The Dos & Don'ts of Error Correction When Teaching+

The Dos & Don'ts of Error Correction When
Teaching English - BridgeUniverse - TEFL

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Pedagogy (TESOL/TEFL Strategies & Methodology)
The Dos & Don’ts of Error Correction When

Teaching English
Johanna Kawasaki
August 20, 2020
If you’ve taught or tutored English (or any language), you’ve

probably asked yourself on more than one occasion when,
how, and even if, you should correct your students’ mistakes.
While error correction in teaching English mainly depends
on whether your lesson objective is fluency or accuracy
(more on this below), in any case, there are certain key things
to know when it comes to effectively – and sensitively –
correcting your students’ mistakes in class.
If you’re new to teaching, you’ll want to get initial training and
qualification with a TEFL certificate. You can explore our
online TEFL courses to get started!
What is the difference between an error and a

mistake?
You might be surprised to learn there’s a difference! Yet in
teaching English, a distinction is made.
Mistakes
A mistake is an accident or a lapse, something that your

EFL/ESL students actually know and that they can most likely
self-correct if given the chance. This can be a typo, using the
wrong word, or a small grammatical mistake.
Errors
An error, on the other hand, is something that your students

don’t know because they haven’t learned it yet or they’ve
forgotten it. This is where your students need you the most,
in order to effectively correct their errors and help them
develop their language skills.
What kind of errors do EFL/ESL students make

in class?
Students make many mistakes during the long endeavor of
learning a new language. This is a natural and necessary part
of the learning process! As a teacher, it helps to identify the
type of error in order to correct it effectively and smoothly.
Productive skills errors
Errors in spoken or written skills include vocabulary,

pronunciation, and grammatical errors, as well as errors in
producing intelligible language that can be understood
globally.
Receptive skills errors
Errors in listening and reading skills include

misinterpretation of content, misunderstanding of words, or
simply the inability to comprehend someone’s speech in
total.
You’ll learn more about other types of errors students make,

such as global and local, in the Micro-credential course: Error
Correction in the EFL Classroom.
When should I correct my students?
The timing of correcting students’ errors in teaching English

is crucial to your lesson being a success or a fail. Error
correction in EFL/ESL has a big impact on your students’
learning process and the right timing will help them retain
new information effectively.
When to correct errors in fluency-based lessons
If you’re teaching a class or activity where fluency is the goal,

try to monitor your students and take notes of major or
repeating mistakes. Don’t interrupt your students’ speech.
This might discourage them or make them lose the
motivation to speak freely. Save the error correction for the
end of the class.
At that time, you can give individual feedback or discuss the

most important errors with the whole class if your students
are okay with that. You could also prepare a quiz for the next
lesson, touching on the major errors that you noted down
while monitoring your students.
When to correct errors in accuracy-based lessons
If you’re teaching a class or activity that aims for accuracy,

for example applying a new grammar rule during a
conversation, you can correct immediately after the mistake
has been made, assuming that it is a mistake about said rule.
Since you just taught the content, you can encourage your
students to self-correct their error first, or you can ask other
classmates to help. Sometimes a gesture is enough to indicate
the type of error. You don’t need to focus too much on
mistakes students make that aren’t related to the current
lesson, since this can again disrupt their efforts to use the
newly learned grammar.
If you notice during the activity that your students are
making the same errors over and over again, you might want
to stop the activity, review the lesson content and resume the
practice after making sure that all your students have
understood the new rule.
Dos and Don’ts of error correction

Here are some useful ground rules for error correction in the
English classroom, whether you’re teaching online lessons or
in a live classroom. For more detailed tips and tricks, check
out the Bridge Micro-credential course: Error Correction in
the EFL Classroom!
Dos
Be sensitive to your students’ needs and preferences.

Ask your students at the beginning of your course
which kind of error correction they prefer. (Many
students like being corrected immediately because they
can still remember their mistake and learn from it,
while others only want to focus on fluency.
Be kind and patient in the way you correct. Always
encourage your students to keep trying new language
they’ve learned and assure them that making mistakes
is okay. You want to encourage your students to speak
and to experiment with what they’ve learned so far.
Give your students a chance to self-correct, or apply
peer-correction in your classroom. Some students learn
better when they’re corrected by their classmates
instead of the teacher.
Use visual cues. Sometimes, simply raising your
eyebrow can help your students realize that they’ve
made a mistake and it gives them a chance to correct
themselves. Establish your own gestures for common
mistakes in tense, vocabulary, or sentence structure,
such as pointing behind you to indicate a student needs
to use past tense.
Dont’s
Don’t over-correct every single mistake your students

make. Keep error correction relevant and make sure
that your students benefit and learn from it.
Avoid interrupting your students when they’re making
an effort to speak fluently. This can be very counter-
productive and your students might lose their
motivation or become hesitant to use the new language
they’ve learned.
Never scold your students, become loud, or show your
impatience with angry facial expressions. There are no
silly mistakes in the EFL/ESL classroom! This is
especially important if you’re teaching young learners,
who easily pick up on moods and emotions.
The importance of error correction in the
EFL/ESL classroom
We learn by making mistakes. As children, we learn how to
walk by falling over hundreds of times. As adults, we learn a
new language by making uncountable mistakes in the use of
words, grammar, sentence structure, pronunciation, and
register. The most important thing for you as an English
teacher is to correct your students’ errors effectively and
sensitively. Only then can you help them grow and develop
their newly acquired language skills at their own pace and in
a comfortable and safe environment.
Learn more about correcting students’ errors

effectively
If you’re a new teacher and want to level-up your teaching
skills as well as learn more about error correction techniques
in the classroom, start with the comprehensive Bridge Master
Certificate TEFL/TESOL course.
If you’re an experienced teacher, sign up for the Bridge

Micro-credential course: Error Correction in the ESL
Classroom to develop additional skills, and you’ll have the
option to earn a digital badge to show off your credentials on
your TEFL resume and social networks!
Micro-credentials are just one of the many resources

that can enhance your TEFL/TESOL resume.
Johanna Kawasaki
After backpacking Australia on a Working Holiday visa,

Bridge graduate Johanna traveled to Japan for a year to teach
English. She then moved to New Zealand for another two
years before returning to her chosen home country, Japan,
where she currently lives. Now, with more than eight years
of professional English teaching experience, Johanna enjoys
her expat life in Japan teaching teenagers at a private junior
and senior high school, where she recently received tenure
after only two years. When she’s not teaching, Johanna
continues to travel regionally and explore new places.

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The Dos & Don'ts of Error Correction When

Teaching English - BridgeUniverse - TEFL

Pedagogy (TESOL/TEFL Strategies & Methodology)

The Dos & Don’ts of Error Correction When

If you’ve taught or tutored English (or any language), you’ve

What is the difference between an error and a

A mistake is an accident or a lapse, something that your

An error, on the other hand, is something that your students

What kind of errors do EFL/ESL students make

Productive skills errors

Errors in spoken or written skills include vocabulary,

Receptive skills errors

Errors in listening and reading skills include

You’ll learn more about other types of errors students make,

When should I correct my students?

The timing of correcting students’ errors in teaching English

If you’re teaching a class or activity where fluency is the goal,

At that time, you can give individual feedback or discuss the

When to correct errors in accuracy-based lessons

If you’re teaching a class or activity that aims for accuracy,

Dos and Don’ts of error correction

Be sensitive to your students’ needs and preferences.

Don’t over-correct every single mistake your students

Learn more about correcting students’ errors

If you’re an experienced teacher, sign up for the Bridge

Micro-credentials are just one of the many resources

After backpacking Australia on a Working Holiday visa,

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