This article is based on work from our DELTA Module One course, and focuses on feedback and correction. It discusses the following questions:
a)
What factors help you decide whether or not to correct an inaccurate
piece of spoken language produced by a learner.
b) The advantages of i) immediate correction ii) delayed
correction
c) What feedback can be given to Ls other than “correction” and what
are its objectives?
Scroll down for the suggested answer.
Suggested Answer
a) Factors which help the teacher to decide whether or not to correct an inaccurate piece of spoken language include:
1. The L’s personality : insecure Ls may be embarrassed of feel they have failed if corrected immediately, especially if in front of the class or their group. This leads to negative affect which may hinder or even block learning (Rogers, Maslow, Stevick and other Humanist psychologists and educators).
2. Age : for younger learners (primary) who are have not yet developed analytic skills but are still able to acquire (rather than learn) the language by exposure to input, immediate reformulation without comment may be more effective than later focus and explanation. Eg. The YL says “I goed to the cinema” and the T replies “Oh, you went to the cinema. What film did you see?”
3. Whether the inaccuracy is target language or emergent
language (see point 6) and
4. At what stage of the lesson it occurs. (See point 5).
5. Whether the inaccuracy is blocking communication or not. Eg a L who, in a fluency activity, says “His gratefulness surprised me” will be fully comprehensible even if inaccurate. Correction can thus be left till the follow-up stage. On the other hand, a learner who, in a multilingual group uses a false cognate from their L1 (eg an Italian who says "He’s very sensible” (meaning “sensitive”) or “There’s a library on the corner” (meaning bookshop”) may mislead their non-Italian partners who interpret the word with its actual English meaning, and the problem needs to be dealt with immediately to stop it blocking communication.
6. Whether the inaccuracy is an error or a mistake. If it is an error, it may be too complex to deal with in feedback, and need a planned lesson, or section of a lesson, of its own. If it's a mistake, the teacher may know the L usually uses it correctly and decide to ignore it. Alternatively, during the follow-up s/he may ask the learner to self-correct to prevent the problems described in point 7.
b) The Advantages of Immediate Correction:
7. See point 3 above. Eg, If a L makes a mistake with target language in a controlled practice activity (which focuses on accuracy) it would be counterproductive not to correct immediately, as the L would simply continue using the inaccurate language throughout the activity. Immediate correction avoids the L wasting time, or reinforcing the incorrect form.
8. If a L says something inaccurate in a full class stage which the T does not correct, other Ls may hear it and either a) believe it to be correct, which reinforces it for them too; or b) suspect that it is incorrect and become confused about what the correct form actually. Immediate correction prevents this.
... and the Advantages of Delayed Correction
9. Delayed correction can be done anonymously, thus resolving the problem in point 1. In the follow up to the activity the T. can say “I heard someone say XXX” without naming the person. This minimises negative affect.
10. Delayed correction allows a full explanation (and possibly practice, as advocated by Demand High ELT – Underhill and Scrivener) to be given without interrupting the flow of the activity in progress.
c) Other types of feedback include:
11. Upgrading language which, though correct, may have an alternative more suited to the L’s level (or which simply serves to extend the Ls’ knowledge). Objective: To extrend the Ls’ range of language. Eg a B2 L may say “It was raining heavily”, allowing the T. to praise the expression, but also feed in “It was pouring with rain” as an alternative.
12. Praise for the effective use of language taught in previous lessons. Objectives : a) to provide positive feedback for the L who used the expression, and b) to recycle and reinforce it for the others, eg a multiword verb or figurative expression. The T. may say “Daniela used an expression we saw in the last lesson. ( Writes on board : It was p…………… w…………. rain”). Can anyone else remember what the expression was?
14. Other learning affordances can be taken up in a feedback stage, again with the objective of extending the Ls’ range of language - eg : to extend Ls’ knowledge of a lexical set. In a recent B1 lesson I taught, Ls started discussing the TV series NCIS. As they were clearly interested in it, I asked if anyone understood why the pathologist, Dr. Mallard, was nicknamed “Ducky”. No-one did so I used the IWB to google images of mallards. After they had understood that a mallard was a type of duck, I then asked them, in pairs, to brainstorm for 3 minutes the names of any other waterbirds they knew. While they did so, I googled images for “waterbirds”. I then elicited those they had thought of, using the images to confirm what they were, and asked them if there were any others in the pictures that they could name. Finally I fed in others. We ended up with a list including : swan, penguin, flamingo, seagull, heron etc.
15. Feedback
can be given with the objective of improving the effectiveness or otherwise of
communicative performance. Eg if a learner has dominated in a group, that
learner can be asked to think of three expressions they could have used to
bring other people into the conversations, while the others think of three
expressions they could have used to interrupt.
16. Feedback can be given on the content of the discussion. This may be positive - eg the T can say that she found an anecdote told by one L particularly interesting, and either ask them to retell it to the whole group or summarise it and then ask follow-up questions. This shows the Ls that the T is interested in what they say and not just in how they say it. Alternatively, if the groups were having difficulty thinking of things to say in a discussion, the class can be helped to brainstorm ideas for topics that could have been included and a mindmap built up on the board. They can then be asked to repeat the task incorporating the ideas.
