Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 3; May 03

The Self-Correction in Language Learning

Galina Kavaliauskiene, Lithuania

In this short article I advocate learner self-correction of written assignments as part of remedial work.

Making mistakes is a natural process of learning a foreign language. According to Harmer (2001), 'there are two distinct causes for the errors which most if not all students make at various stages:

• L1 interference
• Developmental errors'.

The type of error implies their origin and, therefore, the ways of dealing with them. The important factor in error correction is learners' (and teachers') positive attitude to mistakes, which are just an indication of what has not been learnt yet. An example of teachers' negative attitude is pinpointed by Medgyes (1994): 'Studies on error correction show that non-native English teachers tend to penalize grammatical errors with the utmost severity'.

Language difficulties in written work perceived by learners and causing concern include grammar and vocabulary (Kavaliauskiene, 2002). Grammar errors and inadequate usage of vocabulary worsen the quality of learners' written assignments.

EFL practitioners are well aware of student responses to their written work being corrected by teachers – the sole learner's concern is an awarded mark (grade). Quite understandably, seeing a lot of remarks or correction coding (e.g. 'T' for the wrong tense, or 'S' for the wrong spelling) in red ink (the most aggressive colour possible) makes learners disheartened and can overwhelm them.

I would advocate replacing teacher correction with learner self-correction. While reading a student's submitted written assignment, firstly, put ticks in margins of the line with errors in green ink (or other learner-friendly colour, e.g. blue, yellow or violet) without specifying the type of error. Secondly, do not award a mark on the assignment sheet. In order to keep track of learner's progress, make a note of awarded grade in your note-book.

Hand back their assignments to the learners and suggest they do remedial work in the classroom. Allot as much time as you think is reasonable to finish remedial work within one lesson. Allow students an opportunity to exercise various options of spotting and self-correcting their errors - either individually (for those who hate pair work), in pairs ( for the ones who prefer it) or in small groups (for those who feel at ease working together). It is to the learners' advantage to contemplate and work out the right answers after some thought. The teacher's role is to give help unobtrusively when/if necessary. Allow learners to evaluate their work by awarding themselves marks. You will be surprised at their fairness and rigour.

This activity of learner self-correction applies the principle of effective learning: 'you learn from your mistakes only if you think about them' and can be used throughout the academic year at any level, even with the beginners. Students enjoy being teachers, and correcting one's own mistakes can be fun. Obviously, this technique is not a panacea for avoiding mistakes in the future, and it is not applicable to final tests. However, it is useful for raising learners' awareness of dealing with their errors and encouraging responsibility for their own learning.

References

Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson Education Ltd. Medgyes, Peter. 1994. The Non-Native Teacher. Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Kavaliauskiene, Galina. May 2002. 'Aspects of Learning ESP at University'. English for Specific Purposes World, Web-based Journal, 1/1: 12 pages. http://esp-world.info/issue 1.html