The Impact of Feedback and Correction of Students’ Speech Errors on Their Oral Production

Tran Thi Nga1,, Nguyen Thi Hop1, Nguyen Thi Hang Nga1
1 University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Main Article Content

Abstract

The study aims to investigate how teachers’ feedback and correction of students’ speech errors affect their attempts at speaking. Students of the University of Science, VNU from classes of lower-intermediate (A2), intermediate (B1) and upper-intermediate (B2) participated in this study. Two methods of obtaining the needed information were used:  class observations and in-depth interviews with key informants as to why they discontinued speaking. The results show that positive feedback from the affective dimension encouraged students to go on speaking. From the cognitive dimension, selective corrections have a positive influence on students’ desires for oral communication. Negative feedback from the affective channel and vigorous corrections result in students shutting off their attempts at speaking.

Article Details

References

[1] J. M. Hendrickson, (Second Edition), “Error correction in foreign language teaching: Recent theory, research, and practice” in K., Croft (ed.), Readings on English as a Second Language, Winthrop Publishers, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
[2] H. D. Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Prentice Hall Regents, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1994.
[3] A. S. Hornby, (4th impression), Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002.
[4] C. Chaudron, “Teachers’ priorities in correcting learners’ errors in French immersion classes” in R.R. Day (ed.), Talking to learn: Conversation in Second Language Acquisition, Newbury House Publishers, Rowley, MA, 1986.
[5] A. E. Chun, R. R. Day, N. A Chenoweth, and S. Luppescu, Errors, interaction, and correction: A study of native-nonnative conversations, TESOL Quarterly 16 (1982) 537.
[6] N. A. Vigil and J. W. Oller, Rule fossilization: A tentative model, Language Learning 26 (1976) 281.
[7] J. Crichton, “Crisis points in error correction” in G. Brindley (ed.), The Second Language Curriculum in Action, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW: NCELTR, 1990.
[8] H. V. George, Common Errors in Language Learning, Newbury House Publishers, Rowley, MA, 1972.
[9] M. K. Burt and C. Kiparsky, “Global and local mistakes” in J. H. Schumann & N. Stenson (eds.), New Frontiers in second language Learning, Newbury House Publishers, Rowley, Mass: 1974.
[10] R. L. Allwright, “Problems in the study of teachers’ treatment of learner error” in M. K. Burt & H. Dulay (eds.), New Directions in Second Language Learning, Teaching, and Bilingual Education, On TESOL ’75, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Washington, DC, 1975.
[11] M. K. Burt, Error analysis in the adult EFL classroom, TESOL Quarterly 9 (1975) 53.
[12] A. Cohen and M. Robbins, Toward assessing interlanguage performance: The relationship between selected errors, learners’ characteristics, and learners’ explanations, Language Learning 26 (1976) 45.
[13] P. M. Lightbown and N. Spada, How languages are learned, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995.
[14] J. L Walker, Opinions of university students about language teaching, Foreign Language Annals 7 (1973) 169.
[15] S. P. Corder, “The significance of learners’ errors” in J. C. Richards (ed.), Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition, Longman, Singapore, 1985.
[16] M. K. Burt and C. Kiparsky, The Gooficon: A Repair Manual for English, Newbury House Publishers, Rowley, Mass, 1972.
[17] D. Murphy, Communication and correction in the classroom, ELT Journal 40 (1986) 146.
[18] J. Edge, Mistakes and Correction: Longman Keys to Language Teaching, Longman, London, 1989.
[19] Nguyen Nguyet Minh, Error correction revisited: Which correction techniques are most effective? Which are most often used in everyday classroom practice? Teacher’s Edition 11 (2003) 14.
[20] Nguyen Quynh Trang, Difficulties experienced by Vietnamese lecturers teaching IELTS speaking at university level and some suggested solutions, VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Languages 26 (2010) 252.
[21] N. Lee, Notion of ‘error’ and appropriate corrective treatment, Hongkong Papers in Linguistics and Language Teaching 14 (1991) 55.
[22] J. F. Fanselow, The treatment of error in oral work, Foreign Language Annals 10, 5 (1977) 583.
[23] K. M. Bailey, “Classroom-centered research on language teaching and learning” in M. Celce-Murcia (ed.), Beyond Basics: Issues and Research in TESOL, Newbury House Publishers, Rowley, MA, 1985.
[24] R. Cathcart and J. E. W. B. Olsen, “Teachers’ and students’ preferences for correction of classroom conversation errors” in J. F. Fanselow and R. H. Crymes (eds.), On TESOL 76, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Washington, DC, 1976.
[25] C. Chaudron, A discriptive model of discourse in the corrective treatment of learners’ errors, Language Learning 27 (1977) 29.