1 CHAPTER INTRODUCTION Motivation for the study One of the most crucial factors in keeping up with the development of society and the need of communication in the present day is the acquisition of at least a foreign language, especially English because English is the language of globalization, international communication, commerce, the media and pop culture English is also the most widespread language on the earth (The Encyclopedia Britannica, 2006b) English is used widely in public or private sphere in more than 100 countries all over the world (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2006d) Five thousand newspapers i.e more than half of the newspapers published in the world are published in English (Yamaguchi, 2002 c) English learners can also update their knowledge faster and more effectively than others in different areas such as academic, science, technology because most of the information and knowledge in these areas are transferred in English “Over 70% of the world‟s scientists read English (Hasman, 2007 c) “Following World War II, the economic and cultural influence of the United States increased and English permeated other cultures, chiefly through development to telecommunications technology and became the lingua franca of the world” (Crystal, 1997 a; Brutt-Griffer, 2002; Seidlhofer, 2003; McKay, 2003; Llurda, 2004; and Ha, 2005 a) In sum, the role of English language acquisition is more and more important However, the process of English acquisition is not easy and ideal as the benefits that the language brings to learners They must make great efforts to face not only some visible difficulties such as a large number of vocabularies, using learned words in writing speaking effectively and remembering difficult grammar structures as well as using it in suitable situations but also the unexpected and unrecognizable challenge that is making errors Although learners try to study well, making errors during the learning process is natural and unavoidable This “more tolerant modern approach” is based on the fact that errors are normal and unavoidable during the leaning process (Ancker, 2000b) Gass and Selinker (2001) also write, though errors are “likely to occur repeatedly, they “are not recognized by the learner” (p.102) The fact is that errors are natural and unavoidable, so the role of teachers to correct students‟ errors is very necessary and important Together with other kinds of errors, spoken errors are one of the most notable errors that need to be effectively corrected by teachers because English learners want to use English for communication well First and foremost, their spoken errors must be corrected Furthermore, having too many spoken errors will make communication activities unsuccessful Therefore, when teachers can provide students with some effective corrections for their errors, that will not only help students find out errors and minimize them but also contribute to make students feel confident and be able to speak English correctly time by time In fact, spoken error correction is necessary and useful, but the effectiveness and helpfulness of spoken error correction completely depend on not only what correction techniques teachers apply in teaching but also how the correction techniques are used, whether they are appropriately used or not, and when these correction techniques should be used In order to know more about the reality of teachers‟ correction ways and check whether the used ways are appropriate or not, and suggest some useful correction techniques Therefore, I put my attempt to the thesis, namely “SPOKEN ERROR CORRECTION IN THANH BINH HIGH SCHOOL - A CASE STUDY” Aims of the study The study is to observe teachers‟ ways dealing with spoken errors and compare whether their used ways correspond with theory of error correction techniques in methodology or not and suggest some implications and techniques for error correction Research methods Interviews and observations are used to collect data Documentary analysis is also exploited The first used instrument in the study was a questionnaire for interviewing Interviewing questions were designed to obtain many different answers and attitudes of teachers about spoken error correction, about the correction time, correction techniques, and necessities of the corrections To strengthen the reality of the study, also at that time, five observations on five accidentally chosen lessons were carried with five different classes in order that the collected data were able to reflect variously spoken errors corrections with different classes and teachers The data collected are grouped into themes and the compared against the theory of correction techniques in methodology textbooks Scope of the study This study is limited to four English teachers and 178 students at Thanh Binh High School, Thanh Binh District, Dong Thap Province The study was implemented in this school from December 4th, 2011 to April 2012 Significance of the study This thesis may help teachers identify their used correction ways are effective and appropriate or not, and help them find more effective ways to correct students‟ errors Teachers may also pay more attention to choosing what effective techniques to correct students‟ spoken errors and choosing when and how they should give corrections It may not only make students minimize their errors but also learn from their errors and be able use English language better in communication thank to some effective and useful spoken errors correction techniques suggested Related previous studies Through the research