UNIVERSIDADE SÃO JUDAS TADEU

CENTRO DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO – ESPECIALIZAÇÃO EM

LÍNGUA INGLESA

FINAL PAPER

São Paulo

2012

ALEXANDRE RODRIGUES NUNES

RA 201280038

PAULA CONCEIÇÃO DE ARAÚJO

RA 201280213

VALESKA RENATA LEIVAS

RA 201280035

How to deal with mistakes and errors in language learning in

speaking tasks

São Paulo

2012

Final paper presented as final

paper on the subject “Aquisição

de Língua Inglesa”, in

postgraduate center –

Specialization in English

Language of University São

Judas Tadeu. Tutored by prof.

Alexandre Feldman.

3

Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Errors and Mistakes: concepts and possibilities for learning ......................................................... 6

Dealing with mistakes and errors in language learning .................................................................. 9

Effective correction in speaking tasks ........................................................................................11

Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................14

References .......................................................................................................................................16

Attachments ....................................................................................................................................18

Attachment 1 ...............................................................................................................................18

4

Introduction

A lot has been said when it comes to error and mistakes and how they should be dealt

with during classes. Even throughout students’ lives as learners, coping with motivation and

stimulation before mistakes and errors is a hard task, once the target is mainly to avoid

frustrations and disappointments and incentive students’ try even if they are not sure.

Nevertheless, it is not possible to talk about language development and language

learning without mentioning the important role errors and mistakes play during this process.

Learners will be faced with a wide range of challenges throughout the learning process and

they will come across countless information which will surely take time to be accommodated

and assimilated.

This is the exact point when errors and mistakes take place and it is the teacher’s job

to turn them into positive attempts in order not to demotivate learners.

Corder (1973) simply defines errors as the use of linguistic item in a way that a

learner, fluent or native speaker of the language regards it as a showing faulty or incomplete

learning. It occurs because the learner does not know what is correct and thus it cannot be

self-corrected.

Mistakes on the other hand are considered by Brown (1987) a performance error. It is

a failure to make use of a known system, and the result of imperfection in the process of

producing speech. Mistakes can be self-corrected when attention is called.

In other words, errors are made because speakers lack knowledge while mistakes

happen even though speakers have the knowledge needed. Once the definition of errors and

mistakes is comprehended and their concepts are studied, tasks and abilities in which they

occur will be discussed as well as how they can be dealt with by teachers in order to enable

learning.

“One of the most generally known approaches concerning the error throughout human

history is to consider errors or mistakes as negative effect or result, even worth to be

punished. Different societies have regarded error as indicating failure and obstructing

progress. Punishing the error has always occurred along with teaching and learning processes

and has always been used as an instrument of power and a teaching strategy” (MAICUSI &

MAICUSI, LÓPEZ, 1999-2000)

The tasks students will be expected to cope with, are the ideal mediator to measure

how much language was learned or not and if the learning has been really taking place.

Scarino and Liddicoat (2009; p: 45-46) claim that for language educators, tasks are to develop

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accuracy, which is the form of the language, as well as fluency, which is the active use of the

target language aiming at developing a reflective learning and a complex understanding and

perception on the language.

That leads us to agree that tasks are liable to errors and mistakes since they present a

number activities in which the success of their well development lie on students’ abilities and

competences that are not linear, therefore, the strategies developed by each student may take

them to inappropriate use of the structures. The scholars also explain that:

In developing tasks we also need to consider how each task builds on or extends previous

learning and how it contributes to continuous and cumulative learning. Some of these

distinctions are worth considering in developing the range of learning experiences that

comprise. (SCARINO and LIDDICOAT, 2009)

The aim of this paper is to propose further discussions on the topic errors and

mistakes, focusing on the oral skills in speaking tasks, raising the language features most

commonly found in these tasks taking into consideration accuracy, fluency and pronunciation,

and others.

Accuracy is a never ending argument between teachers, scholars and students, since all

of them agree with its importance but not everybody sees it the same way. For students,

communication should happen first and before worries about accurate speaking. Teachers on

the other hand, tend to agree that communication is important, but not accurate speeches

hinder the communication process and it may cause fossilized errors, hard to be corrected.

Scholars also go along the idea that communicating should come in first place, though they do

comprehend accuracy as a part of the speech which cannot be left aside in any moment of the

learning process once it might also direct the speaker to pronunciation problems as well as an

incoherent fluency .

