Correcting compositions may be made easier for teachers by their using adequate tools to foster students’ self-correction and learning and by encouraging EFL teachers at the same institution to share unified error correction criteria. The aims of research at UNVM were firstly to help students raise awareness of common error types, mainly those that interfere with comprehension of their compositions, and second to facilitate the learners’ subsequent improvement of their own written texts. An error correction guide was designed to help teachers and students identify errors which hinder understanding.
Self-Correction and Independent Learning: A Helpful Guide for Students and Teachers
Somale, Marisel A.
Tarducci, Susana B.
Ziraldo, Ana Claudia
Universidad Nacional de Villa María
Abstract
Correcting compositions may be made easier for teachers by their using adequate tools to foster students’ self-correction and learning and by encouraging EFL teachers at the same institution to share unified error correction criteria. The aims of research at UNVM were firstly to help students raise awareness of common error types, mainly those that interfere with comprehension of their compositions, and second to facilitate the learners’ subsequent improvement of their own written texts. An error correction guide was designed to help teachers and students identify errors which hinder understanding.
Introduction
Most teachers of English agree that correcting students’ papers is a demanding, time-consuming and exhausting activity, and that their students do not profit from corrections as much as they expect; in other words, to the teachers’ disappointment and the students’ frustration, the same errors tend to be repeated in subsequent papers. With these issues in mind, a group of teacher researchers at UNVM (Universidad Nacional de Villa María) carried out three successive studies in order to a) identify recurrent errors in their students’ papers, b) find out how they could help their students reflect on their own language errors through the use of previously agreed upon correction symbols, c) rely on a commonly agreed editing tool that would allow teachers to share the same criteria as far as revising foreign language writing is concerned, d) facilitate the students’ self-correction and development of autonomy in the process of learning the target language, e) find successful ways of engaging teachers and students in this strenuous writing endeavor, f) share the findings of these successive researches with teachers coming from different educational institutions, and g) encourage colleagues to adopt—and adapt—this correction guide to their teaching contexts so that they could simplify their correction task.
Theoretical background
In order to understand the scope of the studies involving students’ autonomy in the writing-editing process, two relevant concepts need to be defined: error and mistake. Carl James posits the difference between error and mistake, and he points out that the notion of intentionality plays a key role in defining error. An error results from incomplete knowledge, is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by its author. A mistake is both intentionally or unintentionally deviant, and self-corrigible. It is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, or carelessness, for example. Pit Corder (1967) associates errors with failures in competence and mistakes with failures in performance.
Errors can occur at different levels of language, namely, the levels of substance, text, and discourse. Each level, in turn, comprises a number of subcategories. Substance errors, for instance, include misspellings and mechanical errors (punctuation, typographic, dyslexic, and confusibles). Text errors comprise lexical and grammar errors. Lexical errors of lexis are misselection, misformations, and distortions. To this subcategory it should be added that of semantic errors in lexis: confusion of sense relation, and collocational errors. Grammar errors, on the other hand, consist of morphology and syntax errors. Syntax errors include phrase structure and clause, sentence, and inter-sentence errors.
Preguntas frecuentes
What is the main goal of "Self-Correction and Independent Learning: A Helpful Guide for Students and Teachers"?
The main goal is to provide teachers with tools to foster students' self-correction and learning, and to encourage EFL teachers to share unified error correction criteria. It aims to help students become aware of common error types and improve their written texts independently.
What were the aims of the research conducted at UNVM?
The aims were to help students raise awareness of common error types that interfere with comprehension, and to facilitate learners' subsequent improvement of their own written texts. The research also focused on creating a commonly agreed editing tool for teachers and promoting student autonomy.
What are the problems addressed in the introduction?
The introduction highlights the demanding and time-consuming nature of correcting student papers, the frustration of seeing the same errors repeated, and the need for effective ways to engage teachers and students in the writing process.
What were the objectives of the teacher researchers at UNVM?
The objectives included identifying recurrent errors in student papers, helping students reflect on their errors through correction symbols, relying on a commonly agreed editing tool, facilitating self-correction and autonomy, engaging teachers and students, sharing research findings, and encouraging colleagues to adopt the correction guide.
How does Carl James define the difference between an error and a mistake?
Carl James defines an error as resulting from incomplete knowledge, being unintentionally deviant, and not self-corrigible. A mistake is intentionally or unintentionally deviant and self-corrigible, often caused by lack of attention, fatigue, or carelessness.
What are the different levels of language where errors can occur?
Errors can occur at the levels of substance, text, and discourse.
What are some examples of substance errors?
Substance errors include misspellings and mechanical errors (punctuation, typographic, dyslexic, and confusibles).
What do text errors comprise?
Text errors comprise lexical and grammar errors.
What are the subcategories of lexical errors?
Lexical errors include misselection, misformations, distortions, confusion of sense relation, and collocational errors.
What do grammar errors consist of?
Grammar errors consist of morphology and syntax errors, which include phrase structure and clause, sentence, and inter-sentence errors.
What is the focus at the discourse level of language?
The focus is on the study and analysis of cohesion and coherence errors in written texts.
How does Teun A. van Dijk define discourse?
Teun A. van Dijk defines discourse as a form of language use resulting from an act of communication or public speech.
What are the two types of cohesion mentioned?
The two types of cohesion are cohesion associated with grammatical relationships (reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunctions) and cohesion based on semantic relationships (reiteration and collocation).
What is macrostructure in the context of discourse?
Macrostructure refers to the characteristic patterns in which propositions are linearized and hierarchized in different types of texts to lead the receptor to the appropriate text world.
- Quote paper
- Magister en Humanidades y Ciencias Marisel Somale (Author), Susanna Tarducci (Author), Ana Claudia Ziraldo (Author), 2012, Self-Correction and Independent Learning, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/275334