process, there have been two studies related to the thesis “SPOKEN ERROR CORRECTION IN THANH BINH HIGH SCHOOL - A CASE STUDY” In the study “ CONCEPTIONS OF ORAL ERROR CORRECTION: A CASE STUDY OF TEACHER‟S BEFIEF AND CLASSROOM” by Duong Thi Dung, She focused on finding out teachers‟ beliefs in correcting students‟ oral errors Moreover, the study also recognized the reality of classroom practices of an experienced teacher regarding oral error correction There is also identification between teachers‟ beliefs and classroom practices with oral error correction The study is carried in in an Upper Secondary School in Bac Giang Province The other study is “A STUDY OF ERRORS IN ENGLISH IN RELATION TO COGNITIVE STYLE AND CEREBRAL DOMINANCE” by Ikpreet Singh It researched the differences in errors in relation to cognitive styles Its aim is to study the errors committed by students of grade XI in written English work in vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, functional grammar and translation Furthermore, the study collects opinions on the possible causes of errors by the sample from experts and practicing teachers Organization of the thesis The study comprises five parts The first part is the introduction, which consists of motivation of the study, aims of the study, scope of the study, research methods, and significance of the study, related previous studies, and organization of the study The second part is the content of the study, which includes three chapters Chapter is about the literature review In Chapter 2, methodology, research questions, participants, used instruments and research procedure of the study are presented The last chapter is the findings and discussion In this chapter, the results found answer to the research questions followed by some discussions The last part of the thesis is Conclusion consisting of overview of the study, limitation of the study, some implications and suggestions for further study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Concepts of errors Concepts of errors are complicated because of its nature Many different researchers have different concepts of errors which depend on their different considerations and the aspects of language they are approaching Making errors seems to be natural during the process of learning and teaching foreign language People consider it natural thing, so it should be avoided and dealt with It is similar to something that is unexpectedly forgotten during the learning process According to Dulay et al (cited in Duong Thi Dung), he states that “Errors are understood as the flawed side of the learner speech and writing, those part of conversation or composition that deviate from English model of usage assumed by educated” However, “An error is a linguistic form or combination of forms which in the same context and under similar conditions of production would, in all likelihood, not be produced by the speakers' native speakers counterparts" (Lennon, 1991) Other concept of errors is focused on and exploited by the difference between linguistic form or combination of forms which are produced by native speakers and produced by foreign language learners in the same situation Errors are also defined as something that learners haven‟t known or learned, so learners‟ making errors seem as a matter of course “Error is a systematic deviation, when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it wrong.” (Norrish, 1987:7) Researcher considers errors deviant ones that appear while people are learning a foreign language “Errors are systematic deviations from the norms of the language being learned.” (Cunningworth, 1987:87) Furthermore, errors are defined as something that learners meet when they are trying to master their foreign language Errors have been viewed as language learners‟ speech that deviates from the model they are trying to master (Allwright & Bailey, 1991, cited in Hyang-Sook Park) The two definitions are (1) error is a systematic deviation, when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it wrong‟ (Norrish, 1987:7) and (2) errors are systematic deviations from the norms of the language being learned (Cunningworth, 1987:87) In sum, various definitions of error have been presented by experts the differences lies only on the ways they formulate, consider them and approach language 1.2 Types of errors Errors are classified into many types in different ways focused by different experts Donald (2007 a) writes one way of categorizing errors is “by their linguistic type.” “Errors can be classified as simply productive (spoken or written) or receptive (faulty understanding).” (Donald, 2007 b) Chomsky (1986 b) points out that, errors are both receptive i.e in listening and reading and expressive i.e in speaking and writing Lengo (1995) also adds errors can be “classified as „productive‟ and „receptive‟ ” Productive errors are those which occur in the language learner‟s utterances; and receptive or interpretive errors are those whose result is the listener‟s misunderstanding of the speaker‟s intentions However, others categorize errors based on the names of the skill or areas in which they are recognized, as, phonological errors (faulty pronunciation, stress, etc.), semantic errors, lexical errors (word choice), errors of substitution, punctuation errors, orthographic errors, etc (Haneda, 2005), grammatical (prepositions, articles, reported speed, objectives, clauses, irregular verbs, tenses, possessive cases), syntactic (coordination, sentence structure, nouns and pronouns, word order), semantic, and substance (mechanics, punctuation