REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION IN ENGLISH

The Changing World of English

A language story

 By the end of 20 th century, English was already on its way to becoming a genuine lingua
franca, i.e. a language used widely for communication between people who do not share
first (or even second) language.
 In 1985, it was estimated that there were about 320 and 380 million speakers of English as a
first language while there were about 250 and 380 second language speakers of the
language.
 By 2003 Crystal estimated around 1.5 billion English speakers around the world, of whom
only some 329 million are native speakers. Moreover, the population growth in areas where
English is a second language is around 2.5 times that in areas where it is a first language.
 Issues: a. The triumph of English
b. English as a global language
c. The future of English

The triumph of English

a. A colonial history: When the Pilgrims from Plymouth, England arrived in Massachusetts
coast in 1620, they brought with them not just a set of religious beliefs but also their
pioneering spirit, their desire for colonization and their language. The Americans has since
broke away from their colonial masters but the English language remained.
In Australia, when Commander Philip planted the British flag in Sydney Cove on January
26, 1788, it wasn’t just a bunch of British convicts and their guardians who disembarked ,
but also a language.
In other parts of the British empire, English rapidly became the unifying/dominating
means of control as what happened in India.

b. Economics: A major factor in the growth of English has been the spread of global
commerce, pushed on by the dominance of the United States as a world economic power.
The English language travelled in the wake of the US economic success and now it has
become one of the main mediating languages of international businesses.

c. Information exchange: A great deal of academic discourse around the world takes place in
English. Even fields as diverse as astrophysics and zoology have English as a default
language. Internet too, as a major channel for information saw the marked predominance of
English as the language of communication.

d. Travel: Much travel and tourism is carried on, around the world in English. Also, English is
the preferred language of air traffic control in many countries and is used widely in sea
travel communication.
 e. Popular culture: Pop music in English saturates the planet’s airwaves. Thus many people
who are not English speakers can sing words from their favorite English-medium songs.

The future of English: the implication

English will grow although it’s growth rate may be challenged by other big language
groups (Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, etc). However, because native speakers are becoming less
and less “powerful” in the daily use of the language, we will have to adjust the way in which
native an non-native experts have traditionally thought about learning and teaching English
around the world.

Characteristics of Non-native English (Seidlhofer, 2004)

 Non-use of third person present simple tense –s (She look very sad)
 Interchangeable use of the relative pronouns who and which (a book who, a person which)
 Omission of definite and indefinite articles where they are obligatory in native-speaker English,
and insertion where they do not occur in native English
 Use of an all-purpose tag question such as isn’t it? Or no? instead of shouldn’t they? (They
should arrive soon, isn’t it?)
 Increasing of redundancy by adding prepositions (We have to study about… and Can we discuss
about...?), or by increasing explicitness (black color and how long time? vs. how long?)
 Heavy reliance on certain verbs of high semantic generality such as do, have, make, put, take
 Pluralization of nouns considered uncountable (informations, staffs, advices)
 Use of that instead of infinitive constructions (I want that we discuss about my dissertation)

Background Issues in Language Learning

Language acquisition is “…guaranteed for children up to the age of six, is steadily compromised
from then until shortly after puberty, and is rate thereafter” (Pinker, 1994).

A. Acquisition and Learning

a. Harold Palmer on ‘spontaneous’ and ‘studial’ capacities. The former is the ability to acquire
language naturally and subconsciously, whereas the latter allows students to organize their learning and
apply their conscious knowledge to the task at hand. Palmer suggested that spontaneous capabilities are
brought into play for the acquisition of the spoken language, whereas studial capabilities are required
for the development of literacy.

b. Stephen Krashen’s Input Hypothesis and Monitor Theory. Krashen claimed that the language
which we acquire subconsciously (anxiety free) is the language we can easily use in spontaneous
conversation because it is readily available when we need it. Language that is learnt, on the other hand,
is not available for spontaneous use. Thus, it may be that the only use for learnt language is to help us
monitor our spontaneous communication; but the more we monitor our communication, the less
spontaneous we become.
 However, for students to successfully acquire a language, the language input they receive
should be comprehensible (i+1), that information the students already have plus the next level up, and
should be roughly rather than finely-tuned input.

