The document discusses various types of mistakes students make, sources of errors, and effective feedback strategies. It describes how teachers can provide feedback to help students overcome mistakes through techniques like self-assessment, peer feedback, and addressing errors during accuracy or fluency work. The goal of feedback is to help students improve their language skills without damaging their confidence or motivation.

1. Faculty of Education Sciences.
RABAT, MOROCCO 2017
EL MAHDI
BOUGUERINE
MOHAMED HEJJAJ
MAROUA HARRIF
MOHAMED MAHNA

2. Mistakes and Errors
Sources of errors
Feedback
Teachers feedback
Characteristics of an effective feedback
Peer feedback/correction
Self assessment
The impact of self assessment
Feedback on accuracy & fluency
During Accuracy
During Fluency

3. STUDENTS MAKE MISTAKES
One of the things that puzzles many teachers is why
students go on making the same mistakes even when
those mistakes have been repeatedly pointed out to
them.
Mistakes are not all the same, sometimes they seem to
be deeply ingrained, while other times students correct
themselves with apparent ease.
Failure is the key to success; each
mistake teaches us something.
Morihei Ueshiba

4. According to Julian edge 1989 we can divide
mistakes into three broad categories:
Slips : mistakes which students can correct
themselves once the mistake has been
pointed out to them.
Errors: mistakes which they can’t correct
themselves- and which therefore need
explanation.
Attempts: is when a student tries to say
something but does not yet know the correct
way of saying it

5. SOURCES OF ERRORS
L1 interference : students who learn English as second language
already have a deep knowledge of at least one another
language, where that L1 and the variety of English the are
learning come into contact with each other, there are often
confusions which provoke errors in a learner’s use of English.
For example: on the level of sounds Arabic does not have a
phonemic distinction between /f/ & /v/, so Arabic speakers
may well say ferry when they mean very.
Sometimes, it may be on the level of
word usage, where similar sounding word have
slightly different meaning , like : libreria in
Spanish means bookshop, not library,
embarasada means pregnant, not
embarrassed.

6. Developmental errors : for a long time now researchers in child
language development have been aware of the phenomenon of ‘over
generalization’
a situation where a child who starts by saying daddy went,
they came, etc. perfectly correctly suddenly starts saying daddy goed
& they comed.
What seems to be happening is that the child starts to ‘over
generalize’ a new rule that has been subconsciously learnt, and as a
result he/she even makes mistakes with things that he/she seemed
to have known before.
Foreign language learner makes the same kind of developmental
errors as well, they are demonstrating part of the natural process of
language learning.
Developmental errors are part of the students’ interlanguage, that is
the version of the language which a learner has at any one stage of
development, and which is continually re-shaped as he or she aims
towards full mastery.
When responding to errors, teachers should be seen as providing

7. HOW CAN STUDENTS
OVERCOME THESE
MISTAKES/ERRORS?

8. FEEDBACK
Feedback is an essential part of education and training
programmes. It helps learners to maximise their potential at
different stages of training, raise their awareness of strengths
and areas for improvement, and identify actions to be taken to
improve performance.
(www.faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk)
Feedback refers to the information that learners receive from
their teacher, peers themselves about their performance
which will help them to take self corrective and improve their
achievement (Applied linguistic for BA students in English- Judith sarosdy, et
al 2006)

9. TEACHER'S FEEDBACK
It is an essential part of effective learning in the sense
that it helps them to understand the subject being
studied and gives them clear guidance on how to
improve their learning.
 Feedback can improve Students confidence, self-
awareness and enthusiasm for learning.

10. Negative feedback: refers to information
given to the learner that argues against
the learner’s understanding or beliefs in
relation to a certain task.
Positive feedback: refers to information
given to the learner that supports the
learner’s understanding or beliefs in
relation to a certain task.

11. CHARACTERISTICS OF AN
EFFECTIVE TEACHER’S
FEEDBACK Feedback should be constructive : if a feedback is
handled poorly it may have a negative impact on your
students to an extent that it can de-motivate them.
 The feedback should be gently provided. The learner
who is receiving the feedback shouldn’t feel that he is
under attack.
 It is better for the teacher to provide the feedback,
especially a “negative” one, in private. The fact of giving
it to a particular student in front of his classmates may
lower his self-esteem, also it may de-motivate those
who are watching.
 It should be given as soon as possible, especially if it is
positive. Congratulating some one on a job well done
after a month won’t do as much good as if you were to
congratulate them immediately after doing the job.

12. PEER
FEEDBACK/CORRECTION
Teachers can encourage
their students to correct
each other
This technique should be
applied with great care so
that students who
originally made the
mistake will not feel
humiliated ,
ADVANTAGES
It encourage cooperation,
students get used to the idea
that they can learn from each
other
Both learners (who made the
error and who corrects) are
involved in listening to and
thinking about the language.
The teacher gets a lot of
important information about
learners’ ability/level.
If they learn to practice peer
correction without hurting
each other’s feelings, they will
do the same in pair-work
activities.

13. SELF-ASSESSMENT
Definition:
 Evaluate the quality of
thinking
• Identify the individual
strategies

14. Process
Self-
monitoring
Instructional
correctives
self-
judgment

15. SAMPLE OF SELF-
ASSESSMENT(SPE
AKING)
• I can participate in a conversation in a
group of people on familiar topics
• I can describe processes or events in some
detail I can give my opinions in study
contexts such as tutorials
• I can make formal presentations in English
if I have time to prepare
• I can summarize stories or news items
• I can participate in discussions or debates
on hypothetical issues
• I can monitor my own errors when I’m
speaking Most people can understand my
pronunciation

16. THE IMPACT
OF SELF-
ASSESSMEN
T
• Enhancing
confidence
• Self-advocacy
• Developing
realistic
expectations
• Goal setting

17. • Though its importance, teachers should not deal with all
oral production the same way.
• Teachers should be selective (Stage of the lesson, the
activity, the type of the mistake, the particular student).
• Teachers should distinguish between communicative
and non-communicative activities.
• Accuracy work: teachers’ intervention is highly
desired.
• Fluency work: do not interrupt them in
their mid-flow. At this stage, teachers’
intervention can raise stress, lowers his
self-esteem…
FEEDBACK DURING FLUENCY AND
ACCURACY WORK

18. The methodologist Tony Lynch 1997 argues that
students have a lot to gain from coming up against
communication problems. Provided that they have some
of the words and phrases necessary to help them
NEGOTIATE a way out of their communicative impasses,
they will learn a lot from doing so. When teachers
intervene, not only to correct, but also to supply
alternative modes of expression to help students, they
remove that need to negotiate meaning. By doing
so, you are preventing them from a learning
opportunity.
In his words, the best answer to when the teacher
should
intervene in learner talk is: ………………..?

19. DURING ACCURACY
WORK
Correction is made up of 2
distinct stages:
1. Teachers show students that
a mistake has been made (if
it is a mistake)
2. They help students to make
sth about it (errors).

20. TECHNIQUES
1. Showing incorrectness: These techniques are only beneficial
for what we are assuming to be language slips rather than
embedded or systematic errors.
 Repeating:
 Echoing
 Expression
 Hinting
 Reformulation
 In these procedures, teachers hope that their students will correct
themselves. In case they did not, teachers should intervene.
1) Getting it right

21. FEEDBACK DURING
FLUENCY WORK:
The way in which we respond to students when
they speak in a fluency activity will have a
significant bearing not only on how well they
perform at the time, but also on how they
behave in fluency activities in the future

22. HOW TO CORRECT THEM DURING
FLUENCY WORK
• Gentle correction
• Recording mistakes
• After the event