Mistakes and Feedback

TEFL PBI UMY 2016

 Outline
• Students make mistakes
- Types of mistakes
- Causes of Errors
• Assessing students’ Performance
- Teacher assessing students
- Students assessing themselves
• Feedback during oral work
-Accuracy and fluency
- Feedback during accuracy work
- Feedback during fluency work
• Feedback on Written Work
- Written feedback techniques
- Finishing the feedback process
• Conclusion
• References
 Introduction
Students make mistakes
We wonder ......
• why students go on making the same mistakes
even when such mistakes have been repeatedly
pointed out to them.
• Yet not all mistakes are the same; sometimes they
seem to be deeply ingrained,
• yet at other times students correct themselves
with apparent ease.
• Feedback : not only correcting students, but also
offering them an assessment of how well they
have done

• The way we assess and correct students will

depend not only upon the kind of mistakes being
made (and the reasons for them), but also on the
type of activity the students are taking part in.
Types of mistakes
Julian Edge divides mistakes into 3 broad categories:

 Slips :mistakes which students can correct

themselves
 Error : mistakes which students can not correct
themselves and which need explanation.
 Attempt : ambitious language use, by using structures
they have not learnt yet.
 Causes of errors :
1. L1 Interference
Students who learn English as a second language
already have a deep knowledge of at least one
other language. There are confusions between the
two languages.
• at the level of sounds: ferry - very
• at the level of grammar: Japanese students
have problems with article
• at the level of word usage: librería in Spanish
means 'bookshop', not 'library', embarazada
means 'pregnant', not 'embarrassed'
2. Developmental errors
Are mistakes that student commonly commit when first learning
language. They have two types of this mistake :

 Over-generalisation : Daddy goed.

They comed
She is more nicer than him .

 Interlanguage : My brothers are three

My finger is cut
The name is also attemp.
Assessing students’performance
A. Teacher assessing students
1. Comments.
We can commenting student performance in and outside the
class.And these comments are a clear sign of a possitive
assesment.
Example : say good or nod approvingly
2. Marks and grades.
if we want to give grades, we need to decide on what basis
we are going to do this and be able to describe this to the
students
3. Reports.
at the end of a term or year teachers write reports on their
students’ performance .
 Assessing students’ performance Cont...
B. Students assessing themselves

1. Self-assessment through checklists

Students can be given material to guide them in making their
own judgement.
Example :

I can Yes/no I know Yes/no

deal with misunderstanding How to get my meaning accross in a
conversation
Use questipn tags correctly Some American colloquial expressions
 Assessing students’ performance Cont...
2. ROA (record of achievement)
 S tudents are asked to write their own assessment of
their successes and say how they think they can
proceed.
 Unlike the more informal journal or letter writing
which students and teachers can enggage, force both
parties to think carefully about strenght and weakness.
 Feedback during oral work
A. Accuracy and Fluency
 When students are involved in accuracy work, it is part of the
teacher’s function to point out and correct the errors that
students are making.
 During communicative activities, it is generally felt that teachers
should not interrupt students to point out a grammatical,
lexical, or pronunciation errors.
 Teacher intervention in such circumstances can raise stress
levels and stop the acquisition process in its tracks.
 Feedback during oral work Cont...
B. Feedback during accuracy work
• Showing Incorrectness
1. Repeating : We can ask the student to repeat what they have
said. by saying Again ?
2. Echoing : We repeat what student has said emphasising the
part of the utterance that was wrong. Flight 309 GO to Paris ?
3. Statement and question: We can give simply statement and
question to indicate that something has not quite worked.
That's not quite right, or Do people think that's correct ?
 Feedback during oral work Cont...
4. Expression: We can make facial expressions or gestures to
indicate that something is wrong
5. Hinting: a quick way to help students to activate the rules they
already know is to give a quiet hint. 'tense‘ 'countable'
6. Reformulation: an underrated correction technique is for the
teacher to repeat what the student has said correctly.
Student: I would not have arrived Late if I heard the alarm clock.
Teacher: If I had heard ...
Student: ... if I had heard the alarm clock.
 Feedback during oral work Cont...
• Getting it right
 If students are unable to correct themselves, focus on
the correct version in detail.
 Foster peer correction in a genuinely cooperative
atmosphere.
 Techniques must not undermine students 'self-esteem.
 Feedback during oral work Cont...
C. Feedback during fluency work
 We need to respond to content and not just language
form.
 Tolerance of errors during fluency sessions should be
much greater than during controlled session.
 Feedback during oral work Cont...
There is three ways to respond students :
• Gentle correction
It is necessary if communication breaks down or if students need
prompting because they do not know what to say.
• Recording mistakes
We can use charts or other form to categorize learners 'mistakes.
• After the event
We might want to give an assessment of an activity, saying how
well we thought the students did it.
 Feedback on written work
A. Written feedback techniques
• Responding
We tell them how successful they have been, and which areas
they have improved or need to improve.
Example: Teacher gives respond for student’s work through
their email.
Email:
Dear Gabrielle.
I really enjoyed reading your draft. You have some good expressions, e.g. you
look to the dark sky and it seems like a special party. Why don’t you begin
with that sentence? e.g. (looked up at the dark sky and it seemed a special
party. It was like an explosion everywhere. People were throwing fireworks
into the sky, and everywhere there were lights

Now at this point, you can tell the reader what night it is. It was New Year's
Eve and everyone was celebrating.

Then you can explain what New Year's Eve means in Uruguay, how families
and friends come together and how everyone has hopes for the future You
can end by coming back to the idea of fireworks
 Feedback on written work Cont...
• Coding
Teachers may use a code with symbols on the margins
Example :
SYMBOL MEANING EXAMPLE

S Incorrect spelling S S
I recieved jour letter.

W.O Wrong word order W.O

We know well this city.
T Wrong tense T
If he will come, it will be too late.
 Feedback on written work Cont...
B. Finishing the feedback process
 Written feedback is designed as a tool to help learners
improve their language use.
 Importance of rewriting: to see how they respond to
our comments.
 Feedback is part of the learning process. It is over after
students have made changes ,consulted grammar
books or dictionaries as a way of resolving some of the
mistakes we have signaled
Thanks