and capitalization and spelling) organizational and discourse errors, etc (Ali, 1996 a) Errors have been further divided into overt and covert (Corder, 1971), errors of correctness and appropriateness, as far as identification of error is concerned, and into pre-systematic, systematic and post systematic regarding their description (Corder, 1974) Another division was made by Dulay and Burt in 1974 according to which there are three types of error: the developmental ones which are based on the identity hypothesis are similar to the errors made in Ll acquisition, interference errors and unique errors which cannot fall into either of the above mentioned categories A further subdivision is introduced by Garman (1990: 109, cited in R Jiménez Catalán) to distinguish the skill and modality affected: speech production errors from writing errors on one hand, and auditory comprehension errors from reading errors on the other 1.3 Error correction theory Some people think that making errors is something negative, so it should be corrected strictly and immediately If people don‟t correct it in that way, it will make bad results However, in error correction theory stated by researchers, making error is a naturally accepted thing This “more tolerant modern approach” is based on the fact that errors are normal and unavoidable during the leaning process (Ancker, 2000 b), so the corrections should be given naturally, which makes learners feel more confident and encouraged in learning and joining in study activities Rivers (1976 b) states “If a teacher is a perfectionist and tends to be too critical of every small error, the group or individual may perceive the task as an impossible one….” Being angry is not appreciated in correcting learners‟ error because that makes learners feel sad and disappointed when they creating errors When correcting learners‟ errors, Ngo Ai Tuong states “Don‟t look be angry Be encouraging Say nicely, „No, not quite right‟.” Hendrickson (1979) concurs, “….correcting every error is counterproductive to learning a foreign language.” Whereas, “when teachers tolerate some student errors, students often feel more confident about using the target language than if all their errors are corrected.” “Therefore teachers need to create a supportive classroom environment in which their students can feel confident about expressing their ideas and feelings freely without suffering the threat or embarrassment of having each one of their oral and written errors corrected.” Walker (1973) for instance, found in his study that students preferred not to be corrected for each speaking and writing error because this practice undermined their confidence and forced them to waste so much effort on details that they used to lose the overall ability to use language Thus, correction turns to be a way to break the flow of conversation - especially when the teacher interrupts the student before he has finished his utterance-, and it is also a way to lower the student‟s motivation as only his failures and not his goals are highlighted Errors should be not only corrected with encouragement but also corrected selectively, which means that teachers shouldn‟t correct all errors learners make the “recent theory on language acquisition and teaching methodology supports the position that not all errors should be corrected, and those that are corrected should usually not be „treated‟ immediately (Rivers, 1964, 1968 and 1976 a; Holley and King, 1971; George, 1972 18 a; Chastain, 1976; Krashen, 1987; Doff, 1988; Allwright and Bailey, 1991; Lewis, 1993; Nunan and Lamb, 1996; Ur, 1996; Ancker, 2000 a) Moreover, Correction‟s ways given to students‟ errors are not similar for different skills In fact, the features of each skill are different, so created errors in this skill is not the same as those made in other skills Ferris (1995, 1999 and 2002 b) “the policy of restraint and selectivity in the correction of spoken errors may seem sensible indeed, but the same can‟t be said for the written errors.” The time teachers give corrections is also emphasized in the error correction theory The question is whether teachers should deal with errors students made immediately or wait until they finish with what they are trying to express If teachers give corrections at the time when students speaking, immediate error corrections may stamp down a learner‟s willingness to speak in class at all because it can interrupt the learner in the middle of a sentence On the other hand, although delayed feedback can allow the learner time to finish what the learner is trying to say, the feedback may become less effective as the time between the error and treatment increases 1.4 Correction techniques We all know that the roles of errors are very important and useful during the process of language acquisition Although some people think that errors are negative things, Error is a good mirror which reflects not only what learners know but also what they don‟t know Ngo Ai Tuong, in her book “Methodology Course (2), Teaching Language Components & Skills” wrote that student errors are useful way of showing what they have and haven‟t learned So instead of seeing errors negatively, as a sign of failure (by the students or teacher), we see them positively as an indication of what we need to teach Obviously, if we try to prevent students from making errors we can never find out what they not know (pp 85) Because errors are regarded as important and positive things, error corrections techniques used to deal with students errors should also be positive and appropriate