B. The contributions of Behaviorism

In the Behaviorist Theory, conditioning is the result of a three-stage procedure: stimulus,
response and reinforcement. Thus, in language learning, a behaviorist slant is evident when students are
asked to repeat sentences correctly and are rewarded for such correctness by teacher praise or some
other benefit. The more often this occurs, the more the learner is conditioned to produce the language
successfully on all future occasions.
Behaviorism was directly responsible for Audiolingualism, with its heavy emphasis on drilling
(following the stimulus-response-reinforcement model). As such the influence of Behaviorism is the
direct opposite of any theory of subconscious acquisition.
Behaviorism was also married to Direct Method with its strict use of English-only in the
classroom and the use of real objects, pictures or demonstration to establish form and meaning
associations. The point is that a concentration of form(rather than subconscious acquisition) was
considered to be advantageous.

C. Allwright: ‘Language learning will take care of itself’

Dick Allwright and his colleagues at the University of Essex in England in 1979 shifted their effort
from the product of learning to the learning process itself suggesting that we learn something by doing
it. Merrill Swain in 1985 called this the ‘comprehensible output’ . In agreement, Jane Willis (1996) said:
“…you must learn the language freely to learn to speak it, even if you make a lot of errors.” This means
that students need chances to say what they think or feel and to experiment with using the language
they have heard or seen in a supportive atmosphere, without feeling threatened.

D. Focus on form or focus on forms?

The idea that students should be involved in ‘solving communication problems in the target
language’, i.e. performing communicative tasks in which they have to (mostly) speak their way out of
trouble – has given rise to Task-based language teaching. In this context, a distinction has been made
between focus on form and focus on forms. Focus on form occurs when students direct their conscious
attention to some feature of the language, such as a verb tense or the organization of paragraphs. It can
happen at any stage of a learning sequence or will occur naturally when students try to complete
communicative tasks (and worry how to do it – or how they did it) in Task-based learning. Focus on form
is often incidental and opportunistic, growing out of tasks which students are involved in, rather than
being pre-determined by a book or syllabus.
Many language syllabuses and course books are structured around a series of language forms,
however. Teachers and students focus on them one by one because they are on the syllabus. This is
often called ‘focus on forms’ because one of the chief organizing principles behind a course is the
learning of these forms.

E. Thinking about learning

 Many students seem to learn better if they are asked to think about the language they are
coming into contact with. For example, instead of explicitly teaching the present perfect tense, we could
expose students to examples of it and then allow them, under our guidance, to work out for themselves
how it is used.
One powerful reason for encouraging language students to discover things for themselves is the
complex nature of language itself. While there may be an argument at lower levels for reducing its
complexity into manageable pieces, students who encounter real language outside the classroom will
find that it is considerable ‘messier’ than it may appear in a language lesson. Their response to this may
well depend on how prepared they are to observe this messy language and work out, for themselves,
how it is put together. Thus discovery learning may not be suitable for all students, however, especially
if it conflicts with their own learning expectations or culture.

F. Arousal, affect and humanistic teaching

Students’ feelings go way beyond concerns about how people learn and remember language
items. They relate to the whole learning experience and influence how students feel about themselves.
After all, in the presence of overly negative feelings such as anxiety, fear, stress, anger or depression,
our optimal learning potential may be compromised. The American writer Earl Stevick called these
negative feelings ‘alienations’ and suggested that to counter these states, humanist approaches are
called for.
Stephen Krashen would seem to agree. His Affective Filter Hypothesis claim that the beneficial
value or comprehensible input depends upon the students being relaxed and feeling positive and
unthreatened. If they are not, then their affective filter is raised and blocks the input from being
absorbed and processed.
How then can teachers ensure that their students feel positive about learning- that the affective
filter is lowered? Carl Rogers suggested that learners need to feel that what they are learning is
personally relevant to them, that they have to experience learning (rather than just being ‘taught’), and
that their self image need to be enhanced as part of the process. The teacher can achieve this by
keeping criticism to a minimum and be encouraging them, in plain terms, to feel good about themselves.
In a humanistic classroom, learning a language is as much an issue of personal identity, self-knowledge,
feelings and emotions as it is about language.

