Practices Classroom Error Correction

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C. Possible Recommendations to Improve the Production of Grammatical

English Questions In learning, errors are not preventable but they can be decreased. As the ones who made various errors and recognized the underlying causes for the errors, the participants were also expected to offer possible suggestion in order to improve the production of grammatical English questions. Hence, when interviewing the participants, the writer also addressed questions focusing on solutions that they wanted to propose as the ways to make them better at producing grammatical English questions. In this part the writer presents two recommendations, which are practices and classroom error correction, by using the participants’ opinions as the consideration.

1. Practices

Practices, which allow exposure to happen in performing certain tasks, give influential effects since the more someone practices, the more she is accustomed to the tasks. The participants considered practices beneficial to make them better at producing grammatical English questions. They felt that the materials delivered in Structure classes were already complex and comprehensive enough. Conversely, they made a number of errors because they personally still needed practices in order to apply what they had understood. Although they agreed that written practices helped them understand the materials better, they tended to emphasize oral practices as the ones that should be carried out more frequently, as an interviewee said: 47 ”Terutama latihan ini ya conversation. Nggak bisa kita ngomong apa cuman ’Wah harus latihan structure’. Nggak bisa juga. Harus speech.” R3 Especially conversation practice. We cannot merely say, ‘We have to practice structure.’ No. We have to speech. In classes offered by ELESP, repetitions and frequency of English questions formations are better to be enhanced in order to focus on the accuracy. Furthermore, it should not be an issue solely discussed in Structure classes. Any other classes may need to refer back to the rules in forming English grammatical questions when it is needed. While in speaking, the participants can do practices more freely, not just bound by the frequency of English speaking practices in classes. They can, for example, converse with their friends in English which can boost their fluency.

2. Classroom Error Correction

Making errors should be viewed as a part of learning process, particularly in English as a second language learning. Errors should not be regarded as failures since it may lead to frustration among learners. When errors take place, it depicts that cognitive process is also happening. Thus, errors can actually become useful tools in guiding the learners to successful learning. In the subjects that the interviewees took, however, the students and the lectures usually dealt with theories and did not take the students’ errors into class discussion. “Biasanya hanya kaya teori aja terus dosen buat sendiri bukan kaya mengambil dari suatu hal yang apa ya--- riil gitu lho.” R2 Usually the lecturers give theories and possible errors formed by themselves, but do not take the real examples of error from the class. 48 Classroom error correction, then, is essential to be employed by lecturers. It can be done by taking some errors that the students make and bring them into class discussion or merely ask the students to do peer correction. Certainly, the name of the person making errors should not necessarily be mentioned. Tricky topics, such as embedded questions, may be emphasized as they frequently lead to errors. When error correction happens, learners are driven to recall their knowledge, and reverse it when it is not correct. Classroom error correction, however, should not be done excessively. If too much attention to errors is given, appreciation of correct production will be neglected. Consequently, it becomes unfair since the learners may produce not only flawed utterances but also the correct ones. Hence, correction should be given without ignoring how valuable reinforcements are. When students succeed in producing correct sentences, it means that they also deserve reinforcements from the teachers. 49

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

In this chapter, the write would like to draw the conclusions of this study, which deals with errors found in English questions formations, and also give suggestions for parties who may be interested in dealing further with this topic of study.

A. Conclusions

To answer the first research question, the writer analyzed the transcripts of the video recordings of the participants’ performances when doing teaching practices. From the data gathered, it can be inferred that errors in English questions formations were still obviously found. From 305 errors, most of the errors belonged to omission category 30.8, and were subsequently followed by misordering 26.2, uninverted forms 21.3, misformation 12.1, and addition 9.5. The interview, which was done to answer the second research question, figured out that focus on fluency, nervousness, and lack of knowledge of English grammar were the main causes for the errors. Since the participants wished to make the conversation in class sound natural, they tended to focus on their speaking fluency rather than accuracy. Nervousness became the next factor causing them to make errors. As it was their first teaching practice, the participants were nervous and, as a result, they turned out to be less careful in producing utterances, particularly English questions. The last factor, lack of 49