ACCURACY AND CORRECTING MISTAKES

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ACCURACY AND CORRECTING MISTAKES

• Penny Ur
• 2006

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A. How important is it to be accurate?
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What do you think?

• 1. Would you agree or disagree with the following
  statements?
• Its not important for students to spell English
  words correctly, as long as their meaning is
  clear
• Its not important for students to pronounce like
  a native speaker, as long as they are easily
  comprehensible.
• Its not important for students to use correct
  grammar, as long as they are getting their
  message across
• If you answered disagree to any of the above
  can you say why?

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Accuracy is important because

• From the point of view of the hearer/reader,
  inaccuracy, even if it doesnt affect meaning, is
• distracting
• uncomfortable
• may lower respect for the speaker/writer

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And because

• from the point of view of the speaker/writer,
  inaccuracy may
• lower self-respect as a language user
• lower prestige in eyes of others

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And because

• from the point of view of the teacher,
  professionalism means teaching the language as
  best we can, not compromising on careless or
  unacceptable usage.

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Achieving accuracy(Prevention is better than
cure)
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Research indicates that to achieve accuracy,
learners need...

• communicative language use
• some explicit rule-learning
• practice

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There are various theories about how accuracy is
achieved

• Rule-based practice (traditional, e.g. Murphy,
  1985)
• The Input Hypothesis (Krashen, 1982)
• Consciousness raising (Ellis, 2001)
• Task-based learning (Skehan, 1996)

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Probably the optimal answer is a combination of
these models

• Communicative tasks, with time out for focus on
  form, including practice exercises
• Rule explanation, leading into both mechanical
  and communicative practice
• But also time for
• Communication on its own
• Focus on form on its own
• Language play (songs, chants, rhymes)

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C. CORRECTION WHENPREVENTION HASNT WORKED!
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Various issues

• Does it help?
• What different kinds of correction are there? And
  which is the most effective?
• What are learners preferences?
• When should we NOT correct?

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1. Does it help?

• Truscott (1999, 1996) claims that correction in
  both oral and written work does not work
• teachers correct inconsistently, sometimes
  wrongly
• students are sometimes hurt by being corrected
• students may not take corrections seriously
• correction may interfere with fluency
• learners do not learn from the correction

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But

• teacher intuitions
• learners themselves claim it does help (Harmer,
  2005)
• there is some empirical evidence in support of
  the hypothesis that learners do learn from being
  corrected (Doughty and Varela, 1998)

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2. What different kinds of correction are there?
And which is the most effective?

• Which type of correction, on the whole, leads to
  better uptake? (Lyster and Ranta, 1997 Lyster,
  1998)

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Types of correction Recast Elicitation Clarificat
ion request Metalinguistic feedback Explicit
correction Repetition
Frequency of use 55 14 11 8 7 5
Uptake 18 46 28 45 36 31
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RESULTS

• Simple recast was most often used, but least
  uptake!
• Recasts may not be perceived as correction at
  all!
• The best results are gained from corrective
  feedback some negotiation.

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Further thoughts

• Within communicative interaction, we try to make
  our corrections unobtrusive because we dont want
  to disturb the flow so we use quick
  recasts, and dont demand self-correction
• But many of these may not be perceived as
  corrections, or even noticed, so may be a waste
  of time!
• If we correct, we need to make sure uptake has
  occurred, even if this slows things down a bit.

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What are learners preferences?
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What are learners preferences?
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Main points

• Learners want to be corrected.
• Learners feel corrective feedback is valuable
  (Harmer, 2005).
• Learners prefer explicit correction (but maybe
  not adults and more advanced learners, Harmer,
  2005).
• Learners understand the value of repeating /
  rewriting the correct form.
• Learners do not, on the whole, like to be
  corrected by peers.

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When should we NOT correct?

• Perhaps we should not correct when a learner is
  focusing on communicating?
• Because
• non-communicative, inauthentic!
• not appropriate to the aims of the task.
• distracting, disturbing

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But

• Some evidence that learners want to be corrected
  at the moment they make the mistake (Harmer,
  2005)
• We need to balance the benefit against the
  damage which is more important
• preserving the fluent process and communicative
  nature of the interaction?
• or
• providing corrective feedback where it is needed
  to help learners improve their accuracy?

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No easy answer to this one!

• But it is clear that
• there is no absolute rule about when not to
  correct
• our decision will involve a lot of different
  considerations specific to the learner
• the importance of encouraging fluency
• the importance of encouraging accuracy
• the confidence and self-image of the learner
• the sheer number of mistakes

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D. Summary and conclusions
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Accuracy-oriented as well as communicative
teaching of language

• We need to do all we can to make sure that as
  students are learning new language they learn it
  correctly so we should provide opportunities for
  students to
• learn rules
• talk about the language (language awareness),
  including contrast with L1
• practise accurate as well as meaningful
  production
• as well as lots of communicative work
• exposure to (correct) spoken and written language
• communicative speaking and writing tasks

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Effective corrective feedback

• If after all this learners are still making
  mistakes, corrective feedback can help improve
  accuracy.
• Corrective feedback may be provided during
  communicative tasks.
• But recasts on their own are probably
  ineffective.
• The most effective corrective feedback occurs
  when learners actively participate in negotiation
  of the correction, to make sure that there is
  uptake.