G. When you’re ready!

Lev Vygotsky, a Soviet psychologist in the 1920s believed that all learning, including language
learning, is mediated by social interaction. Learning is ‘assisted performance’, and this happens when
someone with more knowledge – a parent or a teacher- helps the learner to progress. This help is called
‘scaffolding,’ a kind of supportive framework for the construction of knowledge, and the scaffolding is
only removed when the learners can appropriate the knowledge for themselves.
A key element of scaffolding is that the learners can only benefit from it if they are in the Zone
of Proximal Development (ZPD), in other words, if they are just getting to a stage where they are ready
to learn the new thing with the assistance of others.

H. Language play
 Play is seen as something that children do and it is highly appropriate in L2 classrooms. The right
kind of laughter works powerfully on student affect. Much play and humour is co-constructed, so
students have to work together. A lot of play and joke-telling is rule-bound and linguistically repetitive.
As Guy Cook pointed out, humour and playful activities occupy large amounts of our real-life existence,
however, ‘unreal’ they are.

REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION IN ENGLISH

 REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION IN ENGLISH

Describing Learning Contexts

A. Class size

English language classes vary greatly in size. Some students opt for private lessons, so the
teacher only has to deal with one student at a time. In the Philippines, some teachers usually have
classes of as many as 60 (and sometimes even more)! Everything depends on the particular education
system that a teacher is working in. That is why, if you ask a teacher what a ‘large class’ is, their answers
will vary.
There are two extremes of the class-size debate, however, one-to-one teaching and large
classes.

A.1. Teaching one-to-one

Advantages:
 the teacher is focused exclusively on one person and the student gets all the opportunity to talk
instead of only receiving a fraction of the total speaking time
 both teacher and student can tailor the course to exactly what is appropriate for that one
student, rather than having to reach a compromise based on what is suitable for a group as a
whole.
 the student gets greatly enhanced feedback from the teacher
 it is easier for the teacher to be flexible
Disadvantages:
 the intensity of the rapport (or lack of it) between teacher and student virtually important
 some find the teacher’s methodological style difficult to deal with
  both the student and the teacher can become sleepy because the dynamism of a crowded
classroom is missing
 some students seem to expect the teacher to do all the work for them when one-on-one
learning demands just as much, if not more, from the student as it does from the teacher.
Guidelines:
 Make a good impression: first impressions are especially important when teaching on-to-one.
With no group to help create an atmosphere, the way the student perceives the teacher at their
first encounter is of vital importance. A good impression is created by the way we present
ourselves (in terms of our appearance) and how we behave in the first lesson.
 Be well-prepared: one of the most important ways of creating a good impression is to show the
student that we are well-prepared and that we have given thought to what we are going to do
in the lesson.
 Be flexible: one-to-one lessons provide enormous opportunities for flexibility.
 Adapt to the student: one of the great benefits of one-to-one lessons is that we can adapt what
we do to suit a particular student’s preferences and learning style.
 Listen and watch: adapting to students can only take place is we are extremely observant about
how individual students respond to different activities, styles and content. One-to-one teachers
need to listen just as much as they talk.
 Give explanations and guidelines: it is important to explain what is going to happen, and how
the student can contribute to the program they are involved in and to lay down guidelines about
what they can expect
 Don’t be afraid to say no: one-to-one teachers should not be afraid to say no in two specific
situations – when the personality match which really happens sometimes doesn’t really work,
and when the student appears to want more and more from them as if this will solve all their
problems and teach them English effortlessly.

A.2. Large Classes

Large classes can certainly pose challenges however, there are also benefits to teaching these
large groups. In large classes there are always enough students to get interaction going, and there is a
rich variety of human resources. Furthermore, there are many possible ‘teachers’ in the class, and the
teacher will never get bored because the challenge is great!

Elements to successful large class teaching:

