Korean Job Discussion Forums

[vox]

Hello board,

I was just holding off from having a chat with our resident Korean English teacher. I'm wracking my brain about the main points of error correction from my TESL course (about teaching adults, but some of the lessons transfer I'm sure.)

I get these journals every Friday from my grade sixes. Of course, the levels are quite varied. When I first started back last year, I corrected everything. But the pages got quite filled with ink and journal submissions trickled off, until just the intermediates and advanced students kept sending in journals.

So I'm taking a new approach. I think that in all homework, I'll identify apparent trends (e.g. inconsistent tenses) but for beginner students of English (as opposed to intermediates and advanced) I think I'll maybe just focus on trends (and spelling) instead of discouragingly filling the page with ink for every type of error (e.g. articles). I think this will get a higher net result with beginners.

Intermediates and advanced would get everything corrected of course, and maybe in some cases more idiomatic expressions suggested.

Where do you fall on the error correction scale, for students grades 4-6?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Unless they're very, very high level students, it's best just to make a few corrections for students at any level. Focus on the biggest mistakes and those that are easiest to correct.

[poet13]

I founf out stamps are really cheap to have made here.
I'm going to have a few made with standard corrections.
Spelling.
Wrong tense.
Pronoun.
WTF???
Are you crazy?
Punctuation.

Not sure yet, but I think half a dozen of the most common will ease the tired hand...

[jimmiethefish]

sorry,entered twice

[jimmiethefish]

This sounds like me when I first started doing journals here. I don't know how you are currently approaching writing so I'll give a general overview of some things that I do and you can take what you want from it, if anything.

I think there might be several areas you could take a look at; preparation of students to write, writing targets and good feedback sessions and mechanisms.

For me, grading journals is mainly based on the students using the target language (and topic, style etc depending on level) recycling vocab and grammar we have covered in class already and bringing something creative or original to it. I'm refreshingly surprised by what they come up especially some that otherwise show little interest in English.

For the lower levels, use a step by step process, pics (e.g. in story sequence), examples, generate ideas (mind maps are popular here), cover the vocab and grammar (I recycle what we have been doing, also recycle topics), and scaffold the writing for them according to their ability (handout writing sheets). This works well with a mixed ability class as you can provide more or less support according to the student or group students by ability.

With this approach, you can target the points you want to when marking which greatly reduces the amount of red ink on the page and is more useful for the students as feedback on current learning. Also, do a feedback on mistakes. Give examples of common mistakes (anonymous) from the students own writing and get them to correct them. They love it. Also don't forget to praise. Be specific, e.g. tie effort and results together.

For advanced students, I use mind maps, writing planners and draft writing forms which can also contain some scaffolding depending on what's appropriate. To mark these students, I use editing symbols, which they have a copy of, and can then point out areas (particular grammar, punctuation, spelling) they need to work on. My marking schedule is loaded more towards structure of information as this is my focus and each student receives a copy of their marking schedule with feedback.

Sorry, I forgot to mention peer review before. It's really useful to get them used to this early on and can be made into a bit of fun too by having a quick matching style game to decide review partners.

By changing my approach, I now get a lot more journals handed in which unfortunately means my marking load has gone up. On the up side, because I now know what I'm targeting in the marking, it doesn't take as long to mark each as it used to. Students can see results and what the point of it all is which is essential for their motivation.

I also think it's important to remember how much writing they are (or aren't, which is the point) doing in their first language so writing journals, paragraphs or whatever is expected in a second language that they barely know is extremely challenging and daunting for a lot of them. Keep it fun and meaningful through topics, group work and a variety of writing activities and feedback methods and you will soon have more journals than you care to mark.

[jimmiethefish]

i hate it when that happens...

[tomato]

Hello, Vox!

I wish to make a case against expert correction in the journals.
Here are my reasons:

■ In ESL class, I was told to correct errors in drills but not when the student was conveying content.

Expert testimony here!

■ Error correction when conveying content is objectionable from the standpoint of Transactional Analysis.