We propose here to go beyond the merely daily basis correction and understand how

errors and mistake work in cognitive learning, how to use them as allies and how they can be

identified and spotted, always aiming at increasing learners awareness and strength their

intrinsic motivation.

6

Errors and Mistakes: concepts and possibilities for learning

Learning a language is a complex process in which students are constantly challenged

as in the cognitive level as in the learning strategies level. The cognitive skills to achieve

language development in a student bases comprehensively in Piaget’s theories of cognitive

development in children1. First children, when they are babies, learn through their senses,

activities and interaction with their surroundings, then as the level of cognitive skills increase

in difficulty children start using their own experiences with real objects to express their

communication about and with the world. As the level of experiencing the world through

immediate environment, children initiate the use of language to make sense of their world. As

the last level of cognitive skills, from childhood up to the age of adulthood mature the process

of abstract thinking.

Fischer (1980: 477) contributes to this explanations saying that “Cognitive

development is explained by a series of skill structures called levels together with a set of

transformation rules that relate these levels to each other”. He also states that “the

transformations produce continuous and gradual behavioral changes; but across the entire

profile of a person's skills and within highly practiced task domains, a stagelike shift in skills

occurs as the person develops to a new optimal level”.

It comes to light, then, that language acquisition, too, is part of the cognitive

psychology and linguistic theories undertake its processes rather distinct from language

learning. “The role of learning strategies in the acquisition of information generally can be

understood by reference to the information processing framework for learning”. (O’MALLEY

& CHAMOT, 1990). Accordingly, the information is stored in short-term memory and in

long-term memory, the early being “the active working memory that holds modest amounts of

information only for a brief period” and the lasts being “the sustained storage of information,

which may be represented as isolated elements or more likely as interconnected networks”.

Nevertheless, errors are constantly encountered in the learning processes. It is

necessary to comprehend the distinction between errors and mistakes. To error Lennon (1991)

defines it as "a linguistic form or combination of forms which in the same context and under

similar conditions of production would, in all likelihood, not be produced by the speakers'

native speakers’ counterparts". Corder in Karra (2006) contributed with “the distinction

between systematic and non-systematic errors.” He added that “unsystematic errors occur in

1 As the paper on the website 123helpme.com presents Piaget’s and other scholars views on the learning

processes. However, it has not been considered only one theory of language learning or acquisition for this study

7

one’s native language; these [are] ‘mistakes’ and states that they are not significant to the

process of language learning”. He keeps “the term ‘errors’ for the systematic ones, which

occur in a second language”.

In first languages errors are a result of being exposed and being challenged to develop

the need of communication, innate of human nature to learn how to communicate and, thus,

part of the acquisition of a language. This cognitive process is apparent in first language

errors, for instance, the generalization speakers use, the past of the regular verbs used in

irregular constructions, e.g. goed instead of went. Ur (2012: 88) states that “as they hear the

correct forms more and more, these will naturally take over, and conscious correction is not

absolutely necessary (although it is sometimes supplied by, for example, a mother talking to

her child)”.

On the other hand, second language learners tend to use their experience of first

language (L1), as they are fluent and can communicate very well in L1, and whenever it

comes to a situation in learning a second language (L2) that they may have not mastered some

language features yet, they will certainly rely on comparing or making use of L1 features into

L2, at certain times even using different word order or false cognates. Those are kinds of

errors that hinder communication and if they are not given importance, or if teachers do not

manage correction techniques to support learning, definitely, students will have problems in

learning L2. Ur (2012: 89) says that “this is the main function of error correction: to prevent

mistakes from becoming permanent (or ‘fossilizing’), whether they are rooted in interference

from L1 or in some difficult feature within English itself.”

As a result of the way these errors and mistakes are present in the learning process,

some theories focus on analyzing errors and approach methods to register deviances in order

to suggest a critical thinking for the teacher and not only correction. This paper will not go

further on Error Analysis2 but we recommend further reading in order to broaden teachers’

perspective.

There have also been researches on feedback from students on how they have

performed in tasks so that teachers may find in errors chances to assess their courses or even

enable students to assess themselves in order to enrich the learning process. Considering the

2 “As a methodology error analysis has implications both for practical purposes and psycholinguistic orientation.