Ngo Ai Tuong, in her book “Methodology Course (2), Teaching Language Components & Skills” also wrote that many correction techniques used by teachers are ingenious and intuitive The important thing is that they should be appropriate for specific error and clear for learners It is more important always to use the same set of techniques so that learners can become familiar with them For correcting spoken errors, Ngo Ai Tuong indicates six appropriately positive spoken error correction techniques  Finger correction The technique is described: Use each finger of your left hand to represent a word Holding your palm towards you, your little finger represents the first word of the sentence and point to the „words‟ with your right hand Move from right to left (backwards), so that the students „read‟ it the other way around, from left to right Finger correction is commonly used to deal with missing contraction, missing words and too many words [a] missing contraction e.g „I have got a house‟ Show the first word (e.g „I‟) with one finger and the word it‟s contracted to (e.g „have‟) with next finger Squeeze the two fingers together to show the contraction (e.g I‟ve‟) [b] Missing word e.g „I‟ve got a car‟ 10 Point the finger that represents the missing word in the sentence [c ] too many words e.g „I‟m agree with you‟ Point the finger that represent the unnecessary word in the sentence and pull the finger down to show „take the word away‟  Question mark Use the question mark, in your voice/or your face E.g Student: I go yesterday Teacher: [turns face to the side a bit and frowns] go? Student: Oh Yes I went yesterday  Alternatives Give the students an alternative: tell them the correct answer and wrong answer, put a question mark into your voice and get them to choose the right sentence E.g Student: He go to the market Teacher: He go or goes? Student: He goes Teacher: Say it again Student: He goes to the market  „S’ card Have a large „S‟ written on the card Keep it in your top pocket Every time a student forget an „s‟ at the end of the word, flash your „S‟ card them Student: What this? Teacher: [show the „S‟ card] Student: What this? Teacher: Good 27 language focus observed didn‟t correct students at the presentation stage At this stage, because the teacher only focused on presenting new lesson while all students were listening, errors corrections were not found Practice At this stage, there is one teacher who didn‟t give corrections to students because with the listening leson, students‟s main task is to listen all the time but not speak at this stage On the other hand, three other teachers corrected students‟s spoken errors at this stage Firstly, with a speaking lesson, teacher‟s corrections given are not encouraged According to theory of error correction, at this stage in speaking lesson, teacher should minimize their correction so that students are able to show freely what they have thought or prepared With the reading lesson, teachers give correction The pracitce stage of the reading lesson is also while-reading when students‟ main task is reading not speaking, but sometimes teacher should give corrections when students pronounce incorrecly learned vocabulary or new words The last lesson in which teacher gives corrections at practice stage is a language focus lesson Teacher firstly gives correction in pronunciation When students practise pronouncing or reading dialogue and making errors, teacher also need to give corrections but not all the time in order that students can practise and express freely If teacher gives too many corrections at this stage with this kind of lesson, students will be crared of speaking because of being corrected every time they speak In sum, after anlyzing four class-observation sheets, some teachers give correction at the correct time while others don‟t Generally, there is a similarity among teachers who give corrections at this stage that technique uses by these teachers is „alternative‟ Further practice/Production 28 From four class-observation sheets, there are three of four teachers correct students spoken errors using techniques effectively Firstly, in listening lesson, teacher gives corrections at the post-stage when students present what they have prepared in fron of class Teacher chooses the time at the end of students‟ presentations to give corrections That is good because teacher doesn‟t want to make students less confident and be able to completely express what they are trying to convey Secondly, corrections are given in reading lesson at the post stage when students talk about the reading topic they have just learned However, teacher chooses the inappropriate time when students are presenting the topic to correct their errors That is not highly appreciated In stead of correcting at that time, teacher can take notes for some important errors and give corrections after students have finished speaking That is done to promote students‟ confidence when speaking Third lesson is language focus in which teacher spends much time correcting students‟ errors with pronunciation part Teacher gives corrections while students are playing role to speak a dialogue and pronouncing each word That is acceptable because students will not focus on being corrected by teacher after finishing speaking Immediate corrections certainly make students memorize the correct form longer and more effectively On the other hand, in speaking lesson observed, teacher doesn‟t correct students‟ error At production stage, although student talking time is more than teacher talking time, after students finish