47 Education “Young Scientist”
. #5.2 (109.2)
. March 2016
the teacher. It can also be more face-saving than asking
them for self-correction, as trying to correct themselves risks
making even more mistakes. The “right version” could mean
the whole sentence or just the correction of the part that was
wrong. In the latter case, you can then ask them to put it into
the sentence in the right place and repeat the whole thing.
6. Tell them how many mistakes. This method is only re-
ally suitable for controlled speaking practice, but can be a
very simple way of giving feedback in that situation. Exam-
ples include “Most of the comparatives were right, but you
made two mistakes” and “Three words are in the wrong posi-
tion in the sentence/ are mixed up”. Make sure you only use
this method when students can remember what you are re-
ferring to without too much prompting.
7. Use grammatical terminology to identify the mistake.
For example, “(You used) the wrong tense”, “Not the Present
Perfect”, “You need an adverb, not an adjective” or “Can
change that into the passive/ indirect speech?” This method
is perhaps overused, and you need to be sure that the gram-
matical terminology isn’t just going to confuse them more.
8. Give the rule. For example, “‘Since’ usually takes the
Present Perfect” or “One syllable adjectives make the com-
parative with –er, not more + adjective” This works best if
they already know the rule, and you at least need to make
sure that they will quickly understand what you are saying,
for example by only using grammatical terminology you have
used with them several times before.
9. Just tell them they are wrong (but nicely). Positive ways
of being negative include “nearly there”, “getting closer”,
“just one mistake”, “much better”, “good idea, but…”,”I
understand what you mean but…”, “you have made a mis-
take that almost everyone does/ that’s a very common mis-
take”, “we haven’t studied this yet, but…” and “much better
pronunciation, but…” With lower level and new classes, you
might have to balance the need to be nice with the need to be
clear and not confuse them with feedback language that they
don’t understand, perhaps by sticking to one or two phrases
to give feedback for the first couple of months. It can also
be useful to give them translations of this and other class-
room language you will use, for example on a worksheet or
a poster.
10. Ask partners to spot errors. This is a fairly well-known
way of giving feedback in speaking tasks, but it can be a
minefield if the person giving feedback has no confidence in
their ability to do so or in how well the feedback (i. e. criti-
cism) will be taken, and even more so if the person receiving
the feedback will in fact react badly. This method is easier to
do and easier to take when they have been told specifically
which language to use while speaking and so to look out for
when listening, usually meaning controlled speaking prac-
tice tasks. The feedback can be made even simpler to give
and collect and more neutral with some careful planning, e. g.
asking them count how many times their partner uses the
target form as well as or instead of looking for when it used
incorrectly [3].
The danger of over-correcting is than students will lose
motivation and you may even destroy the flow of the class
or the activity by butting in and correcting every single mis-
take. The other extreme is to let the conversation flow and not
to correct any mistakes. There are times when this is appro-
priate but most students do want to have some of their mis-
takes corrected as it gives them a basis for improvement.
Literature:
1. Corder S. P. Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. London: Longman, 1974.
2. Edje J. Mistakes and Correction. London: Longman, 1989.
3. Alex Case Fifteen ways of spoken errors, Cambridge 2008.