Alternatives to Editing Exercises
By Marilyn Pongracz
Over the years, changes have been made in pedagogy in teaching English as a second language, but some untested common practices remain, passed from one textbook author to the next with no proof of their efficacy. One of these is error correction exercises in ESL textbooks.
While there is general agreement that students who are learning English as a second language need to be able to speak and write it accurately for jobs and life obligations, (Tran, 2013) how to help them accomplish this efficiently and successfully is often debated.
To deal with students’ errors, many researchers have concluded that grammar is needed to know what is correct, and when paired with communication, it is beneficial (Foppoli, 2020). However, even students who know the rules do not generally apply these to their speaking and writing.
This occurs because reading, writing, and speaking are complex tasks, and paying close attention to details, such as correct grammar, can hinder these processes (Stockton, 2014). As a result, students make a lot of errors as they learn English. However, if learners make mistakes as they write or speak, those errors are reinforced and more likely to be repeated, eventually becoming automatic and in time, fossilized (Szynalski, 2011).
To address this problem, most grammar and writing books for college-age students conclude grammar lessons with “Find and Correct the Errors” exercises. In my position as the supervisor for tutoring ESL students at Bergen Community College, I can watch and listen as tutors work with their tutees. Sometimes I hear students articulate their thought processes, and I have worked one-on-one with them myself. Students at all levels often struggle with these exercises, which get more complex as students advance.
Whereas in class, a student who does not know an answer can rely on better performing peers, the issues with the find the error exercises become apparent in one-to-one tutoring. This is how a typical session proceeds. A student will show the exercise to the tutor and voice their confusion. The tutor will have the student read the first sentence with an error and ask the student where they think the error might be. The student is clueless, so the tutor might go back to the chapter in the book and discuss the grammar in question. Then the tutor has the student look for that grammatical structure in the exercise as the likely place for the error. The student still may or may not be able to identify the structure, and if not, the tutor will give a hint or finally point it out. If, after reading the sentence a few times, the student can find the correct structure that likely contains the error, they proceed to the remaining questions in the exercise. After two or three sentences, the student may begin to be able to find the errors if these remain consistent. However, if an error is not in the target structure, the student flounders again, rereading the error until the tutor gives the student another hint, and finally, the answer.
From my experience and observations, doing find and correct the error exercises as homework seems to be more detrimental than helpful. Because they are unable to recognize what is correct and what is not, students read the sentences many times trying to find what is wrong, and in the process, repeat and memorize errors. While this exercise may have some benefit for native speakers of the language, it seems to function as negative input for English learners. It is important to note that this type of exercise is not done in any other field: art, music, sports, math, history, or even other language classes. In fact, no research has been conducted to prove the benefit of this type of activity. Yet this exercise appears in almost every college ESL grammar and writing text.
Others’ Observations
I am not alone in my observations. A few bloggers have mentioned the same idea. The key seems to be familiarity with the correct form. Students must know what they are looking for. Grammar concepts are taught, but texts rarely provide enough practice with the topics for mastery. It follows then that if students do not have enough experience with the concepts or know them well, they are not able to identify their errors. Mark Pennington (2019), a teacher and author of grammar, writing, and reading intervention texts, states, “How can you tell if something like a [punctuation] mark is missing if you don’t know where it is supposed to be in the first place?” In fact, he points out that errors “…teach what is wrong, not what is right. …The more visual and auditory imprints of errors, the more they will be repeated in future student writing.”. Taylor (2017), another teacher and web author agrees that having students “…investigate and explore incorrect and poorly written sentences in an attempt to fix them” is not beneficial. Class time would be better spent having, “…rich discussions about what DOES work in a sentence or short passage.”
The ambivalence or possible logic for these exercises is evident in the following email correspondence with Thu Tran, who presented a workshop on writing at TESOL 2021, and has researched error correction for writing. In reference to his paper on feedback in writing, I presented my views and asked for his opinion about error correction exercises.
He began his reply with qualified agreement that students must have advanced skills and understand the text. “Admittedly, that kind of exercise is difficult as it requires a tremendous amount of linguistic knowledge to first comprehend the text, identify the errors, and finally correct them. … If students are not ready to move to edit the target structures, the point you made is absolutely correct.” (T.H.Tran, email, April 1, 2021) Thus, in this he agrees that students must have a thorough knowledge of the grammar before they can do editing exercises.