speaking, teacher can correct errors taken notes In fact, in speaking lesson, the skill students mostly show is speaking, correcting errors after students presented is necessary II Spoken errors are corrected After observing four different lessons taught by four different teachers, the writer camn collect some similarties and differences about spoken error corrected by teachers 29 With article, question, pronoun, errors, all of the four teachers don‟t correct students them because teachers tend to pay more attention to correct errors of grammar structure and vocabulay Through the interviewing, it can be seen that grammar structures and vocabulay are emphatically corrected Moreover, one teacher thinks that more than 50% the content of the test belongs to grammar, so grammar corrections are focused The collected data from four class-observation sheets teachers correct spoken errors about grammar structures more than other kinds of errors Word form There is a half of four teachers correct word form errors in listening and speaking lesson However, one teacher with speaking lesson corrects students‟ spoken errors using techniques effectively while other doesn‟t use techniques to deal with errors made by students effectively Two teachers who teach reading and language focus don‟t correct word form errors made by students Word form is one of the most important factors that help students study well in reading and language focus, so its corrections are very necessary Because of that reasons, lack of corrections for word form in these lessons can not contribute to help students to study well in the lessons later Tense All of the four teachers correct tense errors, but two of them correct using techniques effectively Technique teachers use is „model (Teacher to student) Back chaining‟ In general, students in the school can not self correct their errors That also means that teachers don‟t use various techniques to deal with students‟ spoken errors Teacher can also use „finger correction, question mark, alternative‟ to correct errors instead of using one technique Structure There is noly one teacher to correct students‟ structure errors in language lesson, but he doesn‟t use techniques to deal with them Because the lesson is language focus including two parts: pronunciaiton and conditional sentences, the 30 corrections are emphatically given to grammar structure without using techniques On the other hand, teacher can use some techniques: finger correction, question, and alternaltives to deal with spoken errors more effectively than correcting without techniques Three other teachers with listening, speaking, and reading don‟t correct students‟ structure errors In listening lesson, sentence structure are very important for students to have correct answers by using sentence, so not correcting structures is not highly appreciated In speaking lesson, structures plays more important role to help students to speak fluently time by time because having good structure is one of the most crucial elements to help students to express thoughts and ideas sucessfully Having good structures will not only help students to show the answers easily by writing sentences but also answer questions by speaking, so the need of stucture correction should be focused III Correction techniques are used to deal with students‟ spoken errors Obtaining specific information about what correction techniques teachers use to deal with sudents errors helps the writer be able to conclude what common techniques teachers use and check whether teachers use them effectively or not From four class-observation sheets, the collected data are show with following used correction techniques  Finger correction There is no teacher using „finger correction‟ to deal with spoken errors 'finger correction‟ is a very helpful technique to make students memorize missing contraction, missing word, and too many word, so it can show the effectiveness when it is used to deal with grammar errors of contraction form especially with tense‟s error correction Teachers are able to take advantage of the technique to apply in their lesson  Question mark 31 There are one teacher using it effectively in language focus lesson, one using ineffectively in listening lesson, and two teachers not using it „question mark‟ is usually used to show the incorrectness so that students can check whether it is the correct form or not and are able to speak out the correctness from the error  Alternatives All of the four observed teachers use the correction technique effectively This can be seen that all of the teachers tend to choose the way to show the correctness with „or question‟ with which students are get used to being corrected  “S” Card All of the teachers don‟t use “S” Card to deal with student errors “S” Card is a very useful technique teacher can use to remind students about being lack of „S‟ at the end of the word Furthermore, teachers can also be more creative to make “ed Card” or “ving card” to apply in specific correction situation  BB prompt Only one teacher who teaches language focus uses this technique effectively while three other teachers don‟t use it BB prompt can help teachers to save time to show the incorrectness by repeating a sentence, they can write the „prompt‟ on the board to remind students about errors effectively On the other hand, three other teachers don‟t use the technique  Student-To-Student-Correction All of the teachers use the technique but not effectively In methodology, after other students in the class who can answer correctly to help the student who has made the errors, the