Teaching Grammar - Week 12 - Corrective Feedback in Grammar Instruction

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 12 of the course Teaching Grammar for the Bachelor's in English Teaching at ULACIT Term IIIC 2023. In this class we will do several activities to explore the topic of feedback in grammar teaching

Today's Goals:

• Explore opinions and assumptions about corrective feedback in grammar teaching.
• Practice using six oral correction techniques and share your opinions about them.
• Review the important details of your upcoming assignments.

Guiding Questions:

• What are some of the dilemmas related to corrective feedback?
• What are different techniques for correcting students' grammar?
• How can we prepare for the end of the course?

Warm Up: Identify the Errors

Go through the presentation and identify the language mistake, say what kind of error it is, and how you can correct it.

Task 1: Feedback in Grammar Instruction

This week you read a chapter about responding to learners' grammar errors. Let's explore this topic more deeply, but first let's start by analyzing attitudes toward the topic of error correction or corrective feedback. The following exercise comes from Penny Ur's (2012) book A Course in English Language Teaching.

1. The fact that the teacher assesses and corrects students' language implies a power hierarchy: the teacher above, the students below.
2. Receiving corrective feedback from the teacher is potentially humiliating to the student.
3. Teachers should try not to correct very much, in order not to demoralize students.
4. It is also important to draw attention to when students get things right, not just when they get them wrong.
5. Teachers should not let students correct each other's work, as this is harmful to their relationships.
6. Oral corrective feedback should be given privately, not publicly.

• See the author's comments: CLICK HERE 

• Dilemmas in Error Correction: In your study guide you were asked to respond to the following questions. What did you say?

• Given that language learners inevitably make lots of mistakes and you can’t possibly correct them all, how should teachers decide which errors to correct and how many to correct at a time?

• Given that language learning is a highly emotional process and error correction points out what students are doing wrong, how can teacher balance the need to correct and the need to maintain a positive learning environment and protect the learners’ fragile language egos?

• Given that learners need to develop both accuracy and fluency in speaking, how can teachers make decisions about the best time to correct an error (in the moment or delayed)?

• Feedback Techniques in Oral Correction: Click the link below to explore some common feedback techniques.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

• Concluding Remarks: Let's review a few quotes from various authors to finish this topic.

• "Student errors are evidence that progress is being made. Errors often show us that a student is experimenting with language, trying out ideas, taking risks, attempting to communicate, making progress. Analysing what errors have been made clarifies exactly which level the student has reached and helps set the syllabus for future language work" (Scrivener, 2005, p. 298).

• “Failure to provide some negative feedback may have a damaging effect on the learner’s language development in the long run; on the other hand, providing only negative feedback may be ultimately demotivating.”

• “Learners’ errors offer a rich source of material for language focus and consciousness raising” (Thornbury, 1999, p. 126).

• "... are you going to correct effectively and risk disturbing the flow of communication, or are you going to refrain from correcting and risk the error being reinforced? The answer to this question is that it is up to your professional judgement, taking into account a number of factors, such as the level and confidence of the student, the goals of the course, the frequency or gravity of the error, the willingness of the students to tolerate interruption and so on. [This represents] one of the many 'on your feet' decisions that you gradually learn how to make as you gain experience" (Ur, 2012, p. 96).

Task 2: PPP / TTT Lesson Plan Outline

Let's take a look at your final creation for the course. 

• More Information: CLICK HERE

Task 3: Upcoming Assignments

You have two important assignments coming up.

• Lesson Plan: CLICK HERE
• Textbook Review: CLICK HERE

References:

Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning Teaching. Macmillan.

Thornbury, S. (1999). How to Teach Grammar. Pearson. 

Ur, P. (2012). A Course in English Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.