Chapter 7: Giving Correction and Feedback 103
him to continue, or to be fluent, is that you discover the extent to which he
understands the tense. He may have just slipped up initially because of nerves
or distraction. His next two attempts at the present simple, ‘I buy’ and ‘I don’t
want’ are very good. So, by allowing John to continue the conversation, it also
becomes clear that he really wants to say the present simple ‘I go’ – not ‘I am
going’, which was the other likely option. Also, if John continues to use the
present simple very well, you can handle his first error very quickly, leaving
time for a mention of the second error ‘to the shopping’.To encourage fluency then, you should allow students to keep talking. You
can make a note of the errors and deal with them later.Try not to put words in your student’s mouths when you offer correction. Find
out what they actually want to say before wading in.
In a lesson about health, Paola makes a different kind of error:
Tano: Do you have a cough?
Paola: Yes I have one cup in the morning and one with lunch.Tano: Not cup, cough!
Paola: Yes, every day.This time communication is actually breaking down and very soon the two
students are likely to become exasperated. Knowing her Brazilian Portuguese
background, I detect that Paola is talking about coffee, not a cough. This is an
occasion when it would be wise to step in immediately as fluency has no ben-
efit without true communication. By the way, inaccurate pronunciation is the
usual culprit when this happens.
Exploring the nature of the error
Students get things wrong for different reasons. Sometimes they just slip up
although they really know it. Even native speakers do that. At other times
they make mistakes because they really are confused or they’ve missed the
point.If a student just slips up, you can tell because he gets it right most of the
time. In that case he only needs a reminder instead of a full explanation. As
long as the student is aware that he’s got something wrong, he stands a good
chance of putting it right. Having said that, students find it most useful if you
point out what kind of slip up it is.If the atmosphere in your classroom is generally relaxed and friendly, students
won’t feel too self conscious about making mistakes. You can even laugh along
with them when the result of a mistake is rather amusing.