student has made the error will repeat the correct form However, teachers forgets telling the student has made error to repeat, which not very good because repeating the correct forms will help student remember the correctness and avoid making the same errors later If teacher had done that, they would have increased the effectiveness of the technique  Modeling (Teacher-to-Student): Back-chaining 32 This technique is regularly used by all of the teachers Modeling (Teacher-toStudent): Back-chaining is the technique which teachers can use after they have tried to correct students‟ errors with many techniques but not succeed, they will repeat a good model for students to copy It is not encouraged to use the technique all the time because it will make students more passive in correcting errors In fact, when teachers all to deal with errors, students will forget to join in correcting or even will not pay attention to what are corrected 4.2 Discussions From data collected and analyzed in the above parts, two research questions of this study can be answered now This section focuses on discussing the research questions Moreover, some recommendations are expressed 4.2.1 Research question (1): Do teachers use correction techniques to deal with students‟ spoken errors? If yes, Are the techniques used appropriately? By analyzing the result of the interviewings, comparing them with each other and taking the result to compare with correction theory in methodology together with comparing class-observation sheets then taking some similarities and differences to compare with correction theory in methodology again It can be figured out whether teachers at Thanh Binh High School use correction techniques to deal with students‟ spoken errors and whether they are used appropriately Teacher use correction techniques to correct students‟ errors, but most of the techniques teachers describe to use to deal with students error don‟t belong to methodology and are created by teachers‟ teaching experiences during their teaching process (see the analysis of interviewing question three) The used correction ways are described as some steps of the correction techniques but not a whole correction technique Moreover, most of them know how to use correction selectively (see the analysis of interviewing question one) Through the interviewing analysis, it can be believed that teachers consider and students feeling and confidence when they give corrections because they don‟t correct all the spoken errors students make However, the correction steps which most of 33 the teachers use are not appropriate because they are used by teachers‟ own ways which are explanations, suggestion, giving examples… There is only one teacher who uses „indirect correction‟, but he doesn‟t use correctly because the steps of the correction technique are not enough and appropriate while three other teachers not only don‟t use but also misunderstand about it Two of the five interviewed teachers don‟t pay much attention to correct students‟ spoken errors They tend to focus on correcting grammar written errors because they state that more than 50% content of tests belongs to grammar (the interviewing analysis question two) In sum, spoken error correction is not highly appreciated by all of the teachers Teachers tend not to use various techniques when correcting students‟ errors Furthermore, from the analysis of four class-observation sheets (III.1.b, III.1.c), teachers use some techniques inappropriately and may abuse „question mark‟ and „alternaltives‟ to deal with different kinds of errors but the two techniques are not used effectively because there is lack of the step in which students repeat the correct answer 4.2.2 Research question (2): What effects suggested correction techniques bring to teachers when using them? From the reality of using correction techniques, teachers don‟t use various techniques to deal with students‟ errors and the steps of corrections techniques used by teachers are not completely enough, so the effectiveness of the used techniques is not highly developed Using inappropriate techniques to deal with students errors will make students less active during correction proccess Furthermore, students may not pay much attention to what are corrected when thay are passive and all of the correction tasks are done by teachers because of using inappropriate Because of the reasons above, some suggested error correction techniques are introduced with the hope to increase their effectiveness as highly as possible when teachers use them appropriately with full of correction steps 34 Firstly, teachers can „finger correction‟ easily to help students to deal with spoken errors relating to „missing contraction‟ It is very useful to help them to remember reducing verb forms by squeezing two fingers together to show contraction (I‟ve) contributing to use tenses more easily in speaking However, Techers can use it to show „missing word‟ by pointing the finger that preresents the missing word in the sentence Moreover, they also use it to take some unnecessary words away by pulling one or two fingers down to show „take the word away‟ Secondly, with „alternatives‟, teachers should use full of steps and try not to forget the step in which teachers ask students to repeat the correct answer because it will certainly make memorize the correct answer easily by using the correctness In fact, people can remember something bettet if they can hear and speak it but not listen onlly In sum, asking students to repeat the correct answer in this technique is extremely important