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SHORT ESSAY

SHORT ESSAY: An interview from a bilingual student and his/her teacher (from an
educational context: formal, non-formal, informal) regarding error feedback and its
impact on the teaching and learning procedure

Giantsidis Ioannis

Hellenic Open University

introduction
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Error feedback is one of the most important parts of teaching and learning
procedure, though it arises a lot of questions like when should a teacher correct errors,
witch of these errors and in witch way. Lyster and Ranta (1997) tried to investigate
what kind of error-feedback teachers use in the classrooms and their research and
analysis provided us with six different types of error-feedback.

1. Explicit correction. The teacher indicates and corrects the form


2. Recast. The teacher does not directly point the error, but reformulates the
students sentence, providing the correction. Translation is included in this
type.
3. Clarification questions. The teacher asks for learner to reformulate the
sentence because it has not been understood.
4. Metalinguistic clues. The teacher asks questions or makes comments, so as to
indicate that there is an error or provides grammatical information for the
nature of the mistake without explicitly correcting it.
5. Elicitation. The teacher uses techniques to elicit the correct form from the
learner. He may use questions (no yes/no questions), pauses or asks for
reformulation.
6. Repetition. The teacher repeats the error and draws students attention to it.

Sometimes tutors use more than one types of error feedback, which is called
multiple feedback.

We can also use a general division of error feedback in terms of explicit,


overt or implicit. As Shaffer (2003) marks A correction method is explicit if it both
makes the learner aware that an error has been made and provides the correct
form. If the correction method only makes the learner aware that an error has been
made and does not explicitly provide the correct form for the learner, it can be
referred to as an overt form of correction. If the error correction method does not
provide the correct form and may even be so indirect that the learner is not even
aware that they committed an error, it is called implicit... (p.2)

The type of error-feedback that a teacher will use is a result of many factors,
like the kind of the mistake, the lessons goals, the teachers experience and
knowledge etc. When we examine and analyze the impact of error-feedback in the
students we also have to take into account many different variables like culture, age,
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gender, and proficiency, developmental readiness, language aptitude, personality


factors, motivation, and attitude toward correction (Rezaei, Mozaffari & Hatef 2011).

Method

Interviews are considered to be one of the most useful tools in qualitative


research, so during this small research we took an interview from a Greek woman
teacher of English as a foreign language, who is working for an international Non-
Governmental Organization in the refugee camp of Malakassa, Attica. She is an
experienced teacher, in another refugee camp in a Greek island for three months. We
have also interviewed one of her students, who is eighteen years old and he is origin
from Afghanistan. He is living in this camp for the last four months and he first came
to Greece in February. We chose this student because of his good command of English
language and his strong integrative motivation for learning, due to his willing to live
in United Kingdom. Because of his age he cannot attend a public school. What we
tried to discover is what error feedback does the teacher employ and what is the
students reaction to this.

The English lessons take place for one hour per day, among other classes and
activities like Greek Language lessons, maths, seminars and other. The educational
context is informal and there is no obligation for students to attend the lessons. This
educational program cannot provide them with any kind of certification, but its aim is
to help them and provide them with useful for their daily life knowledge. The students
are divided into groups according their age and their proficiency level and command
of the language. This interview held during the break among the lessons and first I
interviewed the teacher alone and then the student alone. I informed them both that it
is confidential and that it will be used in my short essay for a university course I
attend. After my recordings, for which I used my mobile phone, I gathered them both,
thanked them and we discussed for a while about error feedback.

Results

Discourse analysis could be very useful tool in my effort to analyze the data
of this interview. First of all we identified the main themes and examined the way
they are expressed. Our main theme is the importance of error-feedback, the type of
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error feedback and its impact. This is the result of open coding and creating chunks of
data.

According to the answers of the teacher error feedback is very useful in the
learning procedure because all people can be taught by their mistakes and it can be
proved very useful for the teacher so as to revise his/her technics and very important
for students improvement. As she says only through this way the student will be
able to get his mistake and he will be able to think again about the theory that he has
been taught. She chooses which error feedback technique will apply according to the
kind of the mistake. She believes that pronunciation errors should be immediately and
explicitly corrected. Her answer to our question about

The student regards the error correction as positive and very helpful for him
to avoid the same mistakes in the future. He doesnt want to be immediately
interrupted and that depresses him. The research of Livingstone (2015) showed that
8.33% of the students prefer error correction during the process and 91.67% prefer it
afterwards. The student has a strong motivation for learning the target language, so he
feels happy to learn by his mistakes. He is not so in favor of direct explicit correction,
and he thinks that he can correct his mistakes by his own by studying harder and
yeah I can do it.

Discussion

According to the teacher of English Language the type of error correction


depends on the mistake. Different types of error need different types of feedback. She
believes that errors based in pronunciation should be immediately corrected, so she
applies the explicit correction. For mistakes that have to do with grammar she uses
other types of error feedback, like repetition, metalinguistic clues or elicitation. As
Tedick, and de Gortari (1998) mark, types of error feedback that lead to student-
generated repair are very important because students become active in the learning
process. Mitchell, Myles and Marsden (2013) refers to Lantolfs and Thorne
dynamic assessment and Lantolfs and Aljaafreh Regulatory Scale , which
ranges from explicit to implicit correction, to point out the relation of corrective
feedback with sociocultural theory and its concepts like microgenesis and ZPE.
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On the other hand the student seems to have self-belief and no fear for
mistakes, which are characteristics of a good learner. It is not unusual that many
students have no participation in the classroom because they are shy or have a fear of
making mistakes. As we mentioned above, he has a good level of English command
and is supposed to have the ability of self-correction As advanced students and
helped by their language proficiency, they are assumed to be able to monitor any
deviance found in their own writing and at the same time will be able to correct them
altogether. (Muthim and Latief 2014 p. 249).

