XXI CENTURY RENAISSANCE IN THE PARADIGM OF SCIENCE,
EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
7
SECTION 1. RENAISSANCE IN
LANGUAGE TEACHING AS A
PROSPEROUS METHODOLOGY
OF MODERNITY
1-BÓLIM. TIL OQÍTÍWDA
RENESSANS – ZAMANAGÓY
OQÍTÍW METODOLOGIYASÍ
SÍPATÍNDA
TECHNIQUES OF CORRECTING GRAMMATICAL AND PHONETIC
MISTAKES
Adilbekova A.A.
Turkestan, Kazakhstan
English language teacher of Turkestan specialized boarding school
named after Nurtas Ondasynov
e-mail:
ardo-80@mail.ru
Resume:
Recommendations and techniques for correcting grammatical and
phonetic errors in English lessons are considered in this article.
Key words:
making mistakes, grammar mistakes, phonetic mistakes, learning
process, correction, self-correction, understanding.
Modern educational technology based on information and communication
technology plays a significant role in promoting the modernization of education. Modern
education technology will have a significant impact on ideas, forms, process, methods,
teaching and management of education. Application of modern educational technology in
education will be a driving force to educational innovation. Using modern education
theory and modern information technology in design, development, utilization,
evaluation and management of the teaching process and then teaching resources will help
to achieve the efficient development of education.
Everyone who has ever learned a new language has made mistakes. They are an
inevitable part of the language learning process and learners should embrace them not to
be afraid to make them. When embarking on a road to learn a new language, we all want
to achieve fluency and to be able to use the language without any difficulties. However
we should bear in mind that every learning process including the language learning
process has its ups and downs. Facing with downs and mistakes should not discourage
learners; it should be seen as another learning opportunity. Making a mistake should not
be regarded as a failure, but rather as a chance for progress.
We can all feel embarrassed if we use the wrong word or the wrong tense in a
conversation, but it should be seen as a positive experience – realizing what your mistake
was can strengthen your knowledge. If we restrain from speaking in another language
every time we are afraid we are going to make a mistake, we should never utter a single
word. No one will make fun of your learning language, because it is your second
XXI CENTURY RENAISSANCE IN THE PARADIGM OF SCIENCE,
EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
8
language, they will appreciate your effort to learn another language. Making mistakes
mean that you are on a road of improving.
What is an error?
If views of grammar have changed over the years, perspectives on error have been
no less variable. There was a time when the answer to the question “What is an error?”
was simple: an error was something that was incorrect, and, therefore, more or less by
definition, a bad thing. Identifying ‘correct’ language, however, is not always as simple
as it might at first be thought to be. For one thing, usage is by no means always standard
across language varieties. For instance “I done it” is quite acceptable in some varieties,
but totally unacceptable in others. And grammar books, which might at one time have
been considered a reliable point of reference, tend to be less absolute about what is or is
not correct than they used to be. Examples of a more lenient approach to error might
include the increasing acceptance of “should of” rather than “should have” in sentences
such as “You should have/of gone”; or the frequent use of the third person plural pronoun
in place of the singular, especially where the gender is ambiguous, as in “If there are
questions, the student should see their advisor”. As Ellis and Barkhuizen remark, there is,
in fact, no “unproblematic” definition of error [1].
How should errors be corrected?
So if error correction is to be justified at least partly because it is something which
students expect of their teachers, how should it be carried out so that it is useful for the
student and worth the time that the teacher puts into it? Schmidt makes the seemingly
obvious but extremely important point that for error correction to be useful it must first
be noticed by the student [2].
In other words, teachers must somehow find a way of drawing students’ attention
to their errors since “conscious noticing is a pre-condition for input to become intake”. It
was the affective dimension of error correction which is of most concern to the students
in the study by Griffiths and Zhou, however. As one of them commented: “error
correction should be done softly with a gentle attitude and humor and teachers should be
careful about the students’ self-esteem” [3, p. 113-122].
Typical mistakes in learning English language:
Unfortunately, today each of us is negatively affected by advertising, which in the
majority is quite absurd. In your city, a new «super school of a foreign language» has
opened [4], which promises to significantly improve your level in just a couple of weeks?
Do not believe such a sweet lie: in a short time you cannot learn English, either German
or Chinese. To bring your knowledge to a decent level from scratch can be, at least, for 1
year of intensive studies.
Many people who study English are overly reliant and even shift responsibility to
teachers or courses in language schools. This is completely wrong. First of all, it all
depends on you. A good tutor only provides the necessary assistance. You need to
practice daily, even if your teacher did not ask you homework. Only you can make
yourself seriously study. Instead of studying individual lexical units, you need to
concentrate on memorizing ready-made phrases. Just like little children do. Remember,
you did not memorize in your childhood constructions like «do-did-done»? True, you
immediately memorized whole phrases or even sentences. In fact, it’s quite simple. The
best assistant is reading books.
XXI CENTURY RENAISSANCE IN THE PARADIGM OF SCIENCE,
EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
9
The absence of training, the lack of a certain method of teaching, the constant
change of tutors - at this rate you definitely will not be able to quickly and efficiently
learn English.
Wrong statement of stress
This problem often appears in the case when it comes to polysyllabic words. It is
also worth considering that with the same spelling, the word can belong to different parts
of speech. His pronunciation can vary significantly from this (as in the words progress,
protest, export, etc.).
