高中英语课堂口语纠错方法

【标题】高中英语课堂口语纠错方法【作者】冉军【关键词】错误；失误；纠错原则；纠错方法【指导老师】马小燕【专业】英语【正文】Ⅰ.IntroductionNew Curriculum emphasizes student self-cooperative learning, so students have more and more opportunities to use English in the classroom. In English class, some students will make errors when they communicate with the teacher or classmates. The traditional view is that: Student's "wrong" are derived from the mother tongue interference, a "mistake", said the failure of learning, reflecting the improper way of learning. "Wrong" must not be tolerant by teachers, and must immediately be corrected. But in teaching practice, if these errors must be corrected by the teachers, it is bound to undermine the students’ oral communication initiative, hurt their self-esteem, and affect fluency. However, if teachers do not pay more attention to their errors and correct them promptly, students will be likely to make errors again. They can not always grasp the correct grammar rules, why do students make errors? What kind of errors teachers should correct? How to correct? How to guide students to correct errors in spoken language training by themselves? About these problems, this paper will analyze the causes of students making errors, the principles of error correction and the ways of error correction, to explore the errors correction techniques in English class.Ⅱ. Definition of errorsWhat is an error in language learning? Different researchers give different definitions to it．According to Corder S.P. (1967, cited in Ellis，1999), “an error is a deviation in learner language which results from lack of knowledge”3．An error can be overt (the deviation is apparent in the surface form of the utterance) or covert (the deviation is only evident when the learner’s meaning is taken into account)．Corder (1973) also makes a distinction between errors，lapses and mistakes．Errors are not recognizable. Such lapses are not failing and so are sometimes referred to as ‘performance errors’(Allwright et al，1991：88)．Mistakes in Corder’s scheme are what he calls‘inappropriate utterances’, where there is a failure to match the language to the situation．A further useful distinction is offered by Edge，who subdivides Cor der’s category intotwo．He retains the term ‘error’ for items that the learners cannot self-correct but to which they have been exposed，offering theterm ‘attempts’ for deviations in areas of language still untaught．Based On Corder’s distinction，James (2001) refines the definition of error as “being an instance of language that is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by its author”4．A mistake is intentionally or unintentionally deviant and self-corrigible．Brown (2000：205)defined error and mistake as follows：A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a slip in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly．It occurs when learners fail to perform their competence．It's a performance phenomenon resulting from slip of tongue，memory limitation，or lack of linguistic planning and strategy．All people make mistake，in both native and second language situation．Native speakers are normally capable of recognizing and correcting such lapses or mistakes, which are not the result of a deficiency in competence but the result of some sort of breakdown or imperfection in the process of producing speech．An error is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner．An error reveals a portion of his competence in the target language．Comparing the definitions made by Corder and Brown, we can find that Brown’s mistake is similar to Corder’s lapse，and Corder’s mistake is what we call pragmatic failure，and Brow n’s definition of error is too limited in grammar．But there is a common thing，which is that mistake is not the reflection of deficiency in language knowledge，but just a failure in performance．According to Geoge (1972，cited in Allwright et al，1991：85)，“In formal classroom instruction of second or foreign languages，the teacher’s response to students’ utterances may be the most important criterion for judging error．Indeed，one definition states that an error is a form unwanted by the teacher"5．Another explanation was given by Chaudron (1986，cited in Allwright et al，1991：86) in his study of teachers’ reaction to children’s errors．He defined errors as(1) linguistic forms or content that differed from native speaker norms or facts；(2) any other behavior signaled by the teacher as needing improvement．However,both “unwanted form” and"behavior that needs improvement" seem to illustrate quite ambiguous concepts．Indeed，it is found in some transcripts of classroom discourse that learners’ response are sometimes rejec ted or signaled to be improved by teachers--not because they are wrong but because they are unexpected．In a word, a mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a ‘slip of tongue’, and it is a failure performance to a known system.6 Everyone makes mistakes, no matter in a native language or in a foreign language .As we can see that a mistake has nothing to do with thelanguage competence, but a result from a temporary breakdown. When a mistake is challenged or given enough attention, it can be self-corrected. An error, on the other hand, has direct relation with the learners’ language competence. Errors do not result from carelessness nor hesitation, but lack of knowledge in the target language. Language errors cannot beself-corrected no matter how much attention is given.