by Jessyca T

Created on: April 08, 2009

I am an ESL teacher and not surprisingly, I've heard a student or two make up sentences that weren't structured exactly how I'd suggested they be. It's the most natural process of learning - the inter-learning that goes on along the way. Not surprising at all. Something that is surprising, to me at least, is that a few of my fellow teachers argue against the effectiveness of correcting structures that veer off the beaten grammar path.

They tell me there is a meaningful distinction that must be made and upheld between feedback on meaning or content, and feedback on negotiation of form in the classroom setting. They haven't finished telling me what that means exactly, but I'm willing to forego an explanation in favour of not having to listen to it.

In particular, one of my colleagues is rigidly opposed to correcting grammar orally and loudly tells me over his muffin and daily word search that it does nothing for anybody. We, as self-respecting ESL teachers, should not waste even a second of language teaching time on bothering students with trying to teach them about language. While I have often thought that correcting grammar is complex and problem-riddled on both the delivering and receiving ends, it never would have occurred to me that I should completely abandon all efforts.

To be fair I better stop here and admit that there is only that one muffin eater at my work who assumes an all or nothing' position on oral grammar correction. The others don't consistently wake up on the irate, one sided, you're with me or you're wrong and stupid', side of the bed. Now that I've clarified that I'll continue because one like that is more than enough grounds for me to write this article.

If word search teacher were to follow his arguments through he might find it necessary to claim that teachers should never risk harming students through the use of correction in any subject. Ever. A truly good teacher would never actually teach anything.

How on earth is that really someone's solution to one of the complex problems of language education?

The question came to me this morning while I was being treated to chewing noises and a list of reasons why students are too delicate to deal with being taught. I mercifully drifted away imagining a soapbox on a corner and a man wearing a t-shirt with the words oral grammar correction' circled in red and then crossed out. In the background huddled a crowd of weeping students bent over under the weight of the huge, menacing grammar texts and workbooks they were forced to carry on chains around their necks. In the distance stood another group of students smiling and laughing as they talk to one another unfettered by the weight of error treatment. They wore t-shirts with communication', vocabulary' and pronunciation' circled in green and painted in no particular order amidst jauntily placed checkmarks.

The point I'm taking a very long time trying to make is that I don't think anybody knows enough to give evidence against correcting grammar orally. Grammar correction can be useful, especially the more we learn about the systems of language, about the ways learners process, and the strategies they use to sort through the mess of it. The more I learn about how students make mistakes, the better I can conceptualize strategies to help them untangle the steps. I stand between both groups of learners in the image above.

I'm trying to coax those who are willing with blank t-shirts and the promise of writing on them together, brushing muffin crumbs off my desk with chalk covered hands.

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