MISTAKES AND FEEDBACK

MISTAKES AND FEEDBACK

A. Student Makes Mistake

One of thing that puzzles many teachers is why student go on making the same mistakes even when those mistakes have been repeatedly pointed out of them. Yet not all mistakes are the same ; sometimes they seem to be deeply ingrained, yet at other times student correct themselves with apparent ease. Julian Edge suggested that we can divide mistakes into three broad categories: Slip (mistake which they can’t correct themselves once the mistake has been pointed out of them), Error (mistake which they can’t correct themselves and which therefore need explanation), and Attempts (that is when the student tries to say something but does not yet know the correct way of saying it) (Edge 1989: Chapter 2). Of these, it is the category of error that most concerns teachers, though the student attempts will tell us a lot about their current knowledge and may well provide chances for opportunistic teaching.

It is widely accepted that there are two distinct sources for the error which most, if not all student display.

·         L1 ‘interference: students who learn English as a second language already have a deep knowledge of at least one other language. Where that L1 and the variety of English they are learning come into contact with each other, there are often confusions which provoke error in a learner’s use of English.

·         Developmental Error: for a long time now a researchers in child language development have been aware of the phenomenon of over generalisation. This is best described as a situation where a child who stars by saying daddy good and they comedy. What seems to be happening is that the child start to over generalise a new rule that has been (sub unconsciously) learnt and as a result even makes mistakes with things that he or she seemed to have known before

B. Assessing Student Performance

            Assessing student performance can from the teacher or from the student themselves.

B1. Teacher Assessing Students

            Assessment of performance can be explicit when we say that was really good or implicit when during language drill, for example, we pass on to the next student without making any comment or correction (there is always the danger, however, that the student may misconstrue, our silence as a something else). Students are likely to receive teacher assessment in term of praise or blame. Indeed one of our roles is to encourage student by prising them fro work is well done. Praise is avital component in a student’s motivation and progress.

            There are number of ways in which we asses our students’ work:

• Comments: commenting on student performance happen at various stages both in outside class. here we should acknowledge the students’ effort first (the medal) before showing that something is wrong and then suggesting future action (action).
• Marks and Grades: when the student ar graded on their work, there are always keen to know what grades that have achieved. Good grades will rise up their motivation positively.
• Reports: at the end of a term or year some teachers write reports on their student performance, either for student the school or the parents of that the student. Such reports should give a clear indication of how well the student has done in the recent past and a reasonable assesment of their future prospects.

B2. Student Assessing Themselves

            Student self – assessment is bound up with the whole matter of learner autonomy since if we can encourage them to reflect upon their own learning through learner training or when on their their own away from any classroom, we are equipping them with powerful tool for future development. Self assesment can be made more formal in a number ways. A final way of formalising an assesment dialogue between teacher and student is through a record of achievement (ROA).

C. Feedback during Oral Work

            Though feedback – both assessment and correction – can be very helpful during oral work, teacher should not necessarily deal with all oral production in the same way. Decisions about how to react to performance will depend up[on the stage of the lesson, the activity the type of mistake made and the particular student who is making that mistake.

C1. Accuracy and Fluency

            A distinction is often made between accuracy and fluency. We need to decide whether a particular activity in the classroom is designed to expect the student complete accuracy as in the study of  a piece of grammar, a pronunciation exercise or some vocabulary work, for example or whether we rae asking the student to use the language as fluently as possible. Most student want and expect us to give them feedback on their performance.

C2. Feedback during Accuracy Work

In the first, teachers show student that a mistake has been made and the second if necessary they help student to do something about it. The first nest of techniques we need to be aware of then is devoted to showing in correctness. these techniques are only really beneficial for what we are assuming to be language slip rather than embedded or systematic error (do to interlanguage stage the student has reached).

·         Showing Incorrectness: this can be done in a number of different ways:

1.      Repeating

2.      Echoing

3.      Statement and Question

4.      Expression

5.      Hinting

6.      Reformulation

·         Getting it right: if student are unable to correct themselves or respond to reformulation, we need to focus on the correct version in more detail. We can also ask student to help or correct each other.

C3. Feedback during Fluency Work

            The way in which we respond to student when they speak in a fluency activity will have a significant bearing not only how wel they perform at the time but also on how they behave in fluency activities in the future. There are ways we can respond to our student once such activities are over.

·         Gentle Correction: if communication breaks down completely during a fluency activity, we may have to intervence. Gentle correction can be offered in a number of ways.

·         Recording mistake: we frequently act as observers, watching and listening to students so that we can give feedback afterwards.

·         After the event: when we have recorded student performance, we will want to give feedback to the class we might want to give an assessment of an activity, saying how well we though the students did in it and getting the students to tell us what they found easiest or most difficult.

D. Feedback on Writen Work

            The way we give feedback on writing will depend on the kind of writing task the student have undertaken and the effect we wish to create. When the student do workbook exercises based on controlled testing activities we will mark their efforts right or wrong possibly pencilling in the correct answer for them to study.

D1. Responding

            When we respond, we sy how the text appears to us and how succesful we think it has been (we give a medal, in other words) before suggesting how it could be improved (the mission). Such responses are vital various stage of writing process cycle. The comment we students need to appear helpful and not consorius.

D2. Correcting

            Many teachers use correction codes to indicate that student have made mistakes in their writen work. We can also correct b y putting ticks against good ponit (or another appropriate symbol, such as for example a circle if the lesson are taking place in Japan) and underlining problems.

D3. Training Students

            If student are benefit mfrom our feedback on their writing, they need to know what we mean and what to do about it.this involves training them to understand thje process.

D4. Involving Student

            We can also encourage student to self monitor by getting them to write a ckecklist of thing to look out fro when they evaluate their own work during the draftin g process (Harmer 2004: 121).

D5. Finishing the Feedback Process

            The feedback process only really finished once they have made this change. And if student consult grammar books book or dictionaries as away of resolving some of the mistakes we have signalled for them, the feedback we have given has had a positive outcome.

D6. The Midnight Oil

            Why burn the midnight oil? Asks Icy Lee (2005) in a article which discusses the stress of written feedback fro students and teachers. For students the sight of their work covered in correction can cause great anxiety. For teacher, marking and correcting take up an enormous amount of time (Lee found that the 200 Hong Kong teachers she interviewed spent an average of 20 – 30 hour a week marking). Both teachers and students deserve a break from this drudgery.

            Along with other commentators, Lee has a number of way varying the amount of marking and the way teacher do it. These include:

·         Selective Marking: we do not need to mark everything all the time. For example, we will have less to correct, the student will have fewer and reds marks to content with and while they preparing their work, students will give extra special attention to the area we have identified

·         Different Error Codes: there is no reason why student an teacher should always use same error codes. at different levels and for different task we may want to make shorter list of possible errors, or tailor what we are looking at for the class in question.

·         Don’t Mark All The Papers: teachers may decide only to mark some of the scripts they are given – as a sample of what the class has done as a whole. They can then use what they find there fot post – task teaching with the whole class.

REFERENCE

Harmer. Jeremy, (2010). The Practice of English Language Teaching