errors in classes Class 10A2 Teachers’ treatments Types of errors Number of Students’ errors Number of errors treated Number of errors ignored Pronunciation 15 13 Grammar Lexis 10 Content Discourse 1 Culture 1 Total 41 16 20 Class 10A6 Teachers’ treatments Types of errors Number of Students’ errors Number of errors treated Number of errors ignored Pronunciation 10 Grammar Lexis Content Discourse Culture 1 Total 33 16 17 Class 10A7 Types of errors Number of Students’ errors Pronunciation Teachers’ treatments Number of errors treated Number of errors ignored 18 15 Grammar Lexis Content Discourse Culture 3 Total 45 18 27 Class 10D Types of errors Number of Students’ errors Pronunciation Teachers’ treatments Number of errors treated Number of errors ignored 20 17 Grammar Lexis 12 Content Discourse Culture 2 Total 47 17 30 .. .An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school Vinh - 2008 =  = vinh university foreign Language department == =    == = an investigation into. .. University An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school - Finding out types of errors occurring in the students’ utterances and teachers’ correction techniques. .. Foreign Language Department - Vinh University 20 An investigation into error correction techniques in speaking lessons at upper secondary school 14 and 16 and are studying in four classes in NL1 upper