When I read the chapter, one thing I love about the book is that it discusses the difference between responding and correcting. According to Harmer, responding is more than just the accuracy of students' performance, but also with the content and design of their writing. However, correcting is different. It means this is the stage at which we indicate when something is not right. Frequently, we correct mistakes such as syntax, concord, collocation, word choice and so forth.
As a student, one thing I was not a fan of seeing is all the red marks on my English exams. At the time, I appreciated the help, but I had to admit I had a low self-esteem. When I entered into my senior year of high school and later on in college, I love seeing red marks on my exam. I felt my teacher really cared about what I did in language learning, and they tried to help me in the best way they can't. In addition, we don't have lot of resources for students to learn English naturally in China. Therefore, I became more acceptable towards error corrections from my teacher. I also noticed that being in the top high school in my province, nobody dislikes error correction, especially with the top ten students. I guess it is just a good way for us to find out the root of the problem rather than spend tons of time figuring out what my problem is while we need to study for another eight subjects.
When I did my TESOL practicum for my undergrad program, I learned that in American setting, error correction is something that needs to be dealt with delicately. What they encouraged is self-correction. Nevertheless, we can not deny the fact that most ELLs are in the different side of the world. Error correction though is necessary, needs to plug into the context. Thus, in China, self-correction might not be the ideal one since neither the student nor the teacher has the resource or time to do it. But in American setting, where new ELLs is faced with native speakers all the time and they have plenty of resources, in that case, teacher will have more time to deal with individuals on their errors and hopefully encourages of self-correction.
As a student, one thing I was not a fan of seeing is all the red marks on my English exams. At the time, I appreciated the help, but I had to admit I had a low self-esteem. When I entered into my senior year of high school and later on in college, I love seeing red marks on my exam. I felt my teacher really cared about what I did in language learning, and they tried to help me in the best way they can't. In addition, we don't have lot of resources for students to learn English naturally in China. Therefore, I became more acceptable towards error corrections from my teacher. I also noticed that being in the top high school in my province, nobody dislikes error correction, especially with the top ten students. I guess it is just a good way for us to find out the root of the problem rather than spend tons of time figuring out what my problem is while we need to study for another eight subjects.
When I did my TESOL practicum for my undergrad program, I learned that in American setting, error correction is something that needs to be dealt with delicately. What they encouraged is self-correction. Nevertheless, we can not deny the fact that most ELLs are in the different side of the world. Error correction though is necessary, needs to plug into the context. Thus, in China, self-correction might not be the ideal one since neither the student nor the teacher has the resource or time to do it. But in American setting, where new ELLs is faced with native speakers all the time and they have plenty of resources, in that case, teacher will have more time to deal with individuals on their errors and hopefully encourages of self-correction.