and necessary „BB prompt‟ is the third technique teachers should use because it can help them to save time to show the incorrectness Furthermore, the technique can remind students of the form, word order, contraction, ect It is a very easy way to give correction because teacher has written the model sentence on the board at the presentaion stage If students make errors, the model on the board will be the correct form for students to self-correct the errors Moreover, when having used many techniques but they can not show the effectiveness, teachers can try using „Student-To-Student-correction‟ in which better students who are able to answer the correct sentence will help the student who makes error instead of being corrected by teacher If teachers don‟t want to interrupt students when they are practising in pair or group and avoid making students less confident, they should use „Indirect correction‟ by the ways that teachers will collect students‟ big mistakes by going around to take notes while students are practising Teachers themselves will not correct the collected errors but they will get students to correct them at the end of the lesson or at the start of the new lesson The benefit of the technique bring to 35 teachers is that they will make students more active to join in correcting spoken errors because it doesn‟t show who made the errors, which is very helpful On the other hand, when the name of the student who made errors is recalled many times, it will make students ashamed of that Furthermore, other students will be afraid of being corrected In summary, suggested techniques have brought much positive effectiveness to teachers with different lessons 36 CHAPTER CONCLUSION Overview of the thesis This part states the overall conclusion of the study on spoken error correction-a case study in Thanh Binh High School This study is to find out teachers‟s ways for dealing with spoken errors and check whether their used ways correspond with theory of error correction techniques in methodology or not and suggest some useful correction techniques to deal with the errors more effectively in Grade 10 and 11 By analyzing the five interviewings then comparing them with correction theory together with comparing five classobservation sheets and camparing the sesult with error correction theory, the results have been studied that not all of the teachers pay much attention to correct students‟ spoken errors Some observed teachers have used correction techniques to deal with students errors However, they use correction techniques inappropriately because of being lack if some important steps during the correction proccess Without teachers‟ correction, students ceratainly think what they have expressed or spoken is completely correct That leads to the fact that they will use the incorrectness without being worried Furthermore, they will feel hard to correct their errors later because the incorrectness has been used for a long time Recognizing the effectiveness of using correction techniques to deal with students errors, five interviewings were designed and delivered to five experienced teachers to obtain their ideas and attitudes, then compared them with together and with error correction theory in order to have the general information about error correction of teachers To make the study more reliable, the writer himself abserved four teachers with four different lessons so as to get the various correction techniques from teachers and have more believable analysis The reality was shown after doing analysis and comparison From the reality, the writer suggests some useful techniques to assist teachers in correcting students‟ spoken errors more effectively Moreover, he also mentions some useful ways to increase the effectiveness of the correction techniques Finnaly, recognizing the reality of using correction techniques and suggesting some 37 effective techniques with the hope that they can positively help teachers the corrections well and successfully After all, it is hoped that the study can help teachers to recognize some weak points in correcting errors and suggest useful correction techniques to deal with the errors more effectively Limitations of the thesis In spite of finishing the thesis, limitations occurring were not avoidable The first limitation is due to the limit time of observing teachers‟ lessons teaching, there are only four class-observation sheets carried out Moreover, there are two grades observed, so the scope of the study is limited Secondly, because of not having perfectly good knowledge about error correction theory, the study can only focus on rearching some small aspects of correcting spoken errors Finnally, the study woul be more believable if the interviewings were designed and delivered students to have better analysis and comparison Suggestions for further research Hopefully, the mentioned limitations will help other researchers have some useful experiences in their future related studies If correction techniques are used in different classes with different lessons, their effectiveness will recognized easily The more weak points and strong ones will appear, if researchers are able to spend much time on observing lessons taught by high school teachers, they will obtain more information about the reality of spoken error correction done by teachers It is expected that these suggestions will help researchers have better strategies for their future studies Implications The effectiveness of using correction techniques to deal wtith students‟ spoken errors has been confirmed Nevertheless, correcting