A Study On Middle School English Teachers' Viewpoints Of Error Correction

It is inevitable for learners to make mistakes in the process of learning language. Error correction is an important issue in foreign language teaching. In general, error research has gone through three stages:contrastive analysis, error analysis and interlanguage. This thesis traces the development of error views and analyses their influence on language teaching on the basis of these three theories. There are two opposite viewpoints according to foreign scholars' error views:one is that a strict attitude should be taken toward errors and all the errors must be corrected; the other is that errors should be viewed with tolerance, and there is no need to correct all the errors. In China, language error research is mainly on introducing and absorbing foreign research achievement. Language teachers are always required to learn these advanced results and put them into use. Under the guidance of English curriculum standard and language syllabus, the development of error views in our country is similar to the courses of those in foreign countries.Error correction in language teaching is not only a charming art, but an intricate and systematic project, so it's significant for middle school English teachers to understand the essence and value of error as well as how to correct language error. To see teachers' attitudes, strategies and methods toward error correction, the author has a survey among 18 teachers by means of questionnaire and semi-structure interview based on Hendrickson's five questions about error correction. A questionnaire investigation is also carried out among 167 students from Shanghai and Anhui province to compare their error correction viewpoints with teachers' and to check whether their error correction needs are satisfied, if not, teachers should take students' demands into consideration and adapt error correction methods accordingly.The survey shows most teachers agree that their error correction attitudes, strategies and methods are affected by some objective and subjective factors such as working time, teaching environment, their own English proficiency, and teaching experience and so on. As for students' viewpoints toward error correction, most of them don't feel annoyed if their errors are corrected by teachers, so it is groundless for some teachers to take the view that error correction will decrease students' study enthusiasm, but teachers do need to respect and encourage students when correcting errors. In addition, the survey also reveals that both teachers and students take an active attitude toward error correction, but there are some discrepancies regarding how to correct errors and who corrects errors, which require teachers not only to pay attention to error correction strategies, but to have a better understanding of their students to meet their needs. This thesis puts forward some suggestions on error correction according to the survey result. Teaching methods are not fixed, neither are the error correction methods. Therefore, to promote students'English learning, teachers should find the most suitable error correction strategies and methods in terms of practical situation.