Too much correction?
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Too much correction?
I am a new ESL teacher and am interested in getting ideas from experienced teachers about correcting students' attempts to speak English. Some textbooks have given lesson plans which say let students use English without constantly correcting. Is it better to let them speak and not correct everything at the beginning? At what point in their development do you start getting picky? Thanks for your reply.
Well, it depends....
Hey cgage!
Well, it depends on the activity you are engaged in. For example, during drilling practice I do interrupt, correct, and make the student produce the manipulation "correctly" or as near as he/she can get. Even so, except for "s" at the end of a word, I do let unimportant things slide by if I see that the student is getting the majority of the goal in mind.
In role plays or individual speaking, I insist that they try to speak at their level, so all will probably make mistakes or talk like "indians". If the mistake is something they ought to have not made because it had been worked on exhaustively earlier, I do make a face or interrupt with a "what?", but usually the goal of such exercises is confidence-building, showing the student that no matter what level of English he/she may think they have, they can still defend themselves with it, and so corrections are not always appropriate.
You've posted this in "Elementary Education" so I'm going to risk assuming that you work with younger kids. They take correcting easily, it usually has little emotional attachments and they are usually eager to do things right. And most of the little ones are pretty used to being corrected all the time so sometimes find it odd if you don't correct them.
Just some thoughts of mine.
peace,
revel.
Well, it depends on the activity you are engaged in. For example, during drilling practice I do interrupt, correct, and make the student produce the manipulation "correctly" or as near as he/she can get. Even so, except for "s" at the end of a word, I do let unimportant things slide by if I see that the student is getting the majority of the goal in mind.
In role plays or individual speaking, I insist that they try to speak at their level, so all will probably make mistakes or talk like "indians". If the mistake is something they ought to have not made because it had been worked on exhaustively earlier, I do make a face or interrupt with a "what?", but usually the goal of such exercises is confidence-building, showing the student that no matter what level of English he/she may think they have, they can still defend themselves with it, and so corrections are not always appropriate.
You've posted this in "Elementary Education" so I'm going to risk assuming that you work with younger kids. They take correcting easily, it usually has little emotional attachments and they are usually eager to do things right. And most of the little ones are pretty used to being corrected all the time so sometimes find it odd if you don't correct them.
Just some thoughts of mine.
peace,
revel.