 Be organized: the bigger the group, the more we have to be organized. It is much more difficult
to respond to individual concerns with a large class than it is with a group of four or five
students.
 Establish routine: the daily management of large class will be greatly enhanced if we establish
routines that we and our students recognize right away.
 Use different pace for different activities: vary the pace of what we do on the basis of how the
students are reacting.
  Maximize individual work: the more we can give students individual work, even in a large class,
the more we can mitigate the effects of always working with a large group ‘as a whole’.
 Use students: we can give them a number of responsibilities in the class. Assign someone to take
the attendance or collect the assignment, or to ‘teach’ others.
 Use pair work and group work : in large classes, pair work and group work play an important part
since they maximize student participation. When using pair work and group work in large
classes, it is important to make instructions especially clear, to agree how to stop the activity
and to give good feedback.
 Take account of vision and acoustics : big classes often (but not always) happen in big rooms.
This has advantages if we want students to move around but we also have to ensure that what
we show or write can be seen and that what we say or play to the whole group can be heard.
 Use the size of the group to your advantage : big groups have disadvantages, but they have one
main advantage – they are bigger so humor is funnier, drama is more dramatic and a good class
feeling is warmer and more enveloping than it is in a small group. We should never shy away
from the potential that lecturing, acting and joking offer in such a situation.

C. Managing mixed ability

All classes have students with a mixture of different abilities and language levels and it is
inconceivable that any two students will have exactly the same knowledge of English at any one time.
Even if we were able to assemble a class of complete beginners, it would soon be clear that some were
learning faster than others – or learning different things.

C.1. Different student actions

 Give students different tasks: we might ask all students to look at the same reading task but
make a difference in terms of the tasks we ask them to do in response to that text.
 Give students different roles: assign students different roles within a task.
 Reward early finishers
 Encourage different student responses : we can give students exactly the same materials and
tasks, but expect (and accept) different responses to them. Examples to this may include giving
all students a set of words and asking them to make sentences that contain all of the words you
gave them, or letting them complete a sentence.
 Identify student strengths (linguistic or non-linguistic ): one of the ways we can make a virtue of
different student abilities is to include tasks which do not necessarily demand linguistic brilliance
but instead allow students to show off other talents they have. This is a way giving the students
the chance to be ‘best’ at something, even where they might be weaker, linguistically, than
some of their colleagues.

C.2. Realistic mixed ability teaching

In very large classes, it becomes a real challenge to plan for significant differentiation and
provide students with a really rewarding learning experience. So, while we recognize the need for
differentiation, we need to be realistic about how we can achieve it – and how much differentiation we
can achieve. Therefore when considering differentiation, we have to work out what is possible and what
is not.
There are however times when, we want to teach the class as a whole. This may be because we
want to build or reinforce the group’s identity or it may be because we believe that everyone in the
group should learn the same thing or be offered the same information. As with so many other areas of
learning and teaching, we do the best we can in the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Let us just remember that learner training and the encouragement of learner autonomy is the
ultimate achievement of differentiation. If we can get students to take responsibility for their own
learning, they are acting as autonomous individuals and differentiation has thus been achieved.

D. Monolingual, bilingual and multilingual

The idea that the only language teachers and students can use in the foreign language
classroom is the one they are learning came about because of the Direct Method. And it came about
too, because teachers from English-speaking countries were travelling the world teaching people whose
first language they themselves could not speak. Perhaps it was also the result of a methodology
grounded in the problems and advantages of teaching classes where students had a mixture or first
languages so that English became not only the focus of learning but also the medium of instruction. But
whatever the reason, there is still a strong body of opinion which says that the classroom should be an
English-only environment. However, this opinion is now seriously questioned by the majority of
methodologists and, instead, a view of how and when the use the L1 in the classroom has become the
main subject for debate.

D.1. The benefits of using L1 in the classroom

 In planning, self-evaluation and learner training, topics can be discussed fluently instead of the
halting English of a beginner or elementary student.
 When students use their L1 between themselves and with the teacher, it has a positive effect on
group dynamics and that it allows students to give ongoing feedback about the course and their
experiences of learning much more fluently than they would if they were only using English
 Teachers will get more from lower students through the use of L1 especially when discussing
personal matters with students.
 Students (with the teacher’s assistance) will be able to notice the difference between the L1 and
L and will help them understand certain classes of errors.

D.2. The disadvantages of using L1 in the L2 classroom

 The teacher may not share the students’ L1 and therefore, will not be able to compare the two
languages and derive learning from the comparison
 It restricts the students’ exposure to L2
 It will not be useful for communicative classroom activities that encourage students to try out
speaking in English
D.3. Taking a stand
 Acknowledge the L1
 Use appropriate L1, L2 activities
 Differentiate between levels
 Agree on clear guidance
 Use encouragement and persuasion

REMEDIAL INSTRUCTION IN ENGLISH

Mistakes and Feedback

Black and William (1998) found that feedback on students’ work probably has more effect on
achievement than any other single factor. It is therefore important, to make sure that the feedback we
give is appropriate to the students concerned and to the activity they are involved in, and that we
recognize feedback as a crucial part of the learning process.

