Ibn Khaldoun University

Faculty of Letters and Languages

Department of English

TEFL (Practice & Reflection)

M2 Students (Didactics) Dr. Benamor

Course structure

I. Classroom Management

A. Group Dynamics

B. Interaction Patterns

C. Teacher roles and zones of action

D. Appropriate teacher language

E. Setting up activities & giving instructions

F. Giving feedback and correcting learners

II. Teaching

A. Language (vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar & functions)

B. Receptive skills (Listening & Reading)

C. Productive Skills (Speaking & Writing)

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 Giving Feedback and Correcting Learners’ Errors

A. Giving Feedback

1) What is giving feedback on?

2) Why is the feedback being given?
3) How is the feedback being given?

Task 1 Categorise the examples of feedback (A, B … H) below according to: :

1. the appropriate aspect to show what the teacher is giving feedback on:

Progress and effort Language and skills Ideas and content Attitude and behaviour

2. the reason why the feedback is being given

encouraging, giving a grade, informing, suggesting, praising, thanking, recommending, reminding,

requesting
3. how the feedback is being given:
• individual (teacher to student; spoken / written)
• group (teacher to class ; spoken / written)
• peer (student to student ; spoken / written)

B.
A. Last class we had some problems with
Natalie – when you receive text a and the, so we’re going to look at
messages on your mobile phone in class this grammar point again this lesson,
time, you miss important input. How OK?
about turning it off next lesson?

D.
C. Thank you, class 4I,
Wow! for singing at our open day.
Look at the end of that cartoon
strip. I’d like to think up something Your pronunciation has
as good as that, too. improved a lot!

F.
E. Your sketches were very imaginative!
50% You worked hard for this test, Raymond, But I still noticed some
and I imagine you will be a little disappointed slips – little things you
with the grade. Look at the section on phrasal should know, like forgetting
verbs again – this made all the difference the ’s for possessives.
between a pass and a fail. Try to correct each other
on these when you’re rehearsing
together.
H.
G. 8/10 on the film clip worksheet
I like talking to you in class – you always try to – well done! You’re picking out
understand my point of view and ask lots of much more detail when you
questions. read the questions in
Please could you also help me with corrections. advance, Sam.

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 FEEDBACK HOW WHY WHAT ON
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H

Task 2: Numbers 1 to 6 are some good ideas for the management of feedback. Letters a to f are
rationales for each idea. Match the rationales to the ideas.

It’s a good idea to... Because...

1. conduct feedback by nominating students randomly rather than in a
sequence …
2. ask students to justify their answers, particularly with reading and
listening comprehension tasks …
3. allow a certain amount of wait time when doing content-focused
feedback …
4. be clear about what answer is correct and what answer is not …
5. provide a written model answer for some tasks on the white board or
on an OHP …
6. occasionally avoid doing feedback at all

Rationales
a. … it will avoid any frustration for students.
b. … it is not necessary if you can see that all students got all answers correct when
you monitored – you can just confirm that everything is correct and move on.
c. … it keep students involved in feedback.
d. … as it allows weaker students something concrete to check their answers against.
e. … sometimes students need to organise their ideas before replying.
f. … it makes students think a little harder and offers stronger students more
challenge.

Key Skill 1

Doing feedback on a task involves more than giving the right or wrong answers. First, you need to think
about whether you are doing language-focused feedback or content-focused feedback. In content-focused
feedback, teachers are responding to ideas and information. However, in language-focused feedback
teachers are responding to the language that students produce.

Key Skill 2

When you give feedback on both content and language, it is usually more motivating and interesting for
students if you deal with content first. This shows that you are responding to their ideas and not just focusing
on how they said something.

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Key Skill 2

You have to manage your student group carefully if you want to do feedback well. Nominating students,
encouraging peer interaction and praising students are all key components of successful feedback.

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B. Learner Error Correction

Teachers’ comments

Olga: Errors need to be avoided at all costs. I don't want my learners to pick up bad habits.

Maria: Errors are a natural part of the learning process - and as teaching material they're really useful.

Paula: I feel bad correcting my students' errors - it's judgemental and de-motivating

Key Skill

An important distinction to make is the one between systematic errors and mistakes or slips. Systematic
errors are indicative of a students’ lack of language knowledge, while small mistakes or slips occur in
language that students know, but lack of concentration or tiredness can mean they make a mistake.

