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ATTITUDE TO ERRORS & FLUENCY IN A COMMUNICATIVE EFL CLASSES IN ALBANIA
Marsela Harizaj
(Vlora, Albania)
This paper treats the process of communication, teacher’s attitude to errors and the impact that they have on students fluency. It is a study based in two plans theory and practice observing elementary, secondary and high schools. Being communicative, using new techniques and strategies in this new era of globalization where English plays an indisputable part it’s not an easy thing. Communication approach is based on an interesting idea, it focuses on the student’s ability to convey ideas in English. Someone speaks accurately andfluently, but there are those who are not understood at all when they speak because they make errors. We’re going to exploit and discuss about teachers’ attitude in enhancing fluency and correcting in a smooth way.
Keywords: corrective feedback, communication process, fluent speakers.
1. Introduction
The purpose of studying English for many learners is communication. Enabling communicative activities helps to reach the purpose, but there is always something that make use think a lot: Errors or mistakes, how to correct, will I create an obstacle to student’s fluency and accuracy? How can we give students the right feedback that they need without damaging fluency in speaking ? Research shows that there are some types of errors: those that happen frequently, those that we are ashamed of making them, and errors that prevent the meaning of what is said and understood by the listener.
Experience of teaching different levels (A1-B2, C1), has revealed to me that errors are not the same for all students, the same thing happens with the students of secondary or high- school. Someone that is fluent has less chances to make an error as in most of the case those that are fluent are even accurate. As the main principle of communicative teaching method is communication, thus understanding, interacting, being fluent, it means that we should correct errors gently, without creating an obstacle for communication.
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According to Freeman: ‘Errors of form are tolerated during fluency based activities and are seen as a natural outcome of the development of communication skills’ [Freeman, 2000]. Errors may happen during a communicative exercise that might be a reading part, writing, so there is always time for feedback. Correction depends on error and task. As we are interested to teach students to communicate it’s better to give the right feedback at the proper time.
Correction is only a filter which we can use to help the proficiency of our students. Giving feedback raises student’s motivation, accuracy, fluency and communicative expression repertoire. Providing feedback allows us to give students more than «just talk». The most interesting part is how we can provide feedback during and after their talks. Therefore, it is really necessary for teachers to review the practical situation to perform a correction to’’ time «and ‘appropriate correction strategy’ and plan a classes to analyze errors» [Richards, 1974]. has advantages good for teachers to analyze en error to find out why students make mistakes and plan their classes in order to correct them.
2. Correcting errors and teachers’ attitude
Making mistakes is an inevitable and necessary part of learning English as a foreign language. As EFL teachers, we understand that we should first analyze if it is an error or a mistake. If it is the first we have to do with lack of acquisition, while a mistake is a slip of tongue. We are going to concentrate in errors, their types and techniques of correcting them. According to Richards:”What may be less obvious, however, is the judgment on the type of error that students make from the linguistic point of view, and they should be trained more and more on the analysis of errors because it improves the quality of feedback on error correction”. [Richards, 1974]
There are many problems associated with the correction of errors in English classes, because many students want to speak accurately and fluently, but not every student likes to be corrected. But even when correct we can not expect students to understand immediately and respond immediately because it depends not only on language but also on the level, character and student’s learning style. The point is to limit the correction to a number of small items in a certain time and to judge when it is the right time for correction.
From what I have observed, communication problems are due to different components such as lack of vocabulary, pronunciation errors, a
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wrong use of communicative expressions est. We can keep notes on mistakes or errors and after student has finished talking , we may write on the board structures in order to be understood by students about the faults. Teachers should not block their feelings but should concentrate on those errors that are deep and are not a simple lapse. Students may have very little knowledge of the language, but can be very communicative or otherwise successful communicators.
2.1. Types of errors: Errors can also occur due to the influence of the first language. They can be grouped into:
• Grammatical errors in which the student has learned a rule, but did not understood exactly what.
• Students will learn a rule and generalize it such as to form the past tense endings for regular verbs is-ed students use it even for irregular verbs, so they have learned mechanically so that they would use “She camed to my party “instead of’ She came to my party”.
• Students know that they are not speaking accurately, but again they are trying to communicate something extremely complicated with the language that they know.
• When you want to correct should we consider some aspects [Tanner, Green, 2001].
Teachers need to stop and correct when: They want students to be accurate, for example the introduction of new structures and when students practice it for the first time. The teacher can give feedback later in such situations: If students are in the middle of an activity based on fluency, in a group-work when they have discussion roles or if the student is shy, but he is trying to communicate regardless of this.
