Reflective Methods Journal: CLT

How can you reconcile 'accuracy' and 'fluency' in CLT? There is the challenge of offering adequate corrective feedback in the domain of Communicative Language Teaching. What would be your personal procedure of 'error-correction'?

Roger
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ucitfl
The language ego is identified with a second language. Such an ego creates a sense of defensiveness, fragility and rising of inhibitions.
Students that study a second language feel fragile because of the native language ego. For this reason, teachers must be patient and display a supportive attitude to students. As you learn a second language, very often you’ll find yourself in a stupid situation. But the teacher must not forget that second language students should be corrected in the right manner. Teachers must always praise students. One of the ways of doing that is through verbal or non-verbal assurance. The student must believe in the teacher and in him/herself.
Students are usually even more sensitive about their pronunciation than their grammar, so teacher should be very careful how to deal with such problems. If possible, it is probably better to pretend you have understood rather than ask the student to repeat him/herself 3 or 4 times. You could always ask him/her again in private after the lesson and help him correct pronunciation of important subject-specific vocabulary. You can also repeat the correct version of his/her mistake if you are having a one to one conversation. Especially higher level of ESL students generally realize their own mistakes just after they made them. If you don’t correct them, they might think that you are a careless teacher.
avelara
Because many of the most common procedures used in Communicative Language Teaching include dialogs and oral practices, correcting errors without cutting off the natural flow of language production can be difficult. Therefore, we must be creative in the manner in which we address errors and provide corrective feedback. My personal procedure of error correction would be to establish structure with some sort of rhythm in order to continue providing accuracy and fluency. Just like we establish a rhythm of participation for these types of activities in order to avoid chaos by setting a specific time for them, we can set a specific time to address the errors and questions that resulted from the activities. One option would be to record on video the dialog presented to ensure that all the errors made are caught. However, depending on the speed of the students’ speech, taking notes as they present may be enough. Then, after the students have acted out the situation and the chart of information regarding the dialog has been filled, We can address such errors with grammar explanations and pronunciation practice.
Katherine Knight
In the theory of CLT, language is communicative competence that is expressed through accuracy in communication and fluency in the language being learned. Being fluent in a language is not just limited to understanding and accurately using grammar, but grasping the full identity and culture of the language through expressing personal emotions and meanings, learning and discovering and through imagination. For me, my personal procedure of error-correction would be learning communication through actively making mistakes when speaking, and learning from their mistakes. To correct students and effectively teach them CLT, students must be engages in authentic language use by putting them in real-life conversation scenarios. These scenarios of communication would not only include situation simulation, but also functions a learner might need, the ideas they might use and the vocabulary and grammar they would need. CLT encompasses a higher level of language learning because it requires students to learn to be accurate and fluent in communication.
Roy Huang
CLT's main approach to teaching language is through active communication between students, and as a teacher, I can reconcile fluency and accuracy by fostering a learning environment where students can be "authentic". Although, I know it is a hard task to accomplish, this is what teachers of a foreign languages are trying to achieve(assumption). While students are engaged in communication my personal procedure of error correction depends what kind of activity the students are engaging in; for example, in the situations of role playing, interviews, and language exchanges I would wait until the end of the activity to explain what the student did great and which areas to improve on in order to preserve the natural form of authentic language. However, if it activities where the question-response format is used I would have to approach it differently by correcting the students before fossilization of mistakes start. It all depends on the type of activities and students I will be dealing with where different correction methods will be used.
Ann Whitely
Since CLT is relations of communicative competence seen in accuracy and fluency, I would interact with the student at a personal level to encourage and maintain strong connection. Authentic language with students emotionally connects them therefore energizing the classroom with raw material desire and interest. Because of the defensive and protective qualities associated with corrections, I would aim to gauge the student’s current ability to receive and interpret the input. If the student was interacting and defending his/her position, I would engage with constructive criticism thus the student can interpret and respond to the environment. However, sometimes students are lacking understanding of their interactions, and then I would need to maintain constrictive criticism, but additionally consider aid, or a resource for them to improve.
Julie Cho
CTL’s focuses on the needs of the student and can be applied to anything that can be taught (any real-life, every day situation). CTL allows students to interact with each other and since activities involve real authentic language and communication it is “meaningful” (useful) to the learner. I think as teachers we must be able to facilitate the class and allow our students to feel comfortable interacting with other students to get the most out of their 2nd language learning experience. My personal error correction would probably occur when I see/hear frequent problems that majority of the students face. I would never point out an individual in front of the class is I hear they are making errors. I would correct the class as a whole group so no one feels like they are being picked on. It is my job to correct and direct the students to achieve fluency and accuracy but I don’t think “over correcting” everything I hear incorrect will effectively help my students with their accuracy and fluency.
quincy1012
In CLT there is a lot of oral and communication practices, however because of the emphasis on speaking, there might be a lack of basic grammar knowledge. Also there is always students who are shy, during class we also talked about in certain cultures students refuse to talk until they finish the entire sentence in mind, this further inhibits their fluency. A good way to correct students who make mistakes would be to stand far away from the speaking to begin with, and then when they make a mistake, ask them to repeat again, students may freeze up less if they teacher is not standing directly in front of them and asking them to repeat it. There is also the tool of repetition, I feel like once students hear enough of the second language, they will be able to catch mistakes on their own when they hear other’s mistakes, as for their own they will not notice the mistakes disappear because the language “melds” in to their own competency.
Kei Lam
