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Error Correction in foreign language classes is something every teacher must do at one time or another. After all, there is a right way, and countless wrong ways, to say something.
Like almost everything else we do in the classroom, it's not always what we do (in this case, correcting incorrect student production), but how we do it. This post will give several examples and a brief explanation of Error Correction or Feedback for individuals (Teacher-> Student), and at the end give an example for Error Correction with the whole class.  A more thorough discussion of Error Correction and Feedback will follow at a later time.

There are 2 major divisions in Error Corretion in published literature:

1. Implicit vs. Explicit Feedback, and
2. Corrected vs. Uncorrected Feedback.

Explicit feedback is thought to be less communicative in nature, and tends to draw students' attention more to form.
Implicit feedback is thought to be more communicative in nature, and so, while still giving corrective feedback, to encourage more and continued focus on meaning.
Corrected feedback, like explicit feedback, is thought to draw students' attention more to form, and less to meaning.
Uncorrected feedback tends to promote learning through student self-reflection.

Given these features of the 4 types of corrective feedback, the order of preference for using these kinds of feedback in a meaning-centered, communicative langauge learning-based class would be:

1. Implicit, Uncorrected feedback (more communicative, less focus on form);
2. Explicit, Uncorrected feedback (more focus on form, but emphasizes student reflection for learning) OR Implicit, Corrected feedback (more communicative, though more direct focus on form);
3. Explicit, Corrected feedback (less communicative, more direct focus on form).

Examples of Feedback

(S= student; T= teacher)

Implicit, Uncorrected feedback

• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T (emphasized)- ‘LIke.’  Or, like a question, T- ‘lIKE?’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘He LIKE dogs.’ T- ‘He LIKE dogs?’ 
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Try again!’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Pardon me?’; ‘I don’t understand.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Did you say ‘like’ ?’ 
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Try again.’ or
  T- ‘Heee.......?’ or ‘He what?’
  Or T- ‘He playS tennis.  He LIKE dogs?’

Explicit, Uncorrected feedback

• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T - ‘Not like.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘That’s not right.
  (That’s not how we say it.)  Try again.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘He LIKE dogs?’
  (That’s not right.)  Not LIKE.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Did you say ‘like’ ?
  That’s not right.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Try again.’ or
  T- ‘Heee.......?’ or ‘He what?’ 

Implicit, Corrected feedback

• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘He likes dogs.’ or
  T- ‘He likeS dogs.’, with verbal or gestured emphasis.
•   S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘He LIKE dogs. He LIKES dogs.’ or
  T- ‘He LIKE dogs?  He LIKES dogs.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘Do you mean ‘likes’?’.              
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘You said like.  Do you mean likes?’

Explicit, Corrected feedback

• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘You should say, He likeS dogs.’
  S- ‘He like dogs.’ T - ‘Not like.  Likes.’   
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘No. Not He LIKE dogs.   He LIKES dogs.’
  or T- ‘Did you say He LIKE dogs?  It’s He LIKES dogs.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘He LIKE dogs?’
  ‘He LIKES dogs.’ is the right way to say it.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ T- ‘(No.) You should say ‘likes’ ’.  or   
  T- ‘You said like.  It’s likes.’
• S- ‘He like dogs.’ ‘Not LIKE.  HE is the third
  person singular, so it’s not like, it’s LIKES.’

A less direct method of error correction is to make mental note of common mistakes heard during speaking activities, and then to write the incorrect pattern on the blackboard. Then, ask the whole class what is wrong, and also what is the right way to say something. AND THEN WRITE THAT ON THE BLACKBOARD, TOO. 

In this way,

• students are asked to reflect on what the correct form is; 
• no one student is singled out (limiting individual student stress); 
• communicative- (ie., a meaning-) focus during the speaking activity is maintained; 
• and all the class participates in a learning experience.

What, How and WHEN

What we do, and how we do something are important. The other pervasive choice is WHEN to say something. In the Eigo Noto classes especially, the focus is on COMMUNICATION. If the students are speaking in Japanese, English, another languauge, pointing, gesturing, or in any other way making you understand, and you actually understand, for that moment, perhaps no error correction is necessary. Then you can think about making the mistake a learning experience later, for the whole class.

Eigo Noto classes are not to discourage students from further English study, nor are the lessons meant to be Conversation Lessons. But what about students who CAN and WANT TO speak English?