Nevertheless, many teachers use these exercises in class because they are usually at the end of chapters when students supposedly have learned the structures covered, and these would help them find and correct errors in their own writing. These exercises might also serve to provide an opportunity for further explanations. However, this is in a class setting and does not evaluate how students can or cannot successfully complete these exercises independently or the benefit they provide.
Tran also stated, “In my writing classes, I highlighted problematic sentences in paragraphs and essays students submitted and asked the whole class to identify problematic areas and find ways to improve them. Most of the time my students were able to find and correct their errors. This is a frequent activity in my writing class.” (T.H.Tran, email, April 1, 2021) Demonstrating corrections from students’ writing is helpful as a group activity, but it is not the same as textbook error-find exercises given as independent assignments.
In addition, when doing any error correction exercises in class, stronger students or students with similar grammar in their native languages will be able to identify the errors and carry the class. For example, Spanish speakers can often identify errors with articles, and Asian speakers may find verb tense mistakes. The results of working with a teacher in class is quite different from working individually on homework. It follows, then, that there is not necessarily a correlation between finding and correcting students’ errors as a group in class and having students try to find them in a book exercise while working independently.
Error Repetition
Insights into the causes of recurring errors highlight why error correcting exercises are harmful and why alternatives are necessary. In my own experience of years of playing classical piano, if I make a mistake once and notice it, it can be fixed with one careful repetition of the passage. If I make the same mistake a second time, fossilization has begun. Simply making the same mistake twice is enough reinforcement to repeat it. It follows then that if students are hunting for errors and repeating the errors in a homework exercise, it is likely that they will repeat them.
Khazan (2016), a researcher who analyzed the thinking process, offers his own description of why errors are repeated. The example given is of trying to retrieve a word from memory. If you cannot remember a word, but eventually you finally think of it, you think you will remember it, but you don’t. You don’t remember it because you made a pathway of the forgetting process, and the next time your brain follows the same path of forgetting. Therefore, in the same situation, the error will be repeated and focusing on the error will only reinforce its repetition. It follows then that when students are working on error-correcting exercises, they are reinforcing the errors as they try to figure out where the incorrect grammar is located.
Error Correction
Although these exercises should be abandoned, adult students want to know what errors they are making and the grammar behind the correction. In fact, they need to be corrected. The author of the Joy of Languages blog advises giving students immediate feedback and afterwards, practice using the correct forms. She suggests working on specific aspects of the language and breaking down the problem area into manageable sections (Katie, 2018). In his book, “Mechanically Inclined”, Anderson (2005) is more specific. He recommends focusing on one error at a time. If everything is corrected, then students will not remember the corrections (p. 12). If the goal is incremental and specific, it is easier to reach. Additionally, other experienced educators recommend correcting a single type of error because it reduces, “…the cognitive and linguistic loads” (Witt, et. al, 2020).
Being able to correct errors is helpful, but the goal should not be error correction, it should be producing the correct form so that correction is not needed. Production of the correct form needs to be a habit. Focus on producing a single correct form is a way to build it into a habit, which can be followed by another correct form at a later time. “BJ Fogg, a researcher at Stanford University, is the king of starting small with new habits. His program, Tiny Habits, encourages people to focus on building the habit itself, rather than worrying about how big the impact is” (Cooper et al., 2020). Understanding that it takes time to build habits, even as long as two months, will encourage patience and persistence (Cooper et al., 2020). Creating habits requires a lot of practice. I discussed this with William Jiang, PhD, a professor at Bergen Community College, relating it to his favorite sport, basketball. He stated that every hour of coaching needed to be followed by ten hours of practice (personal conversation, November 24, 2020).
However, practice without concentration minimizes its benefits, and practice requires motivation. Variety in the types of practice can help concentration and motivation. Requiring recall through questions, games or tests is also a degree of motivation. Most importantly, students need to grasp the relevance of the lessons. “In order to make your learning stick, it’s important to make real life connections and see how it fits in the larger scheme of things” (Gani, 2017). For adult learners, understanding the importance of writing and speaking correctly and explaining its purpose can be motivating.