Ⅲ. Previous Study of Error CorrectionThough whether errors should be corrected has long been a controversial question, the researches on error treatment in class have been carried out by a lot of researchers.1 They can be divided into three groups：one is about what teachers and students actually do in the classroom when language errors occur, and there is a considerable body of work done on this (Chaudron 1988，Allwright and Bailey 1991)；the second is concerning a bout the learners’ attitudes towards error treatment，and much work has been done onthis ( Cathcart and Olsen 1976，Chenoweth et a1．1983)；the third is that what types of teacher intervention is most effective in counteracting errors.As for the researches in the first group，Chaudron (1988，cited in Ellis，1999：584) reviews a number of students that have investigated what teachers actually do in the classroom (Salica1981；Courchene 1980；Chaudron1986；Fanselow 1977；Lucas 1975). The main conclusions he gets are that certain types of errors are much more likely to be treated than others：discourse，content, and lexical errors receive more attention than phonological or grammatical errors；and that there is considerable variation among teachers regarding how frequently error treatment takes place．Edmondson(1985) has also pointed out that teachers sometimes correct ‘errors’ that have not in fact been made．As for the second group，Cathcert and Olsen (1976) find that ESL learners like to be corrected by their teachers and want more corrected than they are usually provided with．Chenoweth et a1(1983) find learners like to be corrected not only in form-focused activities，but also when they are talking with native speakers．As for the third group，Lyster and Ranta (1997) provide us with a correction strategy that they think is the most effective．In a study by them, they determine six different oral error correction strategies：explicit error correction(teacher provides correct form)；recasts (teacher reformulates utterance minus the error)，clarification requests (teacher indicates the need for clarification)，metalinguistic feedback (teacher comments without providing correct form)，elicitation(ask students to reformulate response) and repetition (teacher repeats，in isolation，the stude nt’s error)．Lyster and Ranta’s research shows that the recast strategy is used most often，but this strategy also proves to be the least effective, because it does not require the student to attempt to correct his or her own error．Four of the other six methods of feedback require the students togenerate a correct answer．Lyster and Ranta find that the four types of feedback that allow for negotiation of meeting (elicitation，meta-linguistic feedback，clarification requests and repetition) are more likely to lead to students correcting their own errors than are recasts or explicit corrections. The research of Lyster and Ranta indicates that elicitation is most effective strategy because it requires students to elaborate on the message conveyed，and the process that leads to the correct answer.2Ⅳ. The Reasons of Making ErrorThere are many reasons that cause students to make language errors. A number of factors in teaching are likely to be the incentive for students to make language errors. This paper will introduce the reasons from the five aspects: the lack of knowledge, mother-tongue interference,over-generalization, environmental factors and language communication factors.A. Lacking of knowledgeThey make errors because they lack knowledge of English. English language has a long history. Its grammar and vocabulary are very huge. It should be a very long time to learn it well for our beginners in China. If we want to speak or write something in English, we must know enough about the language, the culture, the geography and the history of England. But many English teachers in China stress the importance of speaking too early. Because the beginners haven’t learned English for a long time, there are not enough materials made up in English in most beginners’ minds. So in order to deal with their teachers’ requirements for speaking in English, they have to translate what they want to say word by word. Negative transfers make them make a lot of mistakes. Perhaps some teachers do not think it serious, they may think as time goes on their errors will become fewer and fewer. But this author think errors can form wrong languagehabit-formation.B. Mother-Tongue InterferenceThere are two kinds of migrations of English mother tongue: one is the mother tongue and English in forms and regulations being mistaken to the similarity for the same line. For example, the syntactic structure of English Subject, Predicate, Object and Chinese are basically the same. After students to do more practice, they would be natural to equate English syntactic structure and Chinese syntactic structure. In consequence, they usually