ABSTRACT

Error correction is a process of identifying errors and then correcting errors when disseminating information, which has become an important part of English language teaching. In English teaching, some teachers only pay attention to errors in written language. They hold the view that teachers ought to correct errors when errors appear during students’ expression. Error correction strategy employed in junior school classes and its desired effects are the focuses of this study. This research takes teachers and students of one junior school in Suzhou as research subjects and adopts research method of observation, questionnaire and interview. After collecting data, this paper analyzes both teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards error correction in classrooms. The followings are the findings of this study:

(1)If errors that students have made do not affect the correct expression of meaning and understanding, teachers will ignore these errors and lay emphasis on fluency.

(2)Some teachers usually employ immediate error correction method in order to ensure accuracy. This kind of error correction method will largely affect students’ motivation of learning and speaking English.

(3)Few teachers think of error correction strategies from the perspective of students. Most teachers use only one error correction strategy for the purpose of saving time in classrooms while some of them know little about error correction.

This study indicates that teachers should take students’ personality, age, emotion as well as their confidence into consideration. Teachers ought to adopt different error correction strategies according to different situations to achieve better effect. Meanwhile, both teachers and students are able to correct errors, which may help get unexpected results.

Keywords: error correction strategy; accuracy; fluency; desired effect

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One INTRODUCTION-1

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW-3

2.1 About Foreign Studies-3

2.2 About Domestic Studies-4

2.3 Summary-5

Chapter Three RESEARCH DESIGN-6

3.1 Research Questions-6

3.2 Research Subjects-6

3.3 Research Method-7

3.4 Research Process-8

Chapter Four DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS-9

4.1 Errors in Classes-9

4.2 Error Correction Strategy-11

4.2.1 Direct Error Correction Strategy-12

4.2.2 Indirect Error Correction Strategy-13

4.3 Students’ Attitudes towards Error Correction-15

4.4 Causes of Preference towards Direct Error Correction-16

4.5 Findings-18

Chapter Five CONCLUSION-20

REFERENCES-22