Male And Female Learners’ View On Oral Error Correction In EFL Classroom

It is very common for learners to commit errors in foreign language learning,so error correction,an effective method for learners to interact with teachers,naturally becomes an inevitable part in classroom teaching.With oral English playing an increasingly important role in modern society as well as the College Entrance Examination in Guangdong,oral error correction in class,which is closely related to students’ motivation and oral English performance,has become a big challenge for high school teachers.Although the great significance of error correction is generally acknowledged,there has been no consensus on many aspects of oral error correction.Most of empirical studies focus on teachers’ correction behaviors,while students’ views are overlooked,and only a few studies can be found in investigating high school students’ view on error correction.By means of classroom observation,questionnaire and interviews,this thesis attempts to investigate senior male and female learners’ view on the following aspects of oral error correction,including the necessity of oral error correction in class,their preferences for types of error correction,the subject of error correction,the timing for error correction and strategies of error correction.The participants are teachers and students from Grade Two and Grade Three in Guangdong Liangyang High School.And this study will help English teachers recognize different students’ view on oral error correction so as to give corrective feedback more scientifically and effectively.Because of gender differences,not only should characteristics of errors be given adequate consideration but also different students’ affective factors,actual needs and preferences should be taken into account as well.Through the research,the author summarized some major findings as follows.Firstly,most of males(93.44%)and females(96.26%)think it necessary to correct all of their oral errors in class and meanwhile more than 85%of them admit the positive role of error correction.44.26%males and 52.4%females won’t feel discouraged if given corrective feedback,but anxiety are easy to cause among female learners(43.64%).And about 60%of male and female learners won’t feel embarrassed.Secondly,more than 60%of male and female learners think all types of oral errors should be corrected by teachers,firmly believing in teachers’ authority.Compared with male learners,female learners rely more on teacher-correction,especially pragmatic and grammatical errors.Some high-level students also prefer peer-correction and self-correction.Thirdly,both male and female learners hold the view that correcting grammatical errors is the most effective whereas pragmatic error correction benefits them least.And female learners think correcting pragmatic errors is more effective whereas male learners are on the opposite side.Fourthly,as for when to correct errors,more than 70%male and female learners think highly of correcting after the end of their utterance.Lastly,as for how to correct errors,meta-linguistic clue is more effective than other corrective strategies for nearly half of males and females.However,females dislike explicit correction because they feel self-esteem damaged for its directness,but prefer clarification requests,repetition and meta-linguistic clue.On the contrary,explicit correction and recast enjoy great popularity among male learners.Generally speaking,male and female learners share some commonalities and differences as well,so it is proposed that teachers should take gender differences into consideration when correcting errors.Based on the major findings,the author recommends teachers should enrich their theoretical knowledge about error correction and apply it to teaching practice.Besides,set relaxing and authentic environment in class and design more oral activities to facilitate learners’ oral English.More importantly,some suggestions presented in the study might be helpful to improve the efficiency of oral error correction in class.For example,teachers should encourage both peer-correction and self-correction,and had better correct errors after their complete utterance.Take gender differences into account as well when employing the strategies of error correction.