Do you, or the HRTs you work with, ever insist that the Eigo Noto students interact in English? I sometimes hear Home Room Teachers exhorting kids to speak English together.
There are times when we want a student to speak English in the Eigo Noto lessons, to be sure- when listening and repeating words and phrases, or when checking accuracy in pronunciation, for example. And looking at the workbook itself, you could easily get the idea that the kids are supposed to be speaking English.
But as for student-to-student interaction in English,



there are voices from above, as well as implied expectations in the Mombusho Guidelines, that would not have us, as teachers, insisting that students interact in English in the Eigo Noto lessons.

This seemed obvious to me months ago. But an HRT/elementary school head English teacher recently returned from a Mombusho Eigo Noto training event and was telling me that she was told there that we should not be expecting the students to speak English. From the tone of her voice I got the feeling that not expecting the students to speak English in the Eigo Noto lessons was, for her, a striking and extraordinary idea.
Based on that conversation, I thought it worthwhile to discuss it here.

My thoughts on this points are based on these ideas:

1. ‘All students should feel a sense of success in the final activity.’ See the post here.
2. Not all students will be able to produce correct spoken English after 2-3 classes.
3. Eigo Noto classes are not to discourage students from further English study. (From the Ministry of Education’s Guidelines for Elementary English Education. See the post here.) This is also true for students of ability who CAN speak English.
4. Students don’t need to speak English to be able to communicate together.

If we can accept these points, it becomes easy to make a list of the things we can or should do, and those we shouldn’t, in Eigo Noto classes:

Things NOT to do in Eigo Noto classes

• Don’t choose, or require, a student to stand alone in the class and speak English unsupported by a teacher. This includes any lesson that finishes with a Show-and-Tell activity. (The Listen and Repeat CROSSFIRE activity is meant to test students’ pronunciation, for all to learn from, and demonstrates an exception to this rule. A teacher is there as support.)
• Don’t explicitly tell a student that they are saying something in English incorrectly (“That’s not right!”)
• Don’t insist that all, or individual, students perform tasks in English.
• Don’t expect students to speak English without A LOT of modeling and practice. And while they may be able to say the words and/or structures, meaning is something that will take even more time.

Ways to Structure Communication, and Spoken English, in Your Classes

• If you expect students to perform a speaking task in the last activity of the lesson series, model from the very first lesson the language you want them to produce. And then repeat the language, in both listening and speaking activities, again and again and again.
• Keep English langauge patterns very simple and very repetitive.
• Use vocabulary words that are commonly used in Japanese.  See suggested word groups here.
• Ask for volunteers to demonstrate spoken English to the whole class.
• Allow the whole class to respond in English as a single voice first. Then ask for a volunteer to say it again after the correct form has been identified by the whole class and confirmed by a teacher.
• If a student speaks English incorrectly, say the correct form for them to hear. Using a rising intonation at the end, like a question, can mean, ‘Is this what you meant to say?’ Or, give examples of the pattern, changing a word, to model the language by talking about yourself.
• In the whole class, when someone responds in Japanese, ask if anyone knows how to say it in English. If they don’t know the whole meaning, start breaking it down into smaller and smaller chunks- phrases first (blue shoes), and then single words (blue, shoes). Gesture, and point to examples, to help.
• When speaking to individual students, and they respond in Japanese, repeat back to them what they just said, in English. Or, make it an English question. (‘Onaka suita.’ -> ‘I’m hungry.’ or, ‘Oh, are you hungry?’)
• To support low-English ability students, prepare materials with pictures and written Japanese as much as possible.
• Use written English on the blackboard and in materials.
• Narrow the conversation in activities to simple, repetitive patterns. Some of the Eigo Noto lessons use several language structures in one lesson. The EigoNoto.com lessons have simplified the language in these lessons already.
• Use small group and pair speaking activities to advantage- these groupings lower student anxiety, allow for more direct interaction, and many other things.  See this post. And this one.
• Structure activities so that students can repeat the same language experience several times with different partners. Some partners will offer better modeling than others, assisting lower-skilled students to advance their ability. Repeating the experience allows students to learn from their own, and others, successes and mistakes.
• Make activities as communicative as possible. This is the most difficult to describe, but in simple terms, meaningful responses confirm comprehension. Responses can be verbal (Yes or No is the easiest to understand), active (Here is the FISH card.), gestures, or in Japanese.

With visual and written English support, spoken Japanese, spoken English and gestures, and enough repetitive practice, all students will have the best chance of successful communicative interchange, whether it’s in English or not. And those students who WANT to speak English get a chance to.

In my studies I read a researcher who stated: ‘Error correction done wrong turns students’ attention to form, not meaning.’
I think we can never be too careful about maintaining a meaning-focused attitude when talking and interacting with our classes and students.