At the TESOL conference, Penny Ur (author of Grammar Practice Activities) gave an interesting plenary about the effectiveness of the correction of student grammar. Researchers have studied the most common methods in which teachers provide feedback and the following are the most typical:
1. Recasting (If a student says the incorrect tense "I sit", the teacher then corrects the tense (" I am sitting".) Teachers use recasting 55% in error correction.
2. Elicitation (A teacher prompts students by saying " I am...", and the student then finishes the sentence by saying "sitting'.) Elicitation is used 14% in error correction.
3. Clarification (A teacher prompts students by asking a question "What are you doing?", and the student answers "I am sitting.") Clarification is used 11% in error correction.
4. Metalinguistic Feedback (A student says " I am sitting," and the teacher identifies the tense and aspect by saying "that's the present perfect".) Metalinguistic feedback is used 8% in error correction.
5. Explicit Correction (A student uses the wrong tense, and the teacher says "that is incorrect.)
Explicit correction is used 7% in error correction.
6. Repetition (A teacher repeats the incorrect tense spoken by the student with rising intonation.) Repetition is used 5% in error correction.
From the above, recasting was clearly preferred by the teachers studied, but the researchers then studied students' understanding of their teacher's feedback and found some major differences between what the teachers and students found to be most effective.
Of the above methods, students benefited most from: elicitation (46%), metalinguistic feedback (45%), explicit correction (36%), repetition (31%), clarification (28%), and recasting (18%).
Therefore, while the teachers studied used recasting as the most common correction procedure, recasting was last in the students' perceived recognition of their grammar error. Ur stressed that, by recasting, students may think that the teacher is confirming their answers rather than correcting them. Ur also stressed that not all teachers may feel comfortable with all methods of error correction, so it is important to review the research to find the most effective method of error correction within our classrooms.
2 comments:
It's surprising to me that metalinguistic correction was so highly appreciated by students. Thanks for posting this information!
This is very useful information! Upon reading this, I had to ask myself, "What method do I use?" I'm going to monitor the various methods I use throughout the week and see to be sure, but looking back at the last week, I see that it all depends on the TESOL situation. For example, when I'm working in a classroom situation and the focus is not on grammar, but on exploring a conceptual idea (management styles in business, for example), I may not correct too much at all. Getting the students thinking about the concept and exploring it through discussion is my main focus. Once they're in pairs and I walk around and listen in on their conversations, THEN I'll correct their grammatical speech. How do I do it? One thing I do (and I'm not sure if this would be considered 'clarification' or 'elicitation') is interrupt the student who is talking about him/herself and using an incorrect verb tense and say, "You what? You...." and if further prompt is necessary, "You... what verb tense should you use here?" I really love this information, Kim! Thank you for sharing. I'm going to be two-headed about my grammar correction and monitor how I do it. Why not use the most effective methods? I'm not teaching for me, I'm teaching for the students!
Post a Comment