What is your philosophy on the topic of error correction in teaching writing? How much error correction is helpful for the student, and what types of error correction can have negative results? Draw from your experiences as both a student and a teacher.It is rewarding to see my students who own what they have learned and to witness any of my teachings that enrich their lives, including the topic of error correction in teaching writing. Before answering the question of how much error correction is helpful for the student, I think that it is important to get to know the student’s ability and learning style first, from which, the teacher is able to guide the student to set learning goals and renew them periodically. It is a simple way to create a safe learning environment for the student and help him or her build self-confidence so that the student know that making errors is part of learning process. Chris Tribble suggests the roles of the teacher are: examiner, audience, assistant, resource, evaluator, and editor (Harmer, p.109). Keeping these roles in mind as a ESL/EFL teaching may guide well my future teaching approach.
Harmer listed many positive and useful correction methods. I could imagine myself using the method of removing symbols gradually under Training Students to Self-edit and Self-correct, by following the these 5 stages (Harmer, p.119). Stage 1: Lines and symbols Stage 2: Underlining with no symbol Stage 3: Margin symbol Stage 4: Margin marks next to a line with # of mistakes Stage 5: One margin mark next to a line without # of mistakes I believe that every teacher wants the best for her or his student, so do I. Using a helpful type of error correction without causing negative results is important for a student's learning experience. I know that punishments and competitions don’t work well for me at all. As Harmer noted that proactive approach is a good way to treat errors instead of reactive approach. If a teacher gives feedback on errors that is done oppositely from the list below, negative results might be hard to avoid. (Frodesen, pp.250-251)
Applying the golden rule in my teaching: how I want to be taught as a student is how I will try to do my best as a teacher.
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Business Writing, Chinese Students, and Communicative Language Teaching by Nathan B. Jones p.12-1510/4/2015 The article by Jones shows the difficulties and compromises which can arise when a “process-oriented/communicative” methodology is applied to a different cultural context. Reflect on the insights you gained from Jones’ analysis of his course. Consider how cultural factors, such as the educational backgrounds of your students or your teaching context, may cause you to modify. After reading the research that Jones did in Taiwan, I admired what he was able to accomplish. He adjusted his teaching methods based on his teaching experience and students' requests. I also admired what the students in his class were able to achieve. Most of his students were open-minded and stepped out their comfort zone to experience the communicative language teaching approach.
I can resonate with the students that Jones taught. When I was learning English in Taiwan, English was a mandatory subject to learn from middle school to the first two years of college. For my generation, English was treated as a piece of knowledge instead of a skill. I wonder if the class taught by Jones was designed specifically just for Business Writing. If it was, the students would expect to learn how to write business writing in English but nothing else. If the students were working and studying at the same time, they would prefer the product-centered approach instead of the process-centered approach. It means that the more models he provided, the easier it was for students to practice copying. Things have been changed a lot in recent years. I found ITI school website. It is interesting to see what the school is providing. I would agree with Jones that explaining thoroughly and frequently the purposes of the communicative language teaching approach is a useful strategy to work with Chinese students, and that using a combination of traditional teacher-centered approach and communicative student-centered approach can be more receptive. It is not surprising for me that ‘peer edition’ and ‘journals’ activities are not popular in Taiwan. It has to do with Chinese culture. It might not be the original intention of the education system in Taiwan, but the culture of competition is ingrained deeply in our motivations and attitudes of learning. Saving face among classmates is understandable. Jones' advantage is that he is able to conduct his action research through 60 students over a 2-years period. His fruitful learning result certainly taught him and enriched his future teaching. I believe that it is important for a EFL/ESL teaching to teach L2 students over a period of time at least for a couple of years if he or she wants to learn how to introduce any new teaching methodologies to students in a particular culture setting, through which the teacher is able to modify his or her teaching in an effective and helpful way. Having meaning experience and a willing heart to learn make a good teacher, who is able to help students learn well. Chapter 5 Building the writing habit: |
AuthorChienyu Jade Yi Archives
October 2015
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