make structural errors in the future learning process and speak in Chinglish. The other is that the mother tongue and English are mistaken to similarity in spite of their different forms and rules.C. Over-GeneralizationGeneralization is a common method in English learning. Over-generalization refers to that students surpass over the scope of rules. This leads to what they speak or write going beyond the acceptable range. In English learning,students make errors which are not meet English conventions because of their over-generalization. Such cases are not infrequent. For example, after learning the rules of the noun plural, students is likely to regard the plural of the word “German” as“Germen” according to the plural of the two words “man” and“woman”. Such errors are caused due to over-generalization.D. Environmental FactorsAs they do not live in English-spoken countries, their sense for English is not very strong. To most of beginners in China, they just learn how to speak and write in English in classes. After school, their friends, parents, neighbors all speak Chinese, sometimes their teachers’ English is very poor. In such environments their sense of English can not become very strong in a short time mostly. Most beginners still think in their native language. When they want to express their views in English they have to draw support from Chinese. A few years ago it was worse because most beginners didn’t have recorders, CDs. They even can not afford to see English films. So the environment around the beginners makes their sense of English poor. And poor sense of English makes them often to make errors.Ⅴ. Principles of Correcting Students’ ErrorsAll students at different stages of language learning will make errors, and making errors is a natural part of the learning process, and students’ communicative competence is the development of normal situation. As a teacher, if they criticize their students sharply it will a harm the interest and enthusiasm of the student in learning. Therefore, teachers should be amiable, humor, and considerable the feelings of the students when point out the errors and the teacher should avoiding beginning with something like "I have said many times, you still make errors", "how you make such error", etc. This makes the original "sound" of the classroom into a "silent" class. Therefore, we should concentrate on implementing the following four principles.A. To treat students’ errors pa tiently and help building self-confidence Dulay & Burt (1974) said: "If students don’t make mistakes he can not learn the language well."7 The process of language learning itself is a gradual, long-term accumulation and practice, and constantly wrong process. When one student makes error, teachers should treated them with generosity .Teachers should pay attention to protect students’self-esteem. Try to avoid publicly criticizing the student, tactful to point out the errors, but more certain strengths, achievements and progress, we must make full use of motivating language, such as: "Try again", "Try your best", "Do not give up "," I'm sure you can. "," I think you can do it "and so on to encourage students to try to alleviate the psychological burden, For the poor student, the teacher will give more patience, enthusiasm and love, more praise and encouragement, concern, thus helping the speaker to establish self-confidence, gradually reduce errors to avoidevery mistake corrected.B. To distinguish global errors from local errorsOverall error refers to the use of major components of sentence structure errors, leading to sentences or words difficult to understand or not understand. For example, the word order reversed, with the misuse or leakage connectives, syntax, and so over-generalization. Such as: I like take taxi but my friend said so not that we should be late for school. Sentence, the subject has been wrong, it is difficult to understand it, which is part of the overall errors. Such errors should be corrected in time, because the speaker’s information provided with ambiguous, which makes the exchange not to be conducted smoothly. Partial error refers to the ingredients in the use of sentence structure errors, but caused no understand problem. For example, misuse or omitted by the suffix of a verb or a noun form, definite article, or auxiliaries and so on. Such as: There are long trees on each side of the street. Although the sentence used the wrong adjective "long", but the meaning is clear. Localized errors usually do not need to correct, because the speaker is very clear what the information provided, while the correction may interrupt the flow of language learners communicative output.C. To treat systematic errors and mistakes differentlySystematic error refers to the errors learners have not yet mastered, or not yet fully mastered the usage of the word. It is also known as language competence error. These errors will repeat again and again in the study and applying language. Learners are usually difficult to detect and correct the errors by themselves. For example, students are likely to say that “The girl dreamed to become a famous singer．”