Key Skill

The causes of error stem from the students’ lack of knowledge. This can be a result of having learnt rules
incorrectly or oversimplifying a rule they have learnt. A student’s first language can play a role in the cause
of error, particularly with pronunciation errors. Some errors are the result of a student being creative with
the limited English they do have in order to communicate.

Task 1: Think back to your own language learning experience. Did you like it when the teacher
corrected your errors? Why? / why not? Compare experiences with a partner.

Task 2: Find the errors in sentences 1-6 and match them with the classifications (a-f). Then compare
your answers with a partner.

ERRORS CLASSIFICATION
1 'She likes her job. She works for the a. problem with word stress
same company for years.'
2 (In a restaurant) 'Bring me the menu!' b. problem with intonation

3 'My brother fell off his bike but he c. problem with word order
wasn't badly damaged.

d. problem with choice of word(s) –

4 'It's a lovely day, isn't it?' vocabulary

5 'This sofa is very comFORTable.' e. problem with register

6 'Where is standing the teacher?’' f. problem with the choice of verb form

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Task 3: Numbers 1 to 5 are examples of spoken errors. Letters a to e are categories of errors. Number
i to v indicate what the problem is. Match the examples to the categories and problems.

Example Category Problem

1. “I will to the party go.”
2. “My sister is higher than my brother.”
3. “I went to a barty and danced all night.”
4. A: “Do you like tea?” B: “No thank you.”
5. Customer in a café: “Give me a coffee.

Categories
a. pronunciation
b. pragmatic (language in context)
c. grammar
d. vocabulary
e. discourse

Problems
i. collocation
ii. cohesion
iii. register too informal
iv. sound (phoneme)
v. word order

WHEN TO CORRECT

Instant and Delayed error correction

In ‘Learning Teaching’ Scrivener suggests to think about 5 decisions teachers need to make when
working with oral errors:

1. What kind of error has been made? (Grammatical? pronunciation? etc).

2. Whether to deal with it. (is it useful to correct it?).
3. When to deal with it? (now? end of activity? later?).
4. Who will correct? (teacher? student self-correction? other students?).
5. Which technique to use to indicate that an error has occurred or to enable correction.

J. Scrivener (2011) , 'Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching' 3rd
edition, Macmillan Education, p. 285

Task 4: Read the lesson transcripts. What should the teacher do about the learners' errors? Choose
the best answer for each lesson. Then compare ideas with a partner.

A. The teacher should not correct the error.

B. The teacher should delay correction - and provide feedback at the end of the activity.
C. The teacher should correct the error immediately.

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 Lesson 1
The students are working in different groups. The teacher is walking around the class, monitoring, and
hears these utterances from speakers in the different groups.
S1: Technology is such important for all of us.
S2: In my country, everyone uses computers ...
S3: Yeah, I am agree with Anja.
S4: I prefer to text friends than email them.
Lesson 2
T: And what's your job, Freddie?
S: I work in hotel. My job is to make the guests.
Lesson 3 ~I
T: We have a new student today. Vera, can you introduce yourself?
S: I am coming from Moscow. I am absolutely happy to join this class.
Lesson 4
The students have just listened to a recorded interview.
T: OK- what instrument does he play?
S: He is play saxophone.
Task 5: Work in pairs. Compare the ways that different teachers responded to the same error.
Explain their strategies.
S: We go to the beach yesterday.
a TI: Yesterday - so, grammar?
b T2: Yesterday, you ....
c T3: Not quite, look: We go to the beach yesterday. [Holds up hand and indicates second finger from left
from the learners' point of view.]
d T4: Sorry, do you mean you go every day? •
e T5: You went to the beach - that's nice. Who did you go with?
f T6: makes no comment; the activity continues until, at the end, the teacher says, 'I heard someone say, "We
go to the beach yesterday." Can anyone correct that?'

B.1. Correction Strategies of Spoken Errors

• Peer correction

• Echo correction (with rising intonation)

• Finger correction

• Identifying the mistake through explanation

• Ignoring the error (focusing on content and communication)

• Focusing on minimal pair work

• Seeking to clarify ideas

• Gesture

• Delaying feedback

• Feeding in the correct language

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These strategies are selected according to the following criteria:

• student’s level
• error or slip – can the student self-correct?
• activity taking place
• stage of lesson/learning
• self-confidence of student
• motivation of student
• frequency of mistake
• who’s listening
• reason for speaking

