Exploring Tacklers' and Students' Perceptions of Error Correction in the Efl Classroom: Grade 11 in Focus
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Date
2009-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' and students'
perceptions of error correction in the ~FL classroom. The study was
designed to explore how teachers and students perceive errors, the typeB
of errors that are frequently committed by learners, and the methods of
error corrections employed.
To achieve the objectives, 28 teachers and 174 students in two
preparatory secondary schools (Hotie and Memihir Akalewold) in Dessie
town were used as subjects. They filled in questionnaires, responded to
interviews and observed in classrooms.
This research revealed that both teachers and students believe that
errors are rule deviations that occur both in speech and writing. And
most of teacher interviewees confirmed that students do not want their
errors to be corrected. The study also showed mismatches of error
perceptions between teachers and students over the amount of spoken
and written errors provided by teachers, the relevance of the method of
giving hints or clues.
The classroom observation results revealed that all the SlX observed
teachers corrected 39 errors out of the 40 errors committed by students.
This result clearly shows that teachers do not ignore some of learners'
errors. Teachers were also observed giving less attention to selfcorrection.
Only two errors (2.5% of the students' errors) were selfcorrected)
which is against teachers' and students' responses of error
perceptions and the views of scholars such as Murphy (1986), Tudor
(1996) and Ancker (2000) which are in favour of the importance of selfcorrection. Error correction is a complex problem that teachers and students
encounter in their classrooms. This research revealed teachers' and
students' perceptions of error correction. The methods of error correction
employed by teachers should be in line with the learners' preferences to
make the language learning process successfuL