Peer Editing - TASK 4 -- EnglishtextsM

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Date Posted: 17:56:55 06/18/07 Mon
Author: Fabio Vione
Subject: Peer Editing - TASK 4
In reply to: Aline Lucian 's message, "Re: Task 4" on 10:54:26 06/17/07 Sun

How to correct student’s mistakes?
[V] Crucial issue for any teacher is when and how to correct students' English mistakes. Of course, there are corrections that teachers are expected to make during any given class as the student’s mistakes may be numerous and in various areas (grammar, vocabulary choice, pronunciation and stress in sentences). Thus, should teachers correct every single mistake [P], or, should they give a value [sp]judgement and correct only major mistakes?
During oral work, the main issue is whether or not to correct students as they make mistakes. However, many teachers are taking a third route these days. This third route might be called 'selective correction'. In this case, the teacher decides to correct only certain errors. Which errors will be corrected is usually decided by the objectives of the lesson, or the specific exercise that is being done at that moment. In other words, if students are focusing on simple past irregular forms, then only mistakes in those forms are corrected (i.e., goed, thinked, etc.). Other mistakes, such as in a future form or [BE] mistakes of collocations (for example: I made my homework) are ignored. Furthermore, many teachers also choose to correct students after the activity is finished. Teachers take notes on common mistakes that students make. During the follow-up correction session the teacher then presents common mistakes made so that all can benefit from an analysis of which mistakes were made and why.
For the written work it is a good idea to encourage the students to use the corrections as a tool for learning. This means helping them to ‘notice’ what the errors are, to self-correct where possible, and to increase their understanding of areas that previously confused them. Self-correction and rewriting of student compositions provides students with an opportunity to learn from their mistakes. It gives them feelings of self-sufficiency and success and allows them to take a more active role in their own learning. While initially students may be reluctant to spend time rewriting a composition they might prefer to simply put away in a book and forget about, they come to see the benefits gained from rewriting and improving their written work
Learning a language is a long process during which a learner will inevitably make many, many mistakes. In other words we take a myriad of tiny steps going from not speaking a language to being fluent in the language. Also, students who are continually corrected become inhibited and cease to participate. This results in the exact opposite of what the teacher is trying to produce - the use of English to communicate.
Finally, it all comes down to accepting that mistakes are a natural and necessary part of language learning. If the purpose of language is communication and the message gets across, then you have succeeded, though as you stretch your linguistic muscles the ability to pass on more complex messages improves as well.
_____________________________________________

Hi Aline,

You definitely did a great job, congratulations! In addition to the great cohesion and coherence, the ideas you exposed were interesting and attracted reader’s attention. I’ve made some minor suggestions using Tenuta’s set of symbols. Concerning structure, I would only make a separate paragraph from “Finally, it all comes...”. That’s all! It was a pleasure to work with you throughout the semester.

All the best,
Fabio

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