Four Questions for Error Diagnosis and Correction in CALL

Abstract

Four important questions relevant to error diagnosis and correction in CALL are posed. These relate to the diagnosis of persistent L2 learner grammar errors, whether these can be corrected, what types of feedback from the computer are most efficient for focusing the students' attention on this task, and the assessment of CALL programs designed to correct errors. A large corpus of L2 learner errors is shown to be highly beneficial for identifying persistent L1 transfer errors. The application of concordancing programs for this purpose is demonstrated. CALL courseware designed to serve as a platform for investigating correction of persistent grammatical errors made by Korean students learning English and variable feedback provided at different stages in the program are described. The evaluation of how effective error-correction courseware is at eliminating persistent mistakes requires follow-up studies using traditional evaluation measures. Insights into what program features promote focus on form and noticing may be obtained by user-tracker technology.