Commonly confused words:
They’re / Their / There
They’re going to store together. (contraction of “they are”)
The managers are in their weekly meeting. (possessive)
Place the flowers there. (adv. – indicates location/direction)
You’re / Your
You’re going to be a great writer! (contraction of “you are”)
Your hair looks nice today. (possessive)
Who’s / Whose
Who’s on first base? (contraction of “who is”)
Whose watch is this? (possession)
Reasons of making grammatical mistakes
1. Confusing simple tenses with Perfect tenses
2. Confusing voices (Active vs Passive)
3. Confusing “full verb” with an “auxiliary verb”
4. Confusing irregular verb forms
5. Grammar misunderstanding from their mother tongue
6. Misunderstanding of uncountable nouns
7. Unwillingness to learn grammar
8. It seems difficult to understand grammar
9. They don’t think that grammar point is important
10. That point is more difficult for them than it seems
11. Accuracy is not their priority.
Common grammar mistakes among learners:
1. Muslim people fast during Ramadan. (Muslims)
2. Some of people enjoy watching. (Some people)
3. All person need water to survive. (people)
4. Nodiv like my cooking. (likes)
5. She has been in London. She has been to London.
6. Today morning I woke up late. - ‘This’
7. What’s the different?
- difference
8. I met Jone two years before. - ago
9. This is a six-months course. - six-month, This is a million dollar contract not
dollars or millions
10. Thank you. I really enjoyed. - I really enjoyed myself.
11. Yes, I have a free time. - not a free time but free time without an article
XXI CENTURY RENAISSANCE IN THE PARADIGM OF SCIENCE,
EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
10
17. I have met John last year.(met)(We can not use a finished time in Present
Perfect Tense. )
One effective way: The learner says a sentence, makes some mistakes, the teacher
corrects them, and the learner memorizes the proper way to say the sentence. Next time
around, the learner will hopefully make fewer mistakes. The process is repeated until the
learner is error-free.
Reasons of making phonetic mistakes in learning English
1. Influence of their mother tongue
2. Confusing with mother tongue structure
3. Influence of dialects
4. Problems of perceiving sounds
5. People who have articulatory problems
6. Words which are rarely used.
7. English is not their mother ongue
Difficult sounds:
’
th’
sounds
Trouble for many non-native speakers of English
Resulting sounds are often
z
and
s.
‘Thin’ may be pronounced ‘tin’, ‘fin’ or ‘sin’. ‘This’ may be pronounced ‘dis’ or
‘zis’. Describe and model where the tongue goes.Move to paying attention to the sounds
in some real conversations. e.g. Interview classmates with questions that require the th
sounds. What are you thinking about? What are you thankful for?
Difficult sounds-th
Practice with minimal pairs: think – sink; thank – sank; mouth – mouse; faith –
face;
these – seas; sees – seize; that - sat
Practice with a tongue twister e.g.
Those thirteen thin students sat in the classroom thinking. Although the weather
was changing and the temperature sinking, they forgot their thick jackets. What were
those thirteen foolish students thinking?
Use Jazz Chants to teach the correct sound
Tooth, tooth, I have a toothache.
I have a toothache,
And a sore throat!
Thursdays, Thursdays.
What do you do on Thursdays?
On Thursdays I often go to a football game.
Native speakers speak very quickly!
Sounds may be dropped!
This disappearance of sounds is known as elision. There are 2 sounds that are
frequently dropped: ‘t’ and’d’
e.g. you will hear the ‘t’ in fact but not in ‘facts’ and you will hear the ‘d’ in ‘land’
but not in ‘landlady’:
“My landlady bought a new handbag the other day”.“I don’t know when they
finished work yesterday”. “Let’s face the facts. This Company is going bust quickly”.
XXI CENTURY RENAISSANCE IN THE PARADIGM OF SCIENCE,
EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
11
Stress and intonation are areas of difficulty. Most 2 syllable nouns have the stress
on the first sound. Most 2 syllable verbs have the stress on the end sound.
In some 3 syllable words and in most words of 4 syllables or more there are 2
stressed syllables-one carries the main stress and the other secondary stress:
investigation
determination
interfere
congratulations departure
Examples of making phonetic mistakes:
Climb-klaimb-’klaim
Develop-’de-ve-lop-Di-’vel-әp
Opened-opened-’әupnd
Knife-knaif-naif
Happy-hәеppi-’hәepi
Put-pat-put
How to avoid mistakes?
1. Learn English as a process of experimentation
2. Don’t fear making mistakes each time you speak
3. Leave test-takers anxiety in the past
4. Remember that you are own biggest critic
5. Accept that anything that is worth building takes time.
6. Recognize that mistakes are the best way to learn
Ways to correct students’ errors:
1. We can correct students errors while they are mistaken
2. Teacher should not correct several times because it can influence to students’
interest
3. To give exercises like “correct mistakes, find errors from the sentence below”
4. Comparing with daily experiments.
5. While teaching new words we should mention right pronunciation
6. To praise students’ works to appreciate
7. Use words such as “Right you are”,” how clever you are”.
8. Not to shout, avoid using bad compliments.
In conclusion I can say that, whichever way you go about correcting your students,
try to keep the experience positive for the learner. Being corrected constantly can be a
really de-motivating, as every language learner knows. As you are listening out for your
students’ errors, make sure you also listen out for really good uses of language and
highlight these to the group too. In the case of language learning I really do believe the
classic saying, ‘you learn from your mistakes’.
REFERENCES:
1. Rod Ellis, Gary Barkhuizen, Analysing Learner Language Oxford : Oxford University
Press, 2005.
2. Schmidt, R. 1990. The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied
Linguistics. 11(2): P. 129-158.
3. Zhou Chunhong, Griffiths Carol. Intercultural Communicative Competence // English
Language and Literature Studies Vol. 1, No. 2; December 2011. P. 113-122.
4. Bade, M. (2018). Grammar and good language learners. In C. Griffiths (Ed.), Lessons
from good language learners. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. P. 174-184.
5. http://www.antimoon.com/how/mistakes-in-learning.htm