A. Students make mistakes

Edge (1989) divided the mistakes that students make into three broad categories: ‘slips’
(mistakes which they can correct themselves once the mistake has been pointed out to them), ‘errors’
(mistakes which they can’t correct themselves – and which therefore need explanation) and ‘attempts’
(when a student tries to say something but does not yet know the correct way of saying it). Of these, it is
the category of ‘error’ that most concerns teachers, though the students’ ‘attempts’ will tell us a lot
about their current knowledge.

Sources of Errors:
 L1 interference: students who learn English as a second language already have a deep
knowledge of at least one other language. Where that L1 and the variety of English they are
learning come into contact with each other, there are often confusions which provoke errors in
a learner’s use of English. This can be at the level of sounds, grammar or word usage.
 Developmental errors: second and foreign language students make some kinds of
developmental errors. This accounts for mistakes like She is more nicer than him where the
acquisition of more for comparatives is over-generalized and then mixed up with a rule the
student has learned – that comparative adjectives are formed with an adjective + -er. Errors of
this kind are part of a natural acquisition process.

B. Assessing student performance

B.1. Teachers assessing students

Students are likely to receive teacher assessment in terms of praise or blame. Indeed, one of our
roles is to encourage students by praising them for work that is well done. Praise is a vital component in
a student’s motivation and progress.
 2 parts of praise (Petty, 2004):
 medal – what we give students for doing something well
 mission – the direction we give the students to improve
While it is true that students respond well to praise, over-complimenting them on their work –
particularly if their own self-evaluation tells them they have not done well – may prove counter-
productive. They may become ‘praise junkies’, students who are so addicted to praise that they become
attention seekers and their need for praise blinds them to what progress they are actually making. This
suggests that assessment has to be handled with subtlety. Indiscriminate praise or blame will have little
positive effect but a combination of appropriate praise together with helpful suggestions about how to
improve in the future will have a much greater chance of contributing to student improvement.
It is sometimes tempting to concentrate all our feedback on the language which students use,
such as incorrect verb tenses, pronunciation or spelling and to ignore the content or what they are
saying or writing. Yet this is a mistake, especially when we involve them in language production
activities. It is therefore important to give feedback on what the students say rather than just on how
they say it.

There are a number of ways in which we can assess our students’ work:
 Comments: commenting on a student performance happens at various stages both in and
outside the class. We may say Good or nod approvingly, and these comments are a clear sign of
a positive assessment. When we wish to give a negative assessment, we might do so by
indicating that something has gone wrong or by saying things such as That’s not quite right. Even
then we must acknowledge the students’ effort first (medal) before showing that something is
wrong – and then suggesting future action (mission).
 Marks and grades: when students get good grades, their motivation is often positively affected –
provided that the level of challenge for the task was appropriate. Bad grades can be extremely
disheartening. Nor is grading always easy and clear cut. Therefore, we have to decide on what
basis are we going to give grades and we need to be able to describe this to the students.
 Reports: at the end of the semester, or the school year, some teachers write reports to be sent
out to students and parents. It is important then that the teacher, when writing reports should
achieve a judicious balance between positive and negative feedback, where this is possible. As
with all feedback, students have a right (and a desire) to know not only what their weaknesses
may be but also what strengths they have been able to demonstrate.
Reports of this kind may lead to future improvement and progress. The chances for this
are greatly increased if they are taken together with the students’ own assessment of their
performance.

B.2. Students assessing themselves

Students can also be extremely effective at monitoring and judging their own language
production. They frequently have a very clear idea of how well they are doing of have done, and if we
help them to develop this awareness, we may greatly enhance learning.
 Involving students in an assessment of themselves and their peers can take many forms. We can
ask them, at the end of an activity how well they think they have got on, or tell them to add a written
comment to a piece of written work they have completed, giving their own assessment of that work. We
may also ask them to give marks or grades to themselves and see how this tallies with our own.

C. Feedback during oral work

Though feedback during oral work can be helpful, teachers should not necessarily deal with all
oral production in the same way. Decisions about how to react to performance will depend upon the
stage of the lesson, the activity, the type of mistake made and the particular student who is making that
mistake.

