Mistakes made by language learners can be categorized as slips, errors, or attempts. Slips can be self-corrected, errors cannot. Attempts involve using structures not yet learned. Errors may be caused by L1 interference, developmental issues, or overgeneralization. When assessing students, teachers should ignore slips, encourage risk-taking, praise effort, avoid over-complimenting, foster self-assessment, and show genuine interest. Feedback should distinguish between accuracy and fluency work. During fluency activities, gentle corrections if needed to aid communication; otherwise allow errors. For accuracy, first signal the mistake exists, then help student correct it. Written feedback involves commenting and coding, with the goal of

1. Mistakes and feedback
Jeremy Harmer, Chapter 7 (2001)
Práctica Educativa III, Residencia Docente Prof.
Estela N. Braun(2010)

2. Types of Mistakes
 Julian Edge (1993)divides mistakes into
3 broad categories:
 SLIPS : students can correct
themselves.
 ERRORS: students cannot correct
themselves.
 ATTEMPTS: ambitious language use, by
using structures they have not learnt yet.

3. Causes of Errors
 L1 Interference :sounds, false
friends.Eg: parents, embarrased, library.
 Developmental errors.
 Overgeneralization.
 Interlanguage.

4. Assessing Students’
performance
 A. Ignore mistakes/slips
 B. Encourage risk taking.
 C.Praise them.
 D.Avoid over-complimenting them .
 E. Foster self-assessment.
 F.Show genuine interest in their work.

5. Other information valid as
assessment:
 Comments.
 Marks and grades.
 Reports.
 Self-assessment through checklists .
 ROA (record of achievement)

6. Feedback during Oral Work
 Difference
between ACCURACY (non-
communicative activities)
 FLUENCY (communicative activities)

7. When should we provide
teacher intervention?
 Lynch (1997) Use “gentle correction”…”the
best answer to the question of when to
intervene in learner talk is:as late as possible”.
 Processing language for communication is
the best way of processing language for
acquisition.
 When teachers intervene to correct or to
supply alternative modes of expression to help
students, they remove the need to negotiate
meaning.

8. Rapport and feedback
 Correction builds on the rapport
between teacher and students.
 A good teacher “should be able to
correct people without offending them”
(Harmer, 1998)

9. Feedback during Accuracy Work
 Two distinct stages:
 I. Show a student a mistake has been
made.
 II. Help students do something about it.

10. Showing Incorrectness
 1. Repeating: Again? Use of intonation
and expression by the teacher.
 2. Echoing: Flight 309 GO to Paris?
 3. Satement and question: That’s not
quite right. Do people think it’s all right?
 4.Expression: facial, gesture, without
being cruel or mocking

11. And more…
 5.Hinting: Say the word: tense, word,
plural. Shared metalanguage.
 6.Reformulation: If I had heard…

12. GETTING IT RIGHT:
 Ifstudents are unable to correct
themselves, focus on the correct version
in detail.
 Foster peer correction in a genuinely
cooperative atmosphere.
 Techniques must not undermine
students’self-esteem.

13. Feedback during fluency work:
 We need to respond to content and not just
language.
 Tolerance of erros during fluency sessions
should be much greater than during controlled
practice sessions.
 Gentle correction is necessary if
communication breaks down or if students
need prompting because they do not know
what to say.

14. Techniques:
A)Reformulate what they say:
Student: I am not agree with you.
Teacher: I don’t agree with you..because..
B) Try not to interrupt the flow of the activity,
or we may bring it to a standstill.
C) Recording mistakes: Use charts to
categorize learners’mistakes:
grammar and vocabulary, discourse
management, pronunciation,
appropriacy,interactive communication.

15. Feedback on written work:
 Workbook exercises.
 Feedback on creative writing:
demonstrate interest in the content of
students’work.

16. Written Feedback Techniques
 Responding:
 We tell them how successful they have been,
and which areas they have improved/need to
improve.Constructive feedback:learning from
errors.
 Coding:
 Teachers may use a code with symbols on the
margins. We allow students to focus on
particular aspects of language:spelling, verb
tenses, paragraph construction, cohesion.

17. Finishing the feedback process
 Written feedback is designed as a tool to help
learners improve their language use.
 Importance of rewriting: to see how they
respond to our comments.
 Feedback is part of the learning process.
 It is over after students have made changes
,consulted grammar books or dictionaries as a
way of resolving some of the mistakes we
have signalled.
 (*)See TDI Speaking materials.