If a student makes a mistake in a drill and you correct it, the student expects that.
The student is making a Child-Parent stimulus and you are making a Parent-Child response.

If a student makes a mistake in conveying content, however, and you correct it, the students does not expect that.
The student is making an Adult-Adult stimulus and you are making a Parent-Child response.
That is a crossed transaction.

A better response might be to respond to the content of the message.
Perhaps you can write a message explaining why you agree or disagree with the message.

■ If you correct errors in student journals, you might be inadvertently reinforcing one of Korea's most harmful myths.

Korean mythology seems to make a fetish out of error correction.

A Korean English teacher once explained to me that it would be very dangerous for Korean English students to practice English conversation among themselves unless a native speaker is on hand for error correction.

I asked her how a Korean baby learns Korean if it is not through practice. She told me that it was through error correction.

That is not true. Studies have shown that children whose errors are not corrected learn their first language just as fast as children whose errors are corrected.

I asked her why the music students who practiced the most diligently at home learned the best, even though the music teacher was not available for error correction. She did not have an answer for that.

This myth probably explains why Korean English students never practice English conversation even though they are surrounded by millions of other Korean English students.

The myth probably also explains why Korean English students grab every foreigner they see on the street and yell, "나이스투미트유!"

If you see recurring mistakes in the journals, perhaps you can make note of those mistakes and discuss them in class. I notice that Jimmie the Fish makes a similar suggestion.

[Missile Command Kid]

[Missile Command Kid]

[The Bobster]

[EFLtrainer]

What is the purpose of your journals? I see journaling as a production activity, not a practice activity. Thus, I don't correct them, nor do I grade them. In fact, the only journals I do at this time are dialogue journals. The students and I dialogue via their journals. Their "error correction" is reading and responding to my correct use of English. There is good research out there to support this.

Further, for Koreans, the primary hurdle for them is fear. They are trained that mistakes are bad rather than mistakes are an opportunity to learn. I use the journals to give them a safe place to use English. No testing, no grading, just using English. It's what they need most, and get least.

As stated by, I think, tomato, error correction during production is considered ineffective by most these days.

Now, if you are doing an Educational Journal, as essentially described by jimmie thefish, you can consider following his advice. I, however, want the writing process to be very hands on. I teach it directly to students. Only research and revisions are done out of my presence.

[ddeubel]

Lots of good food for thought. There is no hard and fast rule, as with much of teaching. All about how you do it, rather than the what.

I take the same approach with journals as I do with correction in class, in general. If it can help the student, I do it.

That seems broad, but that is why we are professionals, artists (and I do believe teaching is an art).

To be more specific, I correct in journals when it is a repeated error, so the student may further self correct and see their incorrect usage. If it is just the regular and hit and miss and not continually repeated, I don't correct it. Or even if it is just based on what level of English they've reached / are at. I do correct through example, a short paragraph at the end stating something and which may be a subtle example. This is correction much like the well used rephrasing / echo repeat of a teacher to a student's error.

DD

DD

[tomato]

Hello, Missile Command Kid!

Yes.

Hello, Bobster!

I agree that praise is good.
Another good response would be to respond to the subject matter in the journals.
That would show the student that you are interested.


Hello, EFL Trainer!

A good way to learn a foreign language is to talk about something you want to talk about. The journals can serve that purpose.

Learning the most frequent words is good, because we all need to know the words for "door" and "window," but individual needs are important too.

People with different psychological dispositions need to learn different words. A paranoid needs to learn the word for "persecute." A hypochondriac needs to learn the words for the diseases, symptoms, and parts of the body.

People with different interests need to learn different words. I have an interest in music, so I need to learn the musical terms.

For the sub-culture which frequents the chat rooms, someone should write a special dictionary. I don't think ♥, ㅠ, ㅋ ㅋ ㅋ, and 凸 are listed in most Korean-English dictionaries.

[tomato]

Here are a couple of old threads on this topic:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=13908&highlight=
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=65749&highlight=