For the last 18 months, I’ve been back to teaching classes of 12 to 16 adult students. I am also now teaching somewhere where some students instantly freeze up when they realise I am listening into their pairwork, some others hate to be interrupted, and most are happy to call me over when they need me. Due to all that, once or twice in every class I find myself standing around in class with basically nothing to do.
I don’t often feel guilty about that, because I know I’m giving students what they want (and maybe need) and it’s my planning and setting up of the activity that made my inactivity possible and hopefully still makes it worthwhile coming to my classes rather than just chatting in English in a cafe with their friends. The temptation is still, however, to do something, anything to keep busy. I run through the transition to the next stage again in my head. I make sure that the next bunch of photocopies are in my hand. I rethink the order of the stages and whether one should be left out. I double check that I’m open on the right page. And then, almost without thinking, I reach for a piece of blank paper and a pen to copy down student errors. There’s nothing wrong with doing that for the right reasons, but I am trying to resist it when I know that my real reasons are:
– To keep busy, and maybe to appear to be busy (and therefore worth paying)
– As an automatic reflex
– Because I’ve trained other teachers to do it
– To fill five minutes
I have a feeling those four reasons will come up a lot when I try to analyse why I do other things in the classroom too.
The good reaons would be:
– They aren’t getting enough accuracy practice in other ways
– Collecting their errors is the best way of giving them this accuracy
For some classes and teachers, these reasons exist, hence why I’d still train and remind newish teachers to use this technique. For most of, us, though, those reasons don’t exist because:
– Corrections of things they didn’t happen to say that day but make more generally or would have more influence on communication, e.g. typical Korean mistakes, are likely to be much more useful
– There’s no evidence that correction at the end of a lesson or stage with no chance to use that language again has any particular effect, so doing typical mistakes before an activity seems much more useful
– Our students are often getting more than enough accuracy practice of other types, e.g. controlled practice (e.g. a speaking game that is designed to produce one particular structure), correction of written work, elicitation of example sentences during grammar presentations, reusing forms when answering comprehension questions, and reformulation by the teacher
Any comments on error correction or suggestions for other things we do for hidden reasons? Comments below please
TEFLtastic 
The speaking activity – collect errors – error feedback routine is just another formulaic lesson plan that is open to abuse. Teachers love it cos it gives us an easy fallback plan when we have nothing better planned.
Students buy it cos it keeps them busy and avoids the embarassment of – you made that mistake – again!! of spot correction.
It’s OK. I do it sometimes, but like Alex I know I’m not doing it for the right reasons. I think as a training tool it helps teachers to monitor better and become aware of what mistakes their students actually make.
Looking forward to this series.
LikeLike
Error correction is one thing that I struggle with as a teacher. I rarely give error correction ‘on-the-spot’ unless I see the student struggling with some specific point. I prefer giving feedback towards general errors as a class and individual feedback (about error correction) one-on-one during a consultation.
I hate being constantly corrected while I’m speaking Korean or any other language I’m learning. I think the controlled practice with specific objectives is a useful way of running a class. Sometimes I think a native speaker’s presence alone motivates students to speak in their target language. I know I feel a lot more motivation to speak Korean when there are a few natives within earshot.
LikeLike
I always make sure to note down things my students do well during speaking activities, not just the errors. That way I can write up on the board 2 lists/sections (‘Good, keep on doing this!’ and ‘Could be better’).
I do it because it’s a fairly simple way to get them to look again at their language and peer-correct, and also to highlight good usage. Not that my students always make a note of any of this… (but that’s another matter!)
LikeLike
Alex
It’s good to see others like me suffer the same crisis – “they’re all talking beautifully, and I’m being paid to … sit and do nothing. That can’t be right!”
As you say, the value of what we do is setting up the activity and, as Neil says, us simply being there motivates them to try to speak fluently and take risks or whatever (though I’d dispute whether the teacher’s nationality makes all the difference). Of course when experienced teachers sit and do nothing, it’s not the same as newbie teachers sitting and doing nothing. Perhaps …
LikeLike
Hi Alex,
What is wrong with sitting back and letting them get on with it?
We are facilitators are we not? Ok what usually happens like you say, is we feel guilty just sitting there so we write down “errors” to make ourselves feel better and the students too!
We learn on our Dip courses that every class should include an error correction slot as this is what our students expect of us and our course tutors and examiners, Who cares if correction works? We look busy and the students expect it!
I have a why do we question for you : Why do we teach grammar at all if as many people tell us it is infact “unteachable”? (is that a word?) Why do we push students to talk when they are obviously in their “Silent period”? and Why do we teach integrated skills?
LikeLike
Why do we push students to talk when they are obviously in their “Silent period”?
Is there any evidence at all for a silent period in adults? The other questions are good ones though, and will try to deal with them in time.
LikeLike
Hi Alex,
I teach kids and I am very aware of a “silent period” I haven’t taught groups of adults for a while so I am going to read up a bit and get back to you on that one!
Thanks
Leahn
LikeLike
Part Two of this series with link to Part Three is here:
https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/tefl/why-we-do-games/
LikeLike
Part Five with links to the other parts now up here:
LikeLike