Foreign language teachers’ perceptions of error correction in speaking classes: A qualitative study

Abstract

Limited studies have been conducted on the effects of error correction on acquiring oral proficiency and the teacher’s role as error corrector. Thus, the present study aims to investigate English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of error correction in their speaking classes, reasons and types of errors they correct and their error correction strategies. The sample group in the study consisted of 15 English instructors working at a state university in Turkey. The data collection instruments consisted of a background questionnaire, reflections, interviews and essay papers. Results showed that EFL teachers seem to make corrections to improve learners’ accuracy during speaking, grammar and vocabulary knowledge and pronunciation skills and that EFL teachers believe that error correction may contribute to habit formation in terms of self-correction among students, pragmatic and appropriate use of the target language, learners’ accuracy and fluency. Another conclusion was concluded that teachers concentrate on pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary errors that directly distort meaning while speaking, and that they seem to use various strategies to correct errors. It was recommended that the curricula of teacher training programs should include topics to raise awareness of the issues such as reasons to make corrections, situations that require corrections, error types and correction strategies.