Unit 3: Misconceptions and Myths

Misconceptions & Myths

When I read the statement, “Rather than correcting student, it's better to get students to correct themselves.” I would agree with this statement to some extent.  With that, we must use our discretion and consider who our learners are and how much years of L2 learning they have before we can truly say that its better for students to correct themselves.  Otherwise:

1.     It can help determine what the student(s) already know, the teacher is able to observe and identify - assess!

2.     Being able to correct errors on their own, helps the L2 learner to strengthen their grammar skills.

3.     Learners boost their confidence and feel accomplished knowing they can correct their own work.

4.     It improves motivation and self-esteem by responding to and overcoming their mistakes. 

5.     Learning is instilled and becomes more comprehensible as they deal with correcting themselves, hence, a deeper level of understanding is accomplished.  

6.     Correcting themselves gives students the ability to become autonomous learners, in and beyond the classroom walls. Thus, they are now able to correct errors when they notice them!

When errors are repetitive, then it would be beneficial for teachers to help ELL’s to identify and correct their errors, otherwise these frequent mistakes will continue to be used and eventually lead to “bad habits.” 

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“Learners' mistakes can provide useful material for teaching.” Learner’s mistakes can be very useful and beneficial teaching material.  Learning from our mistakes are an essential part of the learning and growing process.  Using learners’ mistakes can bring teachable moments into the classroom and learning can be more engaging and relevant to all. Some benefits (I can think of) of using learner’s mistakes as teaching material are:

1.    Material is authentic and makes it more interesting to learn from

2.    It may be familiar to others who may be experiencing the same mistakes.

3.    When mistakes frequently occur, feedback along with reteaching (in real-time) from the teacher benefits everyone all at once. 

4.    Learners can contribute to their learning experiences and see value in it.

5.    Learning is more imbedded and comprehensible, from learning the task thoroughly

In order to keep learners motivated, teachers need to be tactful, respectful and careful on how they approach using students’ mistakes as an authentic learning material in the classroom.  I believe learners should walk into a class feeling safe to make slips, errors, and attempts, as it is a natural part of their growing and learning process and to know that corrective feedback is an extra step that helps them to improve and meet their goal, learning English as a second language.