Techniques Used in Oral Error Correction

Abstract

The present thesis entitled ‘Techniques used in oral error correction’ aims at identifying the oral error correction techniques used by English teachers of public and private secondary level schools. The researcher selected 10 secondary level English teachers i.e. five from public schools and five from private schools of Janakpur. She collected the data by observing fifty classes of the secondary level English teachers with a prepared tool i.e. observation checklist and by distributing them a set of questionnaire as well. The questionnaire contained the both subjective and objective types of questions. The data was analyzed in order to find out the oral error correction technique used by English teachers of public and private schools of Janakpur and their views towards it. After the study and analysis, it has been found out that most of the teachers had similar views towards oral error correction and its effect. Teachers from both types of schools responded that oral error correction helps the students to learn and speak correctly. Regarding the correction technique, generally the teachers used teacher correction and peer correction technique. But, the teachers from public schools still use teacher correction technique more frequently than the teachers from private schools. And regarding the correction timing, generally the teachers used immediate correction technique. But, most of the teachers said that delayed correction technique is useful in oral work, because whenever they had tried to correct the students’ oral errors immediately, students became nervous and forgot what they wanted to say. The research work encompasses four chapters. The first chapter of the study deals with the introduction i.e. general background, error and error analysis, correction and it’s types, oral error correction in EFL class, correction, fluency and accuracy, review of the related literature, hypothesis of the study, objective of the study and significance of the study. The second chapter deals with the methodology adopted for the study under the sources of data (Primary and Secondary), sampling procedure, tools for data collection, process of data collection and limitations of the study. The third chapter is the main part of the study which includes analysis and interpretation of the data. The data were analyzed descriptively using simple tool of percentage. The data were analyzed on the basis of teachers’ responses and on the basis of tool observation under separate headings. The fourth chapter presents the finings derived from the analysis and interpretation of the collected data. It also provides some recommendations based on the findings. Besides these chapters the supportive materials such as references, open-ended questions, close-ended questions and observation forms which were used during the research are presented in the appendix sections of the thesis.