C.1. Accuracy and fluency

A distinction is often made between accuracy and fluency. We need to decide whether a
particular activity in the classroom is designed to expect the students’ complete accuracy- as in the
study of a piece of grammar, a pronunciation exercise or some vocabulary work – or whether we are
asking the students to use the language as fluently as possible. We need to make a distinction between
non-communicative and communicative activities; whereas the former are generally intended to ensure
correctness, the latter are designed to improve language fluency.
Most students want and expect us to give them feedback. The timing however is crucial. While
there are times when immediate feedback is necessary, there could also be times when delayed
feedback is more appropriate. When students are involved in an accuracy work, it is part of the
teacher’s function to point out and correct the mistakes the students are making. This is called ‘teacher
intervention’ – a stage where the teacher stops the activity to make the correction. During
communicative activities, however, it is generally felt that teachers should not interrupt students in mid-
flow to point out a grammatical, lexical or pronunciation error, since to do so interrupts the
communication and drags an activity back to the study of language form or precise meaning.

C.2. Feedback during accuracy work

1. Showing incorrectness: this can be done in a number of different ways:
 Repeating: here we can ask the student to repeat what they have said, perhaps by saying Again?
which, coupled with intonation and expression, will indicate that something isn’t clear.
 Echoing: this can be a precise way of pin-pointing an error. We repeat what the student has said,
emphasizing the part of the utterance that was wrong, e.g. Flight 5J590 GO to Davao?
 Statement and question: we can of course simply say Good try, but that’s not quite right or Do
you think that’s correct? to indicate that something hasn’t quite worked.
 Expression: when we know our classes well, a simple facial expression or a gesture may be
enough to indicate that something doesn’t quite work. This needs to be done with care as the
wrong expression or gesture can, in certain circumstances, appear to be mocking or cruel.
 Hinting: a quick way of helping students to activate rules they already know (but which they
have temporarily ‘forgotten’) is to give a quite hint. We might just say tense or countable or
some other words that give them a hint that something isn’t quite right. This kind of hinting
 depends upon the students and the teacher sharing metalanguage which, when whispered to
students, will help them correct themselves.
 Reformulation: a correction technique which is widely used both for accuracy and fluency work
is for the teacher to repeat back a corrected version of what the student has said, reformulating
the sentence, but without making a big issue of it.

Such reformulation is just a quick reminder of how the language should sound. It does
not put the student under pressure, but clearly points the way to future correctness. Its chief attribute –
in contrast to the other techniques mentioned above – is its unobtrusiveness.

2. Getting it right
If students are unable to correct themselves or respond to reformulation, we need to focus on
the correct version in more detail. We can say the correct version, emphasizing the part where there is a
problem. For example, say Flight 5J570 GOES to Davao before saying the sentence normally (Flight
5J570 goes to Davao), or we can say the incorrect part correctly (e.g. Not ‘go’ but ‘goes’). If necessary,
we can explain the grammar (e.g. We say I go, you go, we go, but for he, she or it, we say ‘goes’. For
example, He goes to Davao or Flight 5J570 goes to Davao). We will then ask the student to repeat the
utterance correctly.
We can also ask students to help or correct each other. This works well where there is a
genuinely cooperative atmosphere; the idea of the group helping all of its members is a powerful
concept. Nevertheless, it can go horribly wrong where the error-making individual feels belittled by the
process. We need to be exceptionally sensitive here, only encouraging the technique where it does not
undermine such students. Thus, it is worth asking the students for their opinions about which
techniques they personally feel comfortable with.

C.3. Feedback during fluency work

The way in which we respond to students when they speak in a fluency activity will have a
significant bearing not only on how well they perform at the time but also on how they behave in
fluency activities in the future. We need to respond to the content, and not just to the language form;
we need to be able to untangle the problems which our students have encountered or are
encountering, but we may well decide to do this after the event, not during it. Our tolerance of error in
fluency sessions will be much greater than it is during more controlled sessions.