Task 6: Fill in the following table

1. You have just presented the present perfect for actions which started in the past and
continue to the present.
The students are now doing a controlled practice activity and one of them says: ‘I am
learning English 7 years.’
The teacher … a) draws a diagram to show the difference between am and have been.
b) says: ‘Oh, really! 7 years …’
c) repeats the sentence, stressing the word am with rising intonation.
2. The teacher is chatting to a fairly new group of elementary teens as they come into class.
She asks how their afternoons were the day before.
One student says: ‘My friend bit me at tennis yesterday.’
The teacher … a) responds: ‘What a shame! Did you really want to win?’
b) points to /i/ and /i:/ on the phonemic chart and says: ‘hit; heat’, ‘sit; seat’
c) laughs, and says: ‘Your friend bites you?! You poor thing!’
3. The teacher has given a class of intermediate students five minutes to check their
homework exercises in small
groups before collecting it in. One student says: ‘Please pass my book work.’
The teacher … a) holds up two fingers and then turns them around.
b) says: ‘I’m sorry? What would you like me to pass you?’
c) asks the other students in the class: ‘Is it a book work?’
4. It’s the end of the cycle and a group of young learners have made a card to say thank
you to you, the teacher.
You are reading the comments out loud and the students are enjoying the moment. One
student has written:
‘You the best teacher ever.’
The teacher … a) says: ‘Gosh! Thank you! I have loved teaching you too.’
b) makes a mental note to write this sentence on the board at the end of the class.
c) repeats the sentence, touching a different finger for each word, including for the missing
word.
5. The teacher is starting an evening class with a small pre-intermediate group but notices
that one of the
participants is missing. She asks the others: ‘Where is Sam?’ One learner says (to the
teacher): ‘Sam is not here
tonight. He is at your house.’
The teacher … a) looks very surprised, points at her own chest and says: ‘My house?’
b) repeats: ‘Yes, Sam is at his house’, stressing the word his.
c) writes a story with the same mistake in it for students to correct next day.

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6. An elementary group have just studied the lexical set ‘jobs’ and are now in groups
completing a survey about
their family members’ occupations. The teacher is monitoring and hears one student say:
‘My grandfather is 70
now so he’s unemployed.’
The teacher … a) asks: ‘Is your grandfather looking for a new job?’
b) asks: ‘Are you sure you don’t mean retired?’
c) repeats the word unemployed with rising intonation.
7. Whenever he hasn’t quite heard what somebody in class says, a finance manager in an
in-house
pre-intermediate business class says: ‘What?’
The teacher … a) looks questioningly at the student, frowning slightly.
b) repeats: ‘What?’ ‘What?’ in the same tone of voice used.
c) says: ‘Pardon?’ and encourages the student to do the same.

8. After much practice of the phoneme /ð/, the lesson sequence moves on to a freer
practice activity about how
leisure time is spent. During this stage, one of the older learners is heard to say: ‘Dis is
very difficult.’
The teacher … a) stops the activity and asks another student to say the sentence correctly.
b) bends down and says into the student’s ear: ‘this is very difficult’, emphasising /ð/
c) smiles and lets the activity continue.
9. You’ve been teaching the past simple to a group of beginner students, and have just set
some homework.
At the end of the class one student says: ‘If I not do my homework, you angry?’
The teacher … a) repeats with rising intonation ‘not do’ and ‘you angry’?
b) responds: ‘Well, not angry but not very happy, either.’
c) explains: ‘You need the first conditional there. This is how it looks …

Type of error Correction options Best strategy and why

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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'
~B.2. Correction Strategies of Written Errors

Teachers sometimes use a correction code to guide learners to identify and self-correct their errors in
written products. Examples are below.

Correction code
WW wrong word
P punctuation
SP spelling
G grammar
WO word order
C capital letter

These strategies are selected according to the following criteria:

• the need to motivate and not demotivate the learner

• identifying slips versus developmental errors
• the role of self- or peer-correction
• the need to take into account learner needs, expectations and previous learning experience
• grading work for accuracy and/or fluency
• alternative strategies for tackling errors

Recipe for Wholegrain bread

Teake 350ml lukewarm water, 500g flour, 10g salt, 20g baking powder or
yeast, some corns of sesam pumkin sunflower or different fullcorns if you
like .

Make a dough, give him 15min. to rise, then put it in a baking tin, which is
prepared whith some butter and put it by 180° for 1 hour in the oven. It
works, i’m know, because i do it sometimes at home. You’ll see it’s
delicious!!!!!
(written by Gert Pöppel, German adult learner)

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