This is because they failed to grasp this structure of “dream of doing sth．”Language mistakes refer to the faulty language output which is caused by certain emotional factors such as fatigue, carelessness, or distraction, and environmental factors. Mistakes have also been known as performance mistakes. For example: She is my uncle. Because of "slip of the tongue" the speaker changes “He” into “She”. Such mistakes are accidental. Because there was no proper use of their prior language knowledge, learners in general can quickly recognize and correct them by themselves.D. To grasp the opportunity of the error correctionCorrecting errors in an English class is a common teaching activity for teachers, but they should grasp the time of error correction, namely, when to immediately correct, and when to delay correction. First of all, teachers should understand the severity of errors. If the errors students committee is too deviate from the correct form and has seriously affected the understanding, expression and communication. Teachers should point them out and corrected them; if it is not this kind of case, teachers can delay the correction and give after-school tutorial. Secondly, teachers should correct errors according to different class types and purposes of teachingactivities. If the teaching activities are designed to develop students ability to express verbally teachers should not correct when students speaking so as to avoid the psychological stress of students, affecting their expression of fluency. Teachers should point out the overall errors or systematic errors and give the correct form of expression at the end of the student's speech. If the teaching activities focus on the accuracy of grammar and other language projects, teachers should point out the errors timely and correct them. At the same time, teachers should provide some appropriate additional language materials as much as possible for students to practice and consolidate what they have learned.Ⅵ. The Ways of Error CorrectionTeachers do not expect students to express without any error but allow them to make errors. Teachers should be tolerant and patie nt to students’ errors so as to make them confident in their speaking. When correcting errors teachers need to master certain strategies and methods to not only maintain students’ self-esteem, interest and passion in learning, but also to enable students to master the correct language. Therefore, teachers must be very careful to correct errors. Their response to students’ errors has a direct impact on teaching effectiveness and students’ learning initiative. According to some linguists, the author put forward some ways of error correction.A. Direct correctionDirect error correction refers to that the teacher interrupts students and say the correct form of language and allow them to correct when they make errors. This way of correction is commonly used in mechanical drillings designed to enable students to master the correct form of language or in a variety of exercises focusing on accurate output of language (Mu Jin Jiang, 2004)8. The terms of direct correction teachers usually use in the classroom are: You should say…/ No, you shouldn't say that. / Read after me. / Pay attention to…/ Oh, you mean…/ .We don’t say…in English. We say…and so on.For Example ：T: What did you have for breakfast this morning?S: I have a bottle of milk, an egg and two cakes.T: Oh. You should say “I had a bottle of milk…”Read after me, please.S: Oh, sorry. I had a bottle of milk, an egg and two cakes.B. RecastsRestatement is that teachers correct errors implicitly. This is a kind of moderate error correction. This way is based on students’ expression. Teachers correct some ingredients or words but maintain the original meaning of the expression (Ni Wenjun,2004). It is very effective to correct grammatical errors in oral language.First Example：S: He is watch TV.（firs-time expression）T: He is watch TV ? Patrick is watching a football game on TV.（restate）S: He is watching TV.（second-time expression）T: Right. Go on please.S: She’s do one homework.（firs-time expression）T: She’s doing her homework.（restate）Oh, she has a lot of homework to do.S: She’s doing her homework.（second-time expression）Second Example：S: I think that the worm will go under the soil.（firs-time expression）T: I think that the worm will go under the soil?S: …（no answer）T: I thought that the worm would go under the soil.（restate）S: I thought that the worm would go under the soil.（second-time expression）C. PinpointingTeachers repeat the words of students with stress or an emphasis on the problem in a rising tone. Chaudro (1988, cited in James, 2001).This way can not only correct the errors of students but also take their self-esteem into account and improve their interest in oral activities.First Example：S: I am going in Beijing.T: I am going IN (?) Beijing?S: I am going to Beijing.Second Example：T: Where did you spend your holiday this summer?S: I go to Qingdao for my holiday.T: You GO (?) to Qingdao?S: Oh, I went to Qingdao for my holiday.D. ElicitationTeachers inspire students to correct the error through the following ways: ⑴ to ask questions on the wrong part, such as "How do we say ... in English ?" with low speed and pause; ⑵ to use facial expression or gesture to indicate that he/she can continue; ⑶ to provide several related options available for students to choose; ⑷ if the student is still unable to tell the correct form, then ask another student to give a hand.First Example：T: Excuse me, what is she doing?S1: She is cleaning a class.T: She is cleaning a class? （pause for a while）OK. But how do you clean classes ?