The treatment of oral errors in English second language classrooms

Abstract

The problem investigated in this study is how oral errors are treated in the ESL classroom. It is hypothesized that most teachers do not treat oral errors, although there is a variety of methods they may employ to do so. According to many researchers, teachers also ought to allow pupils to correct their own errors. The aims of this study are therefore to determine whether oral errors are treated and, if they are, which type of error is treated most/less frequently, and which type of oral error treatment is preferred by teachers. The extent of treatment by pupils themselves is also investigated. The literature survey covers the relations between oral errors in the Ll and the L2, the significance of oral L2 errors, as well as the nature and causes of these errors. Researchers have opposing views on the treatment of L2 learners' oral errors, and these different views are dealt with. Various different frameworks employed in the analysis of oral errors are also discussed. The empirical investigation is based on the analysis of ten lessons by teachers of two Std. 7 classes. These lessons were analysed according to a specific framework and the results revealed that most oral errors were ignored by the teachers. The three categories of error which were ignored most were errors in agreement, pronunciation, and tense. However, a promising result emanating from this study was that, although teachers ignored most errors, the second and third most popular methods of error treatment were questions and transfer . Both these methods leave room f or the treatment of errors by pupils themselves.