Though, we should take into account that how students respond to teacher feedback
on the fly (that is, as evinced in the immediate next turn or turns) also differs
remarkably across contexts, even in classrooms which at first glance fit a same
context profile. (Ortega 2009 p 76)

The truth is that there is much to be investigated. Teachers have to take all
this research into consideration in order to improve their teaching abilities and to
know witch type of error feedback they will use.

References
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Livingstone, K. A. (2015). Correcting errors in the L2 classroom: students


and teachers perceptions. Revista Electrnica del Lenguaje, volume 2, 1-36.
Retrieved from http://www.revistaelectronicalenguaje.com/volumen-ii/

Lyster, R. and Ranta, L. (1997). Corrective feedback and learner uptake:


Negotiation of form in communicative classrooms. Studies in Second
Language Acquisition, 19, 37-66.

Muthim, A., Latief, M. A. (2014). The Effectiveness of Indirect Error


Correction Feedback on the Quality of Students Writing. AWEJ Volume.5
Number.2, 244-257

Mitchell, R., Myles, F., & Marsden, E. (2013). Second language learning
theories (3rd Ed.). Groydon, UK: Routledge.

Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. New York,


USA: Routledge

Rezaei, S., Mozaffari, F., Hatef, A. (2011). Corrective Feedback in SLA:


Classroom Practice and Future Directions. International Journal of English
Linguistics Vol. 1(1). Canadian Center of Science and Education, 21-29.
doi.10.5539/ijel.v1n1p21

Shaffer, D. E. (2003). Learner Perceptions on Correcting Oral Errors and Their


Effectiveness. The Internet TEFL Journal, Volume 45. Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/12206739/Learner_Perceptions_on_Correcting_Or
al_Errors_and_Their_Effectiveness

Tedick, D. J., De Gortari B. (1998), The Bridge: From Research to Practice


Teaching: Research on Error Correction and Implications for Classroom,
ACIE Newsletter, Volume 1 (3). Retrieved from
https://www.scribd.com/document/158283880/Error-Correction
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Appendix

Interview with the teacher

-Hello

-Hello

-What's your name?

-My name in Anna Maria Batzia and I am an English teacher

-Ok and where are we now?

-We are at Malakassa camp and we are teachers and we work for Save the Children
Organization.

-Ok Anna Maria I would like to ask you a question- How do you respond to an error?

-Ok first of all it depends on the mistake. If for example we have to do with mistake
based on pronunciation then immediately correct it. If the mistake has to do with
grammar or syntax then I don't correct it myself, I give it the chance to the students to
rethink and what I do first is I point out the mistake and then I leave the pupils to find
out what the mistake is, what kind of mistake they have made and then step by step I
help them to define first of all, to think themselves and retry another answer that
hopefully would be the correct one.

-Thank you very much. Do you think that the error feedback is important?

-Yes, of course its very important because only through this way the student will be
able to get his mistake and he will be able to think again about the theory that he has
been taught.
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-So, what do you think is the impact of the error feedback on teaching and learning
procedure both to the learning procedure and also to your students?

-So If we think that all people they can be taught by their mistakes I think that both
sides can be ,you know ,helped by the mistakes and errors, for example on the one
hand I you are teacher through the mistakes of your students you can also rethink, and
you can revise your one technics, learning and teaching technics, so you can get them
better and better, and on the other hand of course through their mistakes the students
will be able to get better students, ok and to overcome any kind of difficulties and
problems they can face.

-And the last question in your classroom how do you think or how is the reaction, the
respond of your students to error feedback?

-Aaa ok first of all he don't get angry, they don't get sad, but they try, they probably
get more curious to find out why they made a kind of mistake, so they try to think the
theory, they try to think what they already know and they try to find out the source of
their mistake and then to recover ,it and say the correct answer

-Thank you very much, keep on the good work.

-Ok thanks a lot. Bye from Malakassa

-Bye

Interview with the student

-Hello, what's your name?

-Hell, my name is Abdulu Resa.

-Ok, and your teacher is?

-Anna Maria.

-Ok and we are in Malakassa. So do you often make mistakes?

-Yes sometimes I make mistakes.


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-Do you want your teacher to correct your mistakes?

-Yes, it is good because next time I want to speak, I don't repeat those mistakes.

- Is it better for you If the teacher immediate interrupt you and say that you have made
a mistake?

- Not, no that but they should let me to finish my word and after that, say my
mistakes.

And do you feel stress that you will make mistake or when you make
mistakes?

Not at all, a little bit yes, because nobody wants to make mistakes, but when
you make it you did it, so you should try next time to not do it again.

So how do you feel when you make a mistake and your teacher interrupt you?

I feel a little bit depressed, but I feel more happy because I learn new think
and I don't do mistakes next time.

And do you think you could correct your mistakes by your own?

I think be studying harder and yeah I can do it

Thank you very much

You are welcome, I did nothing.

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