It serves to help the teacher to gain insight into the learner’s learning process and provide more facilitative

conditions that can promote the process. Mere error correction, particularly the immediate correction in class,

may distort the learner’s hypothesis formulation and delay the learning process”. (ZHANG: 93)

8

accountability as an essential part in tasks students take in classes, students and teachers must

know how the concept of being responsible for one’s own learning process is very important

to enable confidence in learning. Too, students need to be critical in terms of studying a

language and by assessing their own production can collaborate towards this matter. To

teachers, enabling their students to assess assigned tasks may show vital points and, therefore,

anticipate problems and solutions. Herein, the critical view of teachers about the kind of

mistakes or errors that will occur in tasks is essential to reinforcement of learning process.

At Yázigi, an English language school in Brazil, São Paulo, the department of applied

linguistics, CLA (2009: 9), states that:

The accountability helps foster in students a perception of the way they use language. In this phase (of the oral task, for instance), the teacher checks the learning results and helps

students realize how much they learned through the activity.

Therefore, some errors and mistakes should call teachers’ attention and must be

carefully understood in order to enable learning in a more meaningful way, since they are

useful to indicate aspects to improve in teaching and in learning. Managing correction

techniques and dealing with mistakes differently from errors contemplates the needs of

analyzing how these deviances in the learning process can only contribute to a better

comprehension of the process itself and of how students’ individualities may do to learn a

second language.

9

Dealing with mistakes and errors in language learning

Error correction (also referred to as “corrective feedback”) is undoubtedly one of

the main concerns of teachers of English as a foreign language due to the complexity

and sensibility that should be addressed to the topic. When dealing with error correction

a number of variables should be taken into account by the teachers, such as, the

students’ age, educational background, level of proficiency, interests, as well as its

limitations.

Ur (2012) suggests that “the main problem with error correction is that it does

not produce either immediate or consistent results”, in other words, although students

do improve, immediate improvement in students’ performance should not be expected,

that is a job to be patiently done and repeated times. Many scholars agree that another

challenge to face is related to attitudes of teachers and learners towards error correction.

Ur mentions that it is not easy for any of the parts involved and tells someone that what

they are doing is wrong and should do that in another way and in order to avoid

negative implications for the relationship between teachers and students, the learners’

opinions should be considered.

A research carried out by Ur (2012) indicates that learners want to be corrected

and to be told what the correct form is, and when errors are ignored by teachers,

students can feel disappointed or resentful; therefore teachers must be willing to make

interventions whenever they feel students will profit more from them. Teachers have to

“ensure that students are receptive to error treatment” (MOSS, ?) then, it is advisable

that teachers listen to their students so that they are aware of what their students’

preferences and attitudes are when being corrected.

Another important issue to be raised is how to decide on which errors should be

corrected. Bearing in mind the principles of the Communicative Approach, whose main

aim of language learning is to receive and convey meaningful messages, thus

prioritizing fluency over accuracy; errors which hinder communication of the speaker’s

messages should receive teachers’ attention. It does not mean that educators will

disregard grammatical errors, leaving them unattended. Without interrupting the flow of

speech the teacher can resort to “noting the mistake and coming back to it later” (UR,

2012). Besides that, for Moss (?) teachers must focus on errors that are repeated

regularly by one or more students in a class and also to the ones teachers consider the

most serious. There may be cases that errors take place when students lack some

10

knowledge of the language because they are not ready to learn a more complex

structure. Instead of giving unnecessary explanation about the grammar items, Moss

proposed that the “language can be contextualized and given to the students in the form

of chunks, e.g, by encouraging them to say ‘I’ve finished’ and not ‘I am finished’”.

However, when the class’ focus is on pronunciation of words or sentences, the

teacher’s intervention should be done immediately after learners have committed a

mistake, in order not to have the defective language repeated and copied by their peers.

In addition to this, it is very significant that students are motivated enough to see

a point in being corrected and recognizing that their performance is flawed. That is the

reason why Moss thinks teachers cannot merely point out that an error has been made

and correct it, there must be an effort of the teacher to support learners to realize

differences between their utterances and that a native speaker would produce. To make

it happen, Ur (2012) cites the main techniques used in oral correction:

- Recast. The teacher simply says the correct version of the student’s

erroneous utterance, without any further comment;

- Elicitation. The teacher elicits the correct form from the student (assuming

that the learner can in fact produce it);

- Clarification request. A teacher asks for a clarification of the meaning;

- Metalinguistic feedback. The teacher explains using of grammatical or

other linguistics terminology;

- Explicit correction. The teacher says explicitly that there has been a

mistake, and what the right form is;

- Repetition The teacher repeats the incorrect utterance, with a rising intonation and a doubting expression, implying that there’s something wrong

with it.

