An Investigation On The Error Correction In English Classroom Teaching At Senior High School

The study on learners’ error in the field of foreign language learning started in 1950 s.The role of error and error correction in language acquisition has become a highly controversial issue.It is until recently that there appears to be a consensus among the majority of researchers on the significance of the role played by error correction in the process of second language acquisition.Many researchers,such as Chaudron(1988),Long(1977)have contributed much to this field.They put forward the models and measures for error correction.However,studies on the problems of teachers’ corrective behaviors and teachers and students’ views on error correction are few.Based on Chaudron’s model,this study does an analysis of error correction in classroom teaching at senior high school.This study aims to answer the following research questions: 1.What are teachers’ correction strategies in English classroom teaching in junior high school? 2.What are teachers’ and students’ views on error correction? 3.Whether there are differences between teachers and students’ views on error correction? This study mainly adopts the methods of classroom observation and questionnaire survey,and combines part of students’ interview to investigate teachers’ corrective behaviors,problems and teachers and students’ views on error correction.Major finding of this study are as follows: 1.What are teachers’ correction strategies in English classroom teaching? From classroom observation and interview with students we can know that:(1)Teachers correct grammatical errors most frequently in class,(2)Teachers tend to correct students’ error immediately in class,(3)Most of errors are corrected by teachers in class,(4)Most of the errors in class are corrected by the way of explication.2.What are teachers and students’ views on error correction? Results from teachers and students’ questionnaires show that:(1)Teachers and students believe that error correction is necessary to English learning.But teachers think that the errors should be selectively corrected,and students think all the errors should be corrected.(2)Teachers generally believe that phonetic errors should be paid more attention,and students think that grammatical errors should be paid more attention.(3)Teachers believe that delayed correction is more effective,but students think that immediate correction is more effective.(4)Teachers believe that errorsshould be corrected by teachers,and students also think so.(5)Teachers believe that they should take different ways of error correction according to different types of errors,and but students think that the way of explication is more effective.3.Whether there are differences between teachers and students’ views on error correction? From data analysis we can know that there are differences on whether to correct errors,what errors to correct,when to correct errors and how to correct errors.But there is no difference on who to correct errors.According to the findings,some suggestions are given to the teachers when they correct the errors in class.At the same time,some limitations and recommendations for further research in this field are also described.