students‟ spoken errors might not get success because of subjective and objective causes such as teachers‟ attitude, limited time, and knowledge about error correction theory For these reasons, this part offers some useful implications on using correction techniques effectively 38 First of all, the time of the correction plays a very important role in increasing the effectiveness of the techniques Unless a good correction technique is used in appropriate time, the users can not receive much effectiveness as they want In fact, teachers can attract students and involve them in correcting proccess whenever the correction techniques are given in appropriate time Nevertheless, students will be more passive and if teachers correct once when they are speaking In sum, teacher should consider the appropriate time of the corrections In addition, correcting errors selectively is highly appreciated If students are corrected all the time, they will certainly lose confident and frightened of speaking or expressing something that teachers want because they scared of being corrected Moreover, teachers don‟t have enough time to hold up the leson when they all focus on students‟ spoken errors On the other hand, if teachers correct a few errors that are not commonly created by students, they will surely make those kinds of errors again In brief, correcting errors selectively can contribute to increase the effectiveness of the used techniques More importantly, choosing an appropriate correction technique for errors is emphasised to help teacher to be able to get effectiveness easily Correction techniques are described as the useful tools which teachers use to deal with the students‟ errors For this reason, choosing an appropriate correction technique for errors also means that teachers have a good treatment for students‟ errors “The most important thing is that many correction techniques should be appropriate for specific error and clear for the learners.” (Ngo Ai Tuong, Methodology Course (2), Teaching Language Components & Skills) Deciding how to use correction techniques is the difficult questions teachers pay much attention to make correction techniques more effective every time teachers use them The way to use the correction techniques are mention in error correction theory 39 REFERENCES  Ikpreet Singh (2010) A study of errors in english in relation to cognitive style and cerebral dominance  Duong Thi Dung (2010) Conceptions of oral error correction: a case study of teacher‟s befief and classroom  Ngo Ai Tuong Methodology Course (1),General Issues In Language Leraning And Teaching Unpublished textbook, Dong Thap University  Ngo Ai Tuong Methodology Course (2), Teaching Language Components & Skills Unpublished textbook, Dong Thap University  Humphrey Tonkin (2003-2004) Language And Society Retrieved on February 5, 2012 from the Web site: http://www.globaled.org/issues/178F.pdf  María José Carrillo López The Error In The Second Language Acquisition Retrieved on February 20, 2012 from the Website: http://www.encuentrojournal.org/textos/11.17.pdf Website:  http://www.eltforum.com/pdfs/topic3/correc_pt2_1.pdf Retrieved on February 8, 2012  http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/2098/9/09_chapter%201 pdf Retrieved on February 17, 2012 40 TABLE OF CONTENT Page Statement of authority i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of content iv CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1 Motivation of the study Error! Bookmark not defined Aims of the study Error! Bookmark not defined Research methods Error! Bookmark not defined Scope of the study Significance of the study Error! Bookmark not defined Related previous studies Error! Bookmark not defined Organization of the thesis Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW Error! Bookmark not defined 2.1 Concepts of errors Error! Bookmark not defined 2.2 Types of errors Error! Bookmark not defined 2.3 Error correction theory Error! Bookmark not defined 2.4 Correction techniques Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER METHODOLOGY Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1 Research questions Error! Bookmark not defined 3.2 Research participants 17 3.2.1 The researcher 17 3.2.2 The subjects 17 3.3 Research instruments Error! Bookmark not defined 3.3.1 Interviewing Error! Bookmark not defined 3.3.2 Observation 19 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 20 4.1 Findings 20 4.1.1 Findings from the interviewing analysis and comparisonError! Bookmark not defi 4.1.2 Findings from comparing four class observation sheets for the teachers Error! Bookmark not defined 41 4.2 Discussions 32 4.2.1 Research question (1): Error! Bookmark not defined 4.2.2 Research question (2): Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER CONCLUSION 36 Overview of the thesis 36 Limitations of the thesis 37 Suggestions for further research 37 Implications 37 REFERENCES 39 APPENDICES APPENDIX I APPENDIX III ... 11 A1 , 11 A2 , 11 A3 , 10 A1 , 10 A2 and 11 CB4 at Thanh Binh High School Three of the teachers have more than years in teaching One has more than 30 years in teaching Other has 18 years in teaching .In. .. immediately (Rivers, 19 64, 19 68 and 19 76 a; Holley and King, 19 71; George, 19 72 18 a; Chastain, 19 76; Krashen, 19 87; Doff, 19 88; Allwright and Bailey, 19 91; Lewis, 19 93; Nunan and Lamb, 19 96; Ur, 19 96;... willingness to speak in class at all because it can interrupt the learner in the middle of a sentence On the other hand, although delayed feedback can allow the learner time to finish what the