CORRECTING MISTAKES IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of finding out the most effective techniques and strategies of correcting students’ mistakes in the English language teaching process. The research is aimed at the analysis of the concept “mistake” and defining its role in teaching English. It is stated, that communicative approach views mistakes as an inevitable and necessary aspect in studying a second language. Three types of mistakes have been singled out: slips, errors and attempts. It has been found out, that errors are indicators of what should be taught. It is also defined, that the main reasons of making slips are hurrying and carelessness, attempts are caused by students’ desire of achieving the communicative goal, and only errors are viewed as gaps in students’ knowledge. There also have been found out the most productive strategies of correcting mistakes by teachers. Nonetheless, according to the observation, teachers do not use all types equally often, a large number of correction cases is taken by recasts and elicitation, accounting for over a half of all feedback. It is stated, that peer correction and self-correction are not widely used, though the last should be taken into consideration by teachers as the productive and efficient strategies for successful English language acquisition.