It is worth-noting that not only explicit correction but also recast does not lead

the students to reflect on their productions, and sometimes not even aware of their errors

and mistakes, once the teacher offers the correct answers to the learners. The use of

those techniques should have careful attention of the teacher, because it can make

students dependent on teacher’s assistance.

According to studies carried out by Lyster quoted by Ur (2012) “the most

effective oral correction involves some kind of negotiation and active contribution from

the student”, such as elicitation, clarification request and repetitions, therefore, teachers

should promote activities which encourage students to be active participants of the error

correction and less dependent of the teacher’s interventions.

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Effective correction in speaking tasks

Considering the concepts dealt with previously, it is part of a teacher’s critical

work to try to preview possible errors and set some strategies before delivering a lesson.

In fact, in lesson plans teachers may constantly revisit the discussion proposed in this

paper and make use of certain techniques presented above on how to deal with errors

and mistakes in their lessons.

In order to compile the findings in this paper and to use them to comprehend and

reflect upon the importance of effective correction, a speaking task3 was used to

illustrate the practices discussed above.

First activity in the speaking task consists of displaying a couple of short

dialogues where students are expected to get in contact with the language features,

specifically ‘grammar’ (have + been to, present perfect tense) and in a structured

manner read them and use them with a classmate, in order to start practicing language.

Some mistakes may call teachers attention, such as, perhaps, the use of ‘not’ in “I

haven’t not either”. This does not need to make the whole process of using language, in

a very controlled dialogue, a problem. In fact, as McCarthy (1991: 143) reminds

teachers and researches in his studies on Discourse Analysis that “language teachers

tend to work with a set of norms based on the written language, where clause and

sentence structure are clearly defined”. Adding to this, he emphasizes that “spoken data,

however, present a different picture, and frequently contain forms that would be

considered ungrammatical in writing”.

Consequently, whenever it comes to the development of fluency, such mistakes

must not be given much attention to, otherwise, students may not feel confident to

improve their fluency. A fluent student does not mean perfectly grammatical accurate,

but it does not mean either that minor slips or deviances disturb communication. The

scholar brings an example about this focus on fluency that “native speakers of English

are also fond of saying things such as 'the thing is is that I don't know her number', 'the

problem is is (…)’”. McCarthy explains that it is so constantly and automatically

spoken by native speakers the contraction of ‘is’ with the sentence structures mentioned

that this grammatically incorrect use of double verb form in oral communication does

not hinder the process. Certainly, a fluent or proficient speaker will definitely make this

3 Unit 1 Have you ever been abroad, “Speaking” p.13 (see attachment 1)

12

slip but in a written form will know it cannot occur in language. That confirms the

whole picture of the difference between mistakes and errors.

Pronunciation problems may be present in the activity one, for instance, but

with either recast or explicit correction techniques, students will repeat accordingly and

rhythm and sentence stress can be acquired considering the level of language exposition

students will have already accomplished by the time this activity is used. In a second

moment of this task, students will try to practice the same dialogue with their

classmates. Yet, even if students make mistakes in the sentences grammar use, they will

certainly be exposed to formal teaching. A simple repetition may do for this learning

phase.

The second activity in the speaking task puts the students in a more active

situation and, thus, requires teachers’ attention to mistakes, because now they might not

be slips anymore, they tend to be errors. Teachers are suggested that formal explanation

of the grammar, present perfect tense, plus the usage of ‘been to’, shall be taken place in

this part of the task. Then, any misuse of the tense must be drawn attention to and must

be corrected, due to the fact that at this moment the focus is on accuracy. Consequently,

explicit correction and metalinguistic feedback as Ur (2012: 94-95) exemplifies can

contribute to learning.

Vocabulary is used in the part three of the task and is contextualized in order to

review cities, places and countries in usage. Formal instruction here is not necessary.

Perhaps, before even having students do this activity, teachers may find interesting that

students may speak out aloud about these cities and make the connections such as

“Sydney is in Australia and it is…”. That short practice may help students concentrate

in the concept of ‘being to’ cities/countries etc.

