Humanising Language Teaching
Year 1; Issue 4; June 1999
My students' self-correction strategies in writing tasks
By Ana Robles, Spanish Secondary
Page 1 of 3
Whenever we do something, we do it in a certain way and using a certain procedure and not others. How quickly and how well the task is done will depend to a high degree on the set of strategies I use.
In my experience when I don't teach strategies some students will be able to discover efficient strategies on their own, but some will get stuck and fail. As teachers we can help our students to develop efficient strategies that foster learning. To do so we need to:
Identify the strategy or range of strategies that are most efficient for each task.
Identify and make our students aware of the strategies they are using at the present
Present alternative strategies and explain their advantages and disadvantages.
Provide opportunities and activities for them to explore and practise alternatives strategies.
The aim of this article is to examine some of the strategies that students use when they are writing in a foreign language. Once I have identified the strategies my students use and which ones are effective I can, then, plan the lessons so that, at the same time as I introduce the language, I help my students to acquire those strategies than will allow them to use this language more effectively.
Different students use different strategies when writing in a foreign language. To glimpse into their process, I routinely interview my students about their strategies. The examples in this article are taken from the answers of a group of 14 year old (beginner level) students.
They were asked to write a composition on a topic of their choice and then they had to answer a questionnaire (at the end of the article) about how they had actually created the composition. As a last step I interviewed some of them at length to get a more detailed explanation of the different strategies they were using when writing in English.
When they answered this questionnaire we have been working together for the whole academic year. We had very good rapport and they are well used to analysing their mental processes. Questions about how they think and whether they see a word in their minds or if they hear themselves saying it didn't surprise them any more, what's more, they took for granted that reflecting about their learning process was part of part of their learning English. Also, they were used to writing compositions and then, checking them either individually or in groups.
This is a summary of the answers of 4 of my students (the names have been changed). I have chosen them because they show a variety of strategies that somehow exemplify the answers of the whole group.
Miguel says: "I imagine the story and then I get sentences, first I see the sentences in Spanish and then I hear them in English. I start repeating the English sentences in my head until I like how they sound, then I write them down on the paper.
When I have doubts I see the grammar rule written and check with what I have written. I start repeating the sentence aloud in my head and I see the rule in my head. I see the words in English and in Spanish side by side.
I check the composition slowly when I finish"
Miguel utilises a basically visual strategy to set up his composition. He sees both the story and the Spanish transcription of that story and then he hears the story in English. He focuses at sentence level to start with, and, if he has problems, he starts thinking word by word. When he checks he first uses an auditory strategy and then backs it up with a visual strategy.
Miguel is a fluent writer considering his language level, he writes easily and doesn't make many mistakes. The mistakes he makes are basically about spelling, wrong verbal tense and overuse of definite articles.
Javier says: "I imagine the story as a cartoon strip, as a set of vignettes and, thanks to that, I start getting words as I say them in my head, first in Spanish and, then, in English. I never hear sentences, I get word by word. I write each word on the appropriate vignette. Then I see the words one by one, isolated, as separated pictures.
When I don't know the English for the word I want to use I leave a blank. Sometimes I re-read what I have written to check it. I check by seeing if I like how they sound. I don't check in any other way. I don't know how to check my compositions"
Javier, like Miguel, utilises a visual strategy to set up his composition. He sees the story and the Spanish transcription of that story and then he hears the words in English. But Javier, unlike Miguel, focuses at word level and never goes for the whole sentence. When he checks he first uses an auditory strategy and once again focuses at the word level. He doesn't back this auditory strategy with any visual strategy. In fact he says that he does not know how to check.
Javier has lots of problems writing compositions, both in Spanish and in English. He makes lots of mistakes in terms of sentence structure and word order. Very often his compositions are completely unintelligible. Although he studies hard and knows lots of vocabulary he seem unable to use this knowledge to write well.
Belén says: "if I like the story I see it like a film, in very beautiful colours, and I hear people talking about the story and I get the feeling of the story, very strong.
I then see the words written in Spanish and hear them in English. If I can't get a word the picture stops until I get it.
I feel if the words are right or wrong. When I can't get things right I start to walk around the table, I hit myself on my head, I sway, I repeat aloud strings of words and no-sense, until I get the right feeling.
When I like what I am writing about I don't do many mistakes, but if I don't like it is full of mistakes"
Belén is an extremely kinaesthetic learner. She uses images and sounds to imagine the story, but it is feeling which determines how she goes about it. She performs at a different level of competence when she likes what she is doing. The time and effort she employs will depend on her interest in the story. She focus at word level and checks by feeling. She is not concerned with the sentence structure.
Belén's compositions can go from good to unintelligible in the same lesson. When she is bored she makes all sort of mistakes, word order, sentence structure, spelling, etc, but she can be very creative and fluent if she likes the topic. In any case, she usually makes many spelling mistakes and has problems with word order and sentence structure.