Mentor Texts and Modeling
Avoiding errors rather than fixing them can be accomplished by focusing on the correct forms through modeling using authentic texts. Pennington (2019) acknowledges that error analysis is necessary, but states that the greater amount of time should focus on good mentor texts. Anderson (2005) also espouses the use of mentor texts, “Mentor text shows the error in another light: the light of correctness. If students are going to stare at writing and talk about it, they must see powerful writing models.” (p. 61) In a book review of Grammar for Middle School: A Sentence Composing Approach by Don and Jenny Killgallon, an educator, Ovadia (2013), reports on the success of using mentor texts with her middle school students. The Killgallon books provide extensive analysis and imitation of mentor texts.
In describing a methodology for using mentor texts, Foppoli, a teacher of English and Spanish as second languages, states that students should be provided with authentic language that they read first for comprehension, and then analyze for the targeted grammatical structures, which are taught and then practiced in communicative activities in class. He suggests that homework can be drill exercises which reinforce the concepts taught in class (2020). Alison (2019), a literacy specialist and the author of “Learning at the Primary Pond,” teaches her young students to edit first by showing students examples of good writing which they can imitate, modeling the editing process, and employing carefully guided peer review with specific, clear criteria with visual support.
Sentence frames, which function as partial mentor texts, can be used to scaffold student writing. The authors of “They Say, I Say,” describe these as templates. They point out that experienced writers have a toolbox of “moves” that they use when they write, much like basketball players or jazz musicians. Student writers have not built up this resource, but templates enable students to focus on content and have the tools for good writing. While some may argue that this stifles creativity, the authors contend that, “Ultimately then, creativity and originality lie not in the avoidance of established forms but in the imaginative use of them” (Graff et al., 2012). Sentence frames can help ELs communicate without getting bogged down by grammar rules. They provide structured language that gives them the opportunity to write, think, and talk about concepts using academic language. They can help learners express ideas that are a little above what they could produce without assistance (Carrier, 2005).
This has proven successful in my classes. In a class of beginning adult learners, I had the students change content words but keep the structures of the sentences in models of short paragraphs. To teach basic essay format to intermediate writing classes, I gave them a few basic sentence frames for thesis statements and topic sentences, such as, “The first reason is that…” Using these, they had no trouble writing thesis statements or topic sentences. An ideal resource for frames and collocations is The Corpus-Based Word Combination Card (Alves, 2012).
Other examples are:
“The author’s main message is ____because in the story ____.”
“The author wants us to know that ____.”
“Oranges are _____, however bananas are _____.” (Reyes 2015)
Some teachers express concern that modeling and sentence frames make the work too easy, However, these can help students focus on the task rather than waste time wondering how to start. (Witt et al., 2020) Templates are used to write resumes, create flyers, and put together presentations and more, so why not use these for writing?
Variety
To enhance students’ focus and concentration, modeling and imitation can be presented in a variety of ways. The first is making it personal. In writing classes, when I present my own level appropriate examples of what I ask my students to do, the results are much better than using only textbook examples. A few other teachers have tried this with the same results. Imitation can be fun and can involve all aspects of language production. In a speech class, to help students focus on the details of language and produce it correctly, I had them transcribe commercials and then try to mimic the pronunciation and inflections of the commercials. I had to assist with the transcriptions, but the repeated listening practice had a purpose, and it helped the students focus on vocabulary, syntax, and pronunciation.
Finding and analyzing grammatical structures in authentic texts is another exercise. For example, for students whose languages do not include articles, highlighting a, an, and the on a page of text is a revelation. Then identifying why these are used gives purpose to the exercise. Other successful activities with mentor texts include taking a text and changing the time frame from present to past or from singular to plural, combining short sentences, or replacing words with synonyms. This requires intense focus on the correct, original text. Matching two halves of a list of sentences can also provide the opportunity to examine authentic text. Another option is that after reading a text, select sentences can be broken into four to five chunks which are given out of order for other students to reorganize into sensible sentences. Alternatively, sentences can also be expanded into several repetitive sentences which students have to combine and reduce to their original form.
