A Dynamic Study Of Self-correction To Grammatical Error’s Of Non-English Majored Graduates Spoken English

Some scholars found that40non-English majored postgraduates in a Chinese universitycommitted more errors, after they had been learning and practicing spoken English for oneacademic year. Therefore, it is quite essential to correct learners’ errors. In addition, there issomething unsatisfactory about the research on corrective feedback abroad and at home.There are more teacher corrective feedback studies than learner self-correction ones; there aremore synchronic studies than diachronic ones; there is more theoretical meaning thanpractical meaning in these studies.Based on Corrective Feedback and self-correction, the thesis is to identify, count andanalyze third person singular and simple past tense errors in spoken English those collectedfrom9postgraduates majoring in hydraulic engineering during six periods of half academicyear (Mar.7th,2014-June6th,2014). The9subjects are selected from113non-Englishmajored postgraduates, based on grammaticality judgment test and questionnaire survey.They are in Grade One and are from two classes. All of them are taught by the same teacherin a university of technology.The thesis tends to study the four following questions (1) Whether or not learnerscommit errors, when third person singular and simple past tense are involved in their spokenEnglish expression?(2) What are the trend of errors on third person singular and simple pasttense and the effect of self-correction through half academic year?(3) What are the possiblereasons of the trend and the effect mentioned in the second question?(4) What is theimplication on spoken English Teaching and Learning?With the help of data analysis, the results of the research indicate that (1) Although68% learners have already acquired related knowledge on third person singular and simple pasttense, they still commit errors in their spoken English expression.(2) To some extent, learnershave self-correction ability, when they correct errors on third person singular and simple pasttense by themselves.(3) The effect of self-correction on third person singular is relativelyremarkable for4of6learners. However, the effect of self-correction on simple past tense isrelative ineffective for5of9learners.(4) Learners always overuse modal verbs in theirspoken English expression.According to the achievements of the past research, the changeable trend of errors andthe results of self-correction, the causes of committing errors and the different effects ofself-correction on learners are forecasted. In addition, through telephone interview towards9participants, it concludes that the causes of committing errors and the different effects ofself-correction on learners are related to13factors. These factors are as follows: thedifference between Chinese and English, interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, spokenEnglish vocabulary, scope of knowledge, cognitive restriction, the pressure of communication,the characteristics of spoken English, the accuracy of spoken English in learners’ eyes;examination-oriented education in China; variety in difficulties of different topics;preparedness before class and insufficiency of self-correction exercises. The study indicatesthat teachers should pay attention to emphasize the differences between Chinese and Englishand focus on form teaching. They also should give proper and effective corrective feedbacktowards learners’ errors and encourage learners to do self-correction. While, learners shouldcontinue to enhance the learning of basic language points, for example third person singularand simple past tense, enlarge vocabulary size, strengthen spoken English exercises, raise theawareness of spoken English accuracy, pay attention to language form and implementself-correction actively.The importance of the thesis lies in that with the help of the diachronic analysis ofgrammatical errors on third person singular and simple past tense in the9non-Englishmajored postgraduates’ utterance and their implementation of self-correction on these twokinds of errors, the thesis revealed the problems exist in learners’spoken English learning andthe operability and the effectiveness of self-correction. It facilitates teachers having anunderstanding of learners’ scope of knowledge and spoken English skills, to give corrective feedback towards learners’ errors. In addition, it helps learners get to know the real reasonsthat impede them making progress in spoke English and take effective measures to improvespoken English skills. At last, the thesis provided a new view and method to correctivefeedback research.