2.2. Techniques of correction
There may be an abundance of mistakes in an EFL classroom, so it’s impossible to correct all of them. A teacher should correct those that really influence learner’s communication. There are different techniques of correction that are identified some ways which include: Teacher-correction, self-correction, student to student correction and pair -correction.
Teacher-correction-Teachers can correct students in different ways according to the type of tasks they do. Once identifying the error, they can use different techniques and strategies. During activities that are based on fluency, errors can be corrected in this way: Can be monitored a group or a couple taking notes and at the end of the work to clarify all the errors. If the activity has to do with accuracy, then the error should be corrected often. Teachers can vary correction strategies according to students’ personality:
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Shy students are corrected less when they should be encouraged to communicate. Good students, a bit more so that they challenge each other. Using a gesture rather than words helps a lot because you are not so intrusive, an inquiring look for him/her helps too to realize the error and correct.
Self-Correction — It’s effective and helps to identify himself/herself, it has a positive impact on feedback. They feel more comfortable by recognizing their mistakes/errors.
Student to student-correction - It’s effective because because they feel involved, independent, secure and responsible and it saves the time of the teacher. But it has got some disadvantages because some students feel superior to others and they are taught to criticize.
Pair-correction — By using it especially for written work help students to learn from each- other. It can be done by exchanging sheets. As an example : Student A correct students B task and vice-versa. They may even correct the some thing and than can share their thoughts, in this way they correct but even interact.
Providing Feedback on errors - It’s very effective because if we do not give it than students don’t understand when have they made errors and what type are they. The teacher may provide feedback on errors made in speech by: writing each student errors in the paper and gives it to them, by explaining why it is wrong or by writing on the blackboard errors and tells students to correct. The teacher may also deal with errors in a special class [Tanner, Green,2000].
3. Accuracy and Fluency of Students
Accuracy and fluency go together in the acquisition of a foreign language. It’s such a pleasure to hear students who speak English correctly and fluently. Such a student gives value to our class and the teacher feels proud of the work he/she has done. We have to concentrate up to which extend do these elements go in English classes? Everyone of us, when using a certain text notes that grammar occupies a considerable part, without giving to students opportunities to communicate, there are many grammatical structures that are not used in daily life [Terrell, 1991].
Many times students ask us: «Why should I learn so much grammar, how does it help me»? Using real situations gives students the opportunity to use a variety of words and phrases of the language depending on the language level they have. It’s good, that while using language to communicate we should enable students a variety of activities that promote communication and fluency in the language. Focus of accuracy versus
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fluency is one of the few points to consider when talking about learning the language to communicate and in communication.
Sometimes the desire for accuracy prevent the student’s fluency. Each teacher decides to pay attention to one or another element, and this depends on the type of learning or a specific learning phase. Accuracy is their choice if they want to make things as students need and to see if they need any correction. But it doesn’t mean that we correct just in that case, even if we are concentrated in fluency we correct but in that case we smooth it.
Free speech gives more choice and less interference from the teacher. In a student centered class it does not mean that learning is not structured. The teacher has an important role in this process. He should expose the class to real communicative activities. It takes a lot of preparation: Practicing accuracy is the bridge to a fluency activity. No teacher can not put an emphasis on correctness without including fluency, two key points in the acquisition of a foreign language, which are inseparable from one another. It is clear from the discussion so far, that increased possibilities for interaction is the key to fluency.
Accuracy comes through information received in class, guidelines for performing and monitoring of use. According to Savignon:”What is important is the ability to use language during the learning process, it creates interest and identification with the language, not to mention the earning trust.” [Savignon, 1983] The emphasis now is not to use correct forms of language that I have learned in a mechanical way, but it is important the use of forms in communicative tasks [Willis, J. 1988].
4. Methodology
Research methods
To conduct the study about communicative problems that our students encounter in English classes, it has been followed the line of literature research and practical side of it by observing English classes, experimenting. Before the observation, questionnaires and interviews were made to teachers and students concerning methodology, techniques and strategies used in the teaching and learning process, interviews about the texts and cultural information in English classes, attitude to errors and correcting them.
Participants
Participants of this study are students and teachers of elementary and high school in Vlora. After the questionnaires and interviews was made the data collection and analyses, observations and literature review. The number of participants is about 300 students and 30 teachers. The age
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varies from 10-18, and the experience of teachers is from 5, 7, 8, 12, 20 years. The interviews and questionnaires are made to different age and classes, according to the intent and inner focus of the questions.