Finally, the task leads students to a more personal dialogue in part four and

allows them to speak in a freer manner, focusing on speaking fluency, in part five. As

this later performance requires previous practice and instructions, students are to

represent their learning of the language items worked. During the less controlled

practice (the use of dialogue model, activity four), if errors are made they will have to

be dealt with a more natural way, such as native speakers would do in real life. Some

techniques will do perfectly: clarification requests during speaking time, even from a

classmate to another, can contribute to the sense of making oneself understood.

We shall take the following hypothetical error happening in the activity:

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A: Have you ever been to Salvador?

B: No, I been to Santos beaches only.

Teacher or student must encourage fluent communication with accuracy then.

One must ask “I didn’t understand, can you tell me more clearly?”, or “I didn’t

understand, can you tell me if you have or haven’t been to Salvador?” Those

clarification questions will certainly help students realize their errors, or at least foster

their learning with self-monitoring and self-assessment. Error list and posterior

feedback can also provide a better flow in the task, but with a formal explanation of the

errors on the board, later, students may find it as a good chance to reflect upon their

errors and correct them next time.

The last activity in the task will provide a freer speaking opportunity for students

to make conversations and deal with oral communication challenges in class and further

practice may lead students to fluency in English. Therefore, it is essential for teachers to

constantly reflect on the focuses of the speaking tasks in order not to hamper the

learning process and increase stress. That can simply disturb students’ learning process

and will not add much to the success of speaking skills development.

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Conclusion

A considerable number of authors, scholars and studies show that errors and

mistakes are part of the natural process of language learning and this ought to be taken

into account when it comes to second language learners, either for children or for adults.

We as teachers and educators should make full use of the mistakes and errors

made by learners and use them as a tool to improve our own teaching methods and

approaches and reflect upon the learning process.

ZHA and HONG (2007), from Zhejiang University City College in China,

suggest in their scientific article on the topic that instead of avoiding, blaming and

criticizing students whenever they commit errors or mistakes, we should make use of

them, treating them properly and giving students the adequate reward for his or her

successful language development, even if not performed the way teachers expect.

Corder (1973) clearly introduced the distinction between errors (in competence)

and mistakes (in performance) and he states that errors, mainly, “can be facilitative and

provide information about one’s learning strategies”.

Hence, Hagége (1999) notes that mistakes and errors are not to be taken as

useless or harmful and neither to be eliminated. Just on the contrary, they cannot

discourage learners and have them feel dejected due to the amount of incorrect

production they tend do make while learning takes place. No author mean at any

moment that correction of errors and mistakes must be avoided, but the correction of

every error, according to Hagége as soon as it occurs is not recommended. He justifies

it by pointing out that:

“the linguistic message that the child tries to produce is a sequence of elements

which are interdependent; immediate corrections which interrupt this message tend

to produce negative consequences; such consequences include anxiety, fear of

making an error, the development of avoidance strategies, reduced motivation for participation in the classroom, lack of interest for learning, reduced will for self-

correction, and lack of trust towards the teacher.”

When it comes to the teacher’s role as a facilitator as well as a guide, a critical

view over errors and mistakes is crucial and very important, once in order to put into

practice the theories raised about errors and mistakes, the teacher is supposed to be able

to anticipate all sorts of problems that certain delivered lesson might cause, to create

and to develop strategies in order to support students when committing errors which

might occur.

15

Also, what must be considered are the different types of errors and mistakes and

the right moment of teacher’s interference for correction. Fluency development

demands a “speech autonomy”, which is to provide students tools to produce language

enhancement, not being concerned with accuracy all the time. When corrections start

happening abruptly and constantly, students tend to lose their self-confidence, what can

heavily obstruct communication.

Likewise, for students, the concepts of errors and mistakes must be clear in their

minds, once it is part of their whole process as learners: since it is essential for them to

consciously make use of the language, to be aware of its use and also to be able to

assess their own performances. Tasks are resources which enable teachers to identify

where the language focus should be, while for students, they are means to verify their

understanding and perceptions regarding the language, as well as to confirm the

processes required in language learning.

16

References

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updated edition of A Course in Language Teaching. 2nd Edition. Cambridge

University Press, pp. 88-96, 2012.

MOSS, H. The Correction of students’ oral errors. The British Council, Available at

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oral-errors.pdf. Access at 10 Oct., 2012.

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HAGÈGE, C. L’enfant aux deux langues, The child between two languages, Greek

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Attachments

Attachment 1

Copyright Editora Scipione