9.1.3 When to correct
In accuracy activities, correct immediately. In fluency activities, correct at the end of the task unless a the error affects communication, b the mistake is made repeatedly
or c students notice and comment on it. If in doubt, make a note and correct it later. You will need to adapt an attitude of silence, and avoid a common error of new
teachers which is to do too much and speak too much even if this is born out of good intentions.
9.1.4 Who corrects
When you’ve decided which errors to correct, think about who corrects it. Try to give the student who made the mistake first chance. This allows them to show whether they
know the language point or not and is also a very good way of reinforcing their knowledge and the learning process. If the student doesn’t find the right answer, you
can correct yourself or ask someone else in the class to try. If you invite another student to correct, try to do this in a sensitive way so as not to negatively highlight the
errors of the student in question. You’ll also need to consider how much time you want to spend on this. Having the teacher correct is usually the quickest method.
9.1.5 How to correct
You can correct directly yourself. This can be done in the interests of speed but this approach doesn’t give students the opportunity to self-correct and learn. If you prefer
to have students correct their own mistakes, you will need to indicate to them that a mistake has been made. Below are some useful techniques for highlighting a mistake
and for inviting students to correct them.
repeat the sentence back to the student, stressing or changing the intonation on the incorrect words;
point out which words is wrong and invite the student to correct. If so, do this sensitively and not in a mocking way. E.g. “I taked the bus yesterday”; “taked is not
the correct verb form, can you correct it?”;
give a gentle hint; e.g. verb form? with a rising intonation when the student says “he go” instead of “he goes”;
when a student makes a mistake, respond genuinely to what they are saying, using the correct language; “I go to the cinema yesterday”; “Oh, so you went to the cinema
yesterday. What did you see?”.
For indicating that a mistake has been made, without saying what it is and for inviting the student to find it for him or herself, use the following techniques:
say: “I’m not sure that’s right”; give a hesitant movement of the head, saying mmmmm;
an outstretched hand that moves from side-to-side; say: “do you think that’s correct?”;
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ask the student to repeat the sentence “could you say that again?”; this serves as a hint that something is wrong. However, if you use this technique regularly and then
when you genuinely don’t hear and ask a student to repeat, they can misinterpret your question as an indication that something is wrong.
Things to consider when using the above are: the amount of time available and how successful you think your students will be at finding the mistake.
A final point to remember is that you should ask the students to repeat the correct form any time you correct something. This will reinforce the learning process.
9.2 Correcting mistakes in written work
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