Results and discussion
About the interview with English teachers upon correction used in English classes, the questions focus in:
Attitude to errors:
Table.1 Attitude to errors
Self correction or correction in pairs 35% of teacher
Writing errors on the board 27%
Taking Notes in paper 5%
Teacher- correction and notes on the board 33%
Enhancing fluency:
A pedagogical principle is to abandon grammatically structured language format and to focus on interaction and fluency activities, in this case errors are tolerated. As an example let’s take this exercise:
Grade 8, number of students 30, Level A2:
Topic: Holidays. Students are divided into groups of 3 people to create a dialogue for the holidays, creation of a simulation where they played roles and didn’t focus in accuracy but fluency. Using brainstorming helped them to write about: what we are, what we do when we are on vacation, including:
a. Countries visited
b. Activities
c. Interesting experience
d. Impressions
Errors and mistakes in this activity were corrected at the end. Pair- correction was effective. They didn’t feel stressed and frustrated. According to Harmer:” The creation of such situations where students use language more effectively to ensure communication is helpful. [Harmer, 1983] Harmer refers to the continuity of communicative activities through speech, while Littlewood refers to the growth of communicative activities through speech.[Littlewood,1981] Both emphasize that these activities enable students to communicate independently. So through these activities they pursue as a model the teacher (teacher gives instructions), not imitate, but express thoughts, ideas and feelings freely to describe a part of everyday life.
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From my experience I think every teacher can help students to speak fluently after extending student’s views on the components of language and the concept of ‘fluency’. According to Bygate “Speech involves encryption of communicative purpose in what we often call ‘there and here” [Bygate,1987].
Training in spoken language has to do with being able to produce fluent and accurate, communicative expressions which are appropriate for the context of the situation in which we speak. Fluency can be defined as the ability to understand without much hesitation and many breaks that cause obstructions or a breakdown in communication [Crystal, 1977]. Accuracy refers to the use of correct forms where utterances will not contain errors affecting the phonological, syntactic, semantic or discourse features of a language [Bryne, 1988].
Therefore, teachers should help students to produce correct forms in English, but it is also important to help them to communicate in such a way as to be understood by speakers in a conversational situation.
Conclusion
Language learning exposes student to different situations and communication strategies. What do we have to bear in mind is the balance of accuracy and fluency, correction of errors is tolerated and given the proper time and space as the main goal in English classes is learning to communicate. Techniques and strategies vary according to what should be corrected and when. English Language Learners learn by making mistakes which are transitory, and helps them to be improved and continue the process of learning the language [Corder,1981]. Mistakes are product of learning from which we can make inferences about the learning process and represent aspects of the strategy that a student learning the English language to create a new experience, to be able to speak English as a foreign language [James, 1998].
What is important here is that “errors should not be seen as a sign of failure on the part of teachers of English, but as a clear proof that our students develop and give us details of how they improve to proficiency in English language. So we as teachers should have in mind all these when using this method, to keep a correct attitude towards errors. From the observations and interviews different teachers had different tactics of correction. Strategies depend even on the time of correcting errors. from observations there are teachers that did not leave the students to finish speaking but correct at the moment, which is wrong because it interrupts students’ thoughts and the goal is learning to communicate.
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And it is important for teachers to understand that not all errors should be corrected as soon as they are done in the classroom. Errors that happens frequently should be tolerated but giving time to communication. Therefore is the task of teacher to find new strategies and techniques depending on what was discussed above, type, time of correcting errors having thus fluency without giving proper place even to accuracy.
References
Richards, J.C., 1974. ‘Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition’. London: Longman.
Rosie, T & Green. C, 2001. - tasks for teacher education. Longman. p.16-30.
Larsen, Freeman, D, 2000.Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching .Oxford University press.p. 132.
Corder, SP, 1981. Error Analysis and Interlanguage . Oxford. OUP Tarone, E. 1983. On the variable of Interlanguage systems. Applied Linguistics Oxford:OUP James, C. 1998. Errors in language learning and use. London & New York: Longman’.
Terrell T. D 1991 - The role of GRAMMER instruction in a communicative approach. Modern Language Journal. p.52-63.
Savignon, S. 1983. Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Willis, J. 1988. Task-Based Learning. Practical English Teaching, March 1988, 41-42; June 1988, 42-43; Sept. 1988, 53-54. Willis, D, Willis, J. 1987. Varied Activities for Variable Language. ELT Journal Vol 14/1, 12-16.
Terrell T. D 1991 . The role of grammer instruction in a communicative approach. Modern Language Journal. p.52-63.
Littlewood,W, 1981. Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bygate, M. 1987. Speaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crystal, D1977. Advanced conversational English. London: Longman. Bryne, 1986, Nation, 1991.
Bryne,D 1988 .Teaching Oral English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
James, C. 1998. Errors in language learning and use. London & New York: Longman’.
Harmer, J. 1983. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London,Longman.
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