Attitudes towards Error Correction, Corrective Moves and Their Effects in College English Classrooms in China

Abstract

This study explored the relationships among teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward error correction, teachers’ actual corrective moves and their effects in college English classrooms in China. The major findings are as follows. Firstly, comparatively speaking, teachers are more negative toward errors and error correction than students. Secondly, Teachers and students have different views of how errors should be corrected. Finally, negotiation of form, favored by both teachers and students, has the best effects among all error correction types; explicit correction, welcomed by students but disliked by teachers, is less effective than negotiation of form but more effective than recast, which is favored by teachers but distasted by students.