（students laugh）Oh, no.（use facial expression or gesture to indicate that he/she can continue）S1: …（silent）T: Now another student. Lily, please. Excuse me, what is she doing?S2: She is cleaning the classroom.T: Ah, yes. She is cleaning the classroom.Second Example：T: Now, look at this picture. What’s in it?S1: Three basket of apples.T: Three basket of apples? Is he right?（Look or gesture to indicate the whole class with the students to answer）OK. Please correct it.SS: Three baskets of apples.T: Yes. Good. Well done. OK（turn to the student who make the error）, do you understand?Third Example：T: How long have you lived in Nanchang?S: I… I lived, no, I had…T: Have lived, lived, had lived?S: I have lived in Nanchang for three years.E. RepetitionAfter teachers found the error they can ask students to re-answer and use “Once more./ Pardon? / Repeat please” and so on to guide students. For example:S: I made my birthday cake last night when I was in bed.T: Er? Who made your birthday cake? Once moreS: My mother.T: Oh, your mother. And then repeat it please.S: My mother made my birthday cake last night when I was in bed.F. Clarification requestsIf teachers do not understand what students said or find that there are indeed some errors appeared in their speech they commonly use “What?/ I'm sorry? / Pardon me? / What do you mean by ...? ” to ask students to correct.First Example：S: Look! My pant is too small.T: What?S: My pant.T: My what?S: My pants is too small.T: Right. My pants. But pardon me? My pants what?S: My pants are too small.Second Example：S: I want be a scientist when I grow up.T: Er? I’m sorry? I want…S: I want to be a scientist when I grow up.G. Meta-linguistic feedbackMeta-linguistic feedback is that when the error occurs teachers do not directly give the correct answer, but make technical analysis and descriptions of errors, such as pointing out the misuse of parts of speech or tense. 9 Common classroom languages are: Can you find your error? / No, not .... We do not say ... in English. / Do we say that in English? This kind of correction is more suitable for senior high school students, especially high-level learners.First Example：S: I go to visit my grandparents with my uncle last weekend.T: Do we say “go” here?“Go” is“present tense”. I’m afraid you have used a wrong tense.S: I go…went…I went to visit my grandparents las t weekend.T: Yeah. I went.Second Example：S: If I am you…T: Your sentence contains a grammatical construction “the subjunctive mood”. If you want to say“If I were you”, there’s a special structure. Do you remember?S: Let me see. Oh, yeah. If I were you,..Ⅵ. ConclusionTeachers in the process of correction should not reuse a certain kind of error correction strategy. When selecting the ways of correcting, they should comprehensively considerate the effect of teaching, the learner's language proficiency, personality characteristics and emotional factors, so that a variety of corrective strategies are applied flexibly. As we all know, people in a state of tension and fear, prone to make more errors. In the classroom teaching, teachers should encourage more and criticize less, praise more and ridicule less, affirm more and deny less. Encouragement is the catalyst to enhance students’ interest. Teachers should try their best to use language of praising Suchas "Good!" "Wonderful!" "Great!", "Excellent!" to reduce the psychological burden on the students, and eliminate the fear so that students can easily experience the joy of success, and can effectively reduce errors. Teachers should change their attitudes towards the errors students make and treat them in a positive way; otherwise, there will be such a hidden danger: Learners tend to focus on avoiding making errors, but not paid enough attention to communication. This is a mistake for teachers to be too strict with students’ errors.Notes1郝兴跃．《论二语习得中的错误分析》济南：山东外语教学，2003，第38页.2郝兴跃．《论二语习得中的错误分析》济南：山东外语教学，2003，第38页.3 Corder S.P., The Study of Second Language Acquisition, ed., Ellis，R. (Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press), 87.4 Ibid.95.5朱明慧．《英语口语课中的纠错策略Ⅱ》．外语界，1996年，第142页.6王蔷.《英语教学法教程》(第二版)，2007年，第86页.7 Dulay & Burt, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (4th edition), ed., Brown, H. D. (Cambridge University Press, 1981), 135.8张吕萍．《英语学习出错的原因及纠错策略》河南教育，2005年，第67页.9牟金江. 2004. 《语言错误分类及其纠错策略》，西安外国语学院学报. 2005年，第78页.BibliographyBrown, H. D. (2000). Principles of Language Learning andTeaching (4thedition). London: Longman.Brown，H.D.2001.Teaching by Principles：An interactive Approach toLanguage Pedagogy [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.Corder S .P. 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