 Gentle correction: if communication breaks down completely during a fluency activity, we may
well have to intervene. If our students can’t think of what to say, we may want to prompt them
forwards. If this is just the right moment to point out a language feature, we may offer a form of
correction provided that we offer this help with tact and discretion.
However, we need to be careful of over-correction during a fluency stage. By constantly
interrupting the flow of the activity, we may bring it to a standstill. What we have to judge,
therefore, is whether a quick reformulation or a quick prompt may help the conversation move
 wrong without intruding too much or whether, on the contrary, it is not especially necessary
and has the potential to get in the way of the conversation.

 Recording mistakes: we frequently act as observers, watching and listening to students so that
we can give feedback afterwards. Such observation allows us to give good feedback to our
students on how well they have performed, always remembering that we want to give positive
as well as negative feedback.
One of the problems of giving feedback after the event is that it is easy to forget what
students have said. Recording students’ performance with audio and video recorders can help
us remember as well as utilizing charts such as the one below:

A chart for recording student mistakes

In each column we can note down things we heard, whether they were particularly
good or incorrect or inappropriate. We might write down errors such as *according to my opinion in the
words and phrases column, or *I haven’t been yesterday in the grammar column.
 After the event: When we have recorded student performance, we would want to give feedback
to the class. We can do this in a number of ways. We might want to give an assessment of an
activity, saying how well we thought the students did it, and getting the students to tell us what
they found easiest or most difficult. We can put some of the mistakes we have recorded up on
the board and ask students first if they recognize the problem, and then whether they can put it
right.

C.4. Feedback on written work

The way we give feedback on writing will depend on the kind of writing task the students have
undertaken, and the effect we wish to create. When students do workbook activities, we mark their
efforts right or wrong, possibly pencilling in the correct answer for them to study. However, when we
give feedback on more creative or communicative writing (letters, stories, poems, reports), we should
approach the task with circumspection and clearly demonstrate our interest in the content of the
students’ work. A lot will depend on whether we are intervening in the writing process, or whether we
are marking a finished product. During the writing process we are responding rather than correcting.

 Responding: When we respond, we say how the text appears to us and how successful we think
it has been before suggesting how it could be improved. Consider the following example in
which the teacher is responding in the form of a letter to a student’s draft:
 - from Pearson Education Ltd.

 Correcting: many teachers use correction codes to indicate that students have made mistakes in
their written work. These codes can be written into the body of the text itself or in the margin.
This makes correction much neater and less threatening than random marks and comments.
Different teachers use different symbols but some of the most common ones are shown on the
next page.
 In order for students to benefit from the use of such symbols, they need to be trained
in their use. We can also correct by putting ticks against good points, or underlining problems. We can
write summarizing comments at the end of a student’s work saying what was appropriate and what
needs correcting.

 Training students: If students are to benefit from our feedback in their writing, they need to
know what we mean and what to do about it. This involves training them to understand the
process. We can start by writing incorrect sentences of the board and asking them to underline
the mistake in the sentence. This will get them used to the idea of error-spotting and also to the
convention of underlining.
We can then introduce students to correction symbols. We can go through them one by
one, showing examples of each category. Once we think they have grasped the meaning, we
might get them to try using the symbols themselves. Consider the following example:
C.4. Burning the midnight oil
A written feedback can cause great stress for both students and teachers. For students,
the sight of their work covered in corrections can cause great anxiety. For teachers, marking and
correcting take up an enormous amount of time. Both teachers and students deserve a break
from this drudgery.
Lee (2005), along with a number of other commentators suggest ways of varying the
amount of marking and the way teachers do it, and hopefully lessening the stress that comes
with writing feedback to students:

1. Selective marking. We do not need to mark everything all the time. It is often far more
effective to tell students that for their next piece of work we will be focusing specifically on
spelling, or specifically on paragraph organization, or on verb tenses, for example. We will have
less to correct, the students will have fewer red marks to contend with, and while preparing for
their work, students will give extra special attention to the area we have identified.

2. Different error codes. There is no reason why students and teachers should always use the
same error codes. At different levels and for different tasks we may want to make a shorter lists
of possible errors, or tailor what we are looking at for the class in question.

3. Don’t mark all the papers. Teachers may decide only to mark some of the scripts they are
given – as sample of what the class has done as a whole. They can then use what they find there
for post-task teaching with the whole class.
4. Involve the students. Teachers can correct some of the scripts and students can look at some
of the others. After all, peer correction can have extremely beneficial results.