A third strategy is to have students reteach concepts to each other which helps them remember and apply what has been taught. “Because when we learn with the intention to teach, we break the material down into simple, understandable chunks for ourselves. It also forces us to examine the topic more critically and thoroughly, helping us to understand it better” (Gani, 2017). This is a recommended strategy in tutoring: to have the student explain a concept back to the tutor to check comprehension.
Conclusion
Being the ESL tutoring supervisor at Bergen Community College has given me the opportunity to observe language learning from a one-to-one, individual perspective. From this point of view, and in helping students who want to excel as well as those who struggle with their learning, I have been exploring options to find the best strategies to help students reach their goals. This also involves questioning common, but unsubstantiated practices and finding alternatives.
The Author – Marilyn Pongracz is the ESL tutoring supervisor at Bergen Community College and teaches one of the classes in the ESL program there. Often working with students who are struggling to learn English, she has developed alternate activities and approaches to assist these learners.
In 1999, she created the first version of website pages with activities and links for extra English practice for her students. https://bergen.edu/elrclinks. In 2002, she volunteered to become the Technology Coordinator for NJTESOL/NJBE, growing the online presence of the organization from information pages to its current iteration.
References
Alison. (2019, June 21). 5 Effective Strategies for Teaching K-2 Students to Edit Their Writing. Learning at the Primary Pond. https://learningattheprimarypond.com/blog/5-effective-strategies-for-teaching-editing/
Alves, M. M. B. (2012). The Word Combination Card: A Writer’s Reference (2nd ed.). Language Arts Press.
Anderson, J. (2005). Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer’s Workshop (Revised ed.). Stenhouse Publishers.
Carrier, K. A., & Tatum T. W. (2006). Creating Sentence Walls to help English Language Learners Develop Content Literacy. The Reading Teacher V. 6 No. 3, Nov. 2006.
Cooper, B., Kong, M. J., Bannister, M., & Tennen, D. (2020, January 8). How to Build Habits That Will Last All Year. Zapier. https://zapier.com/blog/effective-habit-change/
Foppoli, J. (2020, September 7). Is Grammar Really Important for a Second Language Learner? Eslbase. https://www.eslbase.com/teaching/grammar-important-second-language-learner
Gani, F. (2017, July 11). Top 10 Strategies for Learning New Skills. Zapier. https://zapier.com/blog/learning-new-skills/
Graff, G., Birkenstein, C., & Durst, R. K. (2012). “They Say/I Say.” W.W. Norton & Company.
Katie. (2018, February 14). How to practice a language like a pro. Joy Of Languages. http://joyoflanguages.com/how-to-practice-a-language/
Khazan, O. (2016, February 28). Why We Often Repeat the Same Mistakes. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/why-mistakes-are-often-repeated/470778/
Ovadia, J. (2019, November 27). Review of Teaching Grammar: A Sentence Composing Approach. MiddleWeb. https://www.middleweb.com/10550/grammar-writing/
Pennington, M. (2019, March 24). Why Daily Oral Language (D.O.L.) Doesn’t Work. Pennington Publishing Blog. https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/grammar_mechanics/why-daily-oral-language-d-o-l-doesnt-work/comment-page-1/
Reyes, J. P., Jr. (2015, August 15). The Impact of Sentence Frames on Readers Workshop Responses. Education Commons. https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1176&context=hse_all
Stockton, N. (2018, July 19). What’s Up With That: Why It’s So Hard to Catch Your Own Typos. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2014/08/wuwt-typos/
Szynalski, T. P. (2011, November). Is “Pause and think” worth it? The Antimoon Blog. http://www.antimoon.com/blog/2011/11/is-pause-and-think-worth-it/
Taylor, E. (2017, October 29). Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing! TeachWriting.Org. https://www.teachwriting.org/612th/2017/10/29/the-first-step-in-the-writing-process-is-reading-using-mentor-texts-to-teach-writing
Tran, T. H. (2013). Approaches to Treating Student Written Errors. Eric. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED545655.pdf
Witt, D., Soet, M. (2020, July 13). 5 Effective Modeling Strategies for English Learners. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-effective-modeling-strategies-english-learners