To reconcile accuracy and fluency in CLT, I would emphasize how important it is to the function of a language. Because CLT focuses on the needs of the students, it is a good idea for the teacher to let the students know that having these basic communicative competencies will prove useful to them. Putting students in authentic situations also helps them understand the importance of accuracy and fluency. Pointing out the students’ mistakes is a delicate matter and should be handled with care. If it is a common mistake made by everyone or most of the students in the classroom, I would take this opportunity to deviate from the curriculum to present a lesson on the mistake. This has a low risk of putting a single student in the spotlight of embarrassment and saves time by correcting a lot of students from future mistakes all at once. If it is a recurring mistake from an individual, I would put time aside after class to explain it to that student alone.
Gema Ruiz
The CLT theory is based on communicative competence; therefore, I believe that a good approach to "error-correction" is through direct individual feedback with the student in question after having done the procedure. This will not only maintain the natural flow of the activity, but it will also be on an individualized and personal level solely for the student. Besides clarifying their mistakes it will also provide them an opportunity to address any other concerns they may have had but may have been unwilling to do so in the class. The process itself of the “error-correction” will be a “real-life” situation that will benefit the student, but with the advantage of positive feedback from the teacher. The correcting will depend on factors such as the student and content being taught, but should be done instructionally rather than directly. Instead of just giving them the correct “answer” the teacher should make the student understand why their mistake is wrong and have them reach a better solution on their own.
Kristen Provencher
In order to do this, I would just let my students speak and take notes on what they say and how they say it. From my experience, it's a miracle enough that students get the courage and guts to speak up in class, so immediately telling them what mistakes they are making might discourage them from speaking up again. In my classroom, my main goal would be to encourage their ability to speak up at all, and after they're comfortable enough with that, focus more on accuracy. After all, having perfect accuracy is not very effective if you have zero fluency. So, I would rather take notes on their mistakes and after some people have spoken, address mistakes as a class without calling people out for their mistakes or interrupting their trains of thought. I don't want students becoming embarrassed about speaking, so I believe saving the corrections for last will make them less self-conscious and hopefully I would like to find a way to make speaking up a more rewarding experience. In the usual classroom setting, this is the route I would take to solve this issue, but I would also like to interview students separately to help them on their individual skills once in a while. Once again, I wouldn't want to interrupt them, and if I can afford to, I'd preferably not want to grade them on their speaking. After the interview, I can discuss their mistakes with them individually and coach them on how to correct them.
mrmominoc
Accuracy and fluency are both very important aspects in language. Inregards to a language learner I would put more emphasis on fluency. The reason for this is to retain the authenticity in speaking. Since the activities and tasks in a CLT environment doesn't lend itself to error-corrrection I would provide some pre-error correctioin. For example, if the activity involves vocabulary that is new to the learner I would provide a seperate discussion on the vocabulary before the activity is undertaken. While the activity is being done I as a teacher would take notes of errors during the activity. I would then point out the errors and if needed do a seperate discussion or provide a pont of information to correct the error. In speaking, we do not correct the speaker while he or she is talking. An interruption may take away the message communication being done. The value of the message or communication outweighs the need for interruption. We have to supress our egos and take into account that the person is just a learner at the time.
Lorena
Earlier in the term Rachel presented the class with an excellent example of language fluency with no accuracy. The example included a babbling baby that had yet to learn proper English structure. The baby was able to mimic language sounds and seemed to understand, albeit not consciously, that intonation and sentence rhythm can be manipulated to ask questions and dominate conversation. Communicative Language Teaching strives to establish fluency by placing students in situations in which they must utilize the target language to become competent. Although a target language can be effectively taught through hours of classroom instruction, language cannot be memorized entirely or partially. Spoken language requires the creation of original sentences that can accurately communicate the speaker’s thoughts. CLT measures “communicative competence” by evaluating the student’s grammatical, sociolinguistic, understanding of implications, and strategic knowledge and mastery of the target language. The activities that are chosen to utilize this teaching method include meaningful tasks and authentic situations where the student can exercise their knowledge of the language. This method builds student confidence and encourages students to use the target language’ in new and exciting ways. Now, imagine having stopped the babbling baby by loudly saying “no” and continuously saying “no” without any further explanation whenever the child spoke. This reprimand would have discouraged the baby from any further babbling, making the child self-conscious and perhaps hesitant to speak. The child would, perhaps, grow to only speak when it could accurately describe its ideas; so that the child’s fluency would be sacrificed for accuracy. In a language learning environment the students fully understand the urgency to become fluent and be able to express themselves; however, language accuracy should not be sacrificed. Through CLT and various “authentic” exercises I would gently correct student linguist errors by repeating what they have said using correct grammar and asking them to repeat after me, I would ask the student to rephrase their answers in hopes that they will recognize their mistakes, and I would also ask other students to guess the correct grammatical pattern of the sentence in question. Students should feel comfortable and safe to participate in the classroom. Teachers should be mindful of the impact their comments or neglect have on student growth and behavior.
Chanel Paek
I believe error correction in CLT is all about correcting through natural dialogue. Instead of making a big scene about correcting someone, I would subtly correct them as if it was part of our conversation.

For example, if I was conversing with a student who often forgets to add an 's' on plural words, I would repeat their sentence the correct way without saying they were wrong.
Example: Student: "My friend has many dog." Teacher: "Your friend has more than one dog? So she has many dogss (maybe a little more emphasis on the 's' than normal to give the student a subtle push). How many dogss does she have?"

By hearing it correctly more often than not, the student will soon catch on subconsciously and start saying it correctly. If the student does not catch on eventually I would have to start pointing out his mistake. example: "Oh you mean she has multiple dogs... you said dog without the plural 's'." I believe if the correction was said in normal conversation and not a classroom setting it would be less discouraging.

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