A Survey Of Error Correction In Junior High School English Classroom

Error is inevitable in the second language learning process for students in junior high school.Teachers’ ability and validity in error correction will directly affect students’ learning efficiency.Recently,although this issue has caught our attention,many questions such as how to correctly treat and correct students’ errors have not yet reached an agreement.Hendrickson proposed five specific questions about error correction: whether to correct,what kind of error to correct,when to correct,by whom and how to correct,aiming at optimizing the teaching effect of error correction.In the context,based on students’ demand for correction,this thesis conducts a survey on error correction in English classes in a junior high school in Hengshui.The purpose of this thesis is to improve the effectiveness of error correction and to help teachers effectively correct errors in students’ language expression.This thesis uses a questionnaire for 33 teachers and 409 students to summarize the attitude of junior high school students and teachers toward error correction.Combined with classroom observations,this thesis tries to understand the characteristics of error correction among teachers in junior high school English classes,as well as the attitudes and preferences of teachers and students toward error correction.This study attempts to answer the following four questions:(1)What is the distribution of students’ verbal error types?(2)What is the current situation of error correction from teachers?(3)How is students’ uptake elicited by teachers’ error correction?(4)What are the attitudes and preferences of teachers and students toward error correction? Is there a difference?The findings are as follows: First,the main types of verbal errors in junior high school English classes include phonetic errors,grammatical errors,lexical errors,and pragmatic errors.Second,the frequency of grammatical errors is the highest,followed by phonological errors and lexical errors,and pragmatic errors are the lowest.Third,teachers have the highest correction rate for grammatical and lexical errors and the lowest correction rate for pragmatic errors.Fourth,teachers like to correct students’ phonetic and pragmatic errors by direct input and correct students’ grammatical and lexical errors by inducing output.Fifth,the uptake rate of students to the teacher’s error correction is 75.51%,and the repair rate is 53.06%.The inducing output leads to the highest grammatical and lexical error repair.Direct input elicits the highest phonetic repairs and direct input+inducing output elicits the highest pragmatic repairs.Sixth,most teachers and students have the same choices in the following four aspects: They both have a positive attitude toward error correction;They think that errors should be corrected by the teacher;Both of them believe that errors need correct errors immediately;Both believe that grammatical and lexical errors should be taken more seriously.Through the analysis of data,it is found that there are five main problems of error correction in junior high school English classes: first,the clarity of teachers’ error correction is not enough,which affects students’ successful correction to a certain extent.Second,the subject of error correction is too simple,which affects students’ initiative in classroom interaction.Third,teachers have an insufficient understanding of learners’ needs for error correction and psychological and emotional changes.Fourth,teachers ignore the importance of phonological and pragmatic errors.Fifth,teachers’ error correction methods lack pertinence and flexibility.In view of the problems existing in error correction,this study puts forward the following suggestions: First,strengthen teachers’ learning of error correction theory.Second,reinforce communication between teachers and students on error correction cognition.Third,enhance classroom interaction and promote students’ self-correction.Fourth,consider the individual factors of students,and carry out differential error correction.Fifth,strengthen pronunciation and pragmatic error correction.Sixth,take different correction methods for different language forms.Seventh,insist on teaching reflection,and summing up error correction experience.