The Research On The Influence Of Van Lier’s Conversation Theory On Error Correction Strategies In High School English Classrooms

This thesis ‘The Research on the Influence of van Lier’s Conversation Theory on ErrorCorrection Strategies in High School English Classrooms’ reviews the current situation oferror correction in Chinese high school English classroom; English teachers’ and students’conceptions and attitudes on in-class error correction. Four research instruments (i.e.classroom observation, interview, questionnaire survey and experiment) are especiallyemployed to address the issue: the differences on students’ English learning motivation andengagement which are made by different kinds of in-class error correction strategies. Thecreativity of this thesis is the conversation theory from Leo van Lier’s3A (awareness,autonomy and authenticity) curriculum theory which emphasizes that in-class error correctionis one of significant ways of classroom interaction. Therefore, error correction strategiesshould be relatively equal distribution of rights and duties in English class conversationbetween students and teachers; error correction strategies should follow the unpredictabilityof sequence and outcome of students’ answers; otherwise, error correction strategies should bemultimodality and multifunctional. This thesis offers the outcome of pre-test and post-test andpresents the result analysis. The study objects are14English teachers and85Fresh students inLvshun No.Two Senior High School in Dalian City.This thesis intends to answer these following questions: Firstly, what are the mainin-class error correction strategies in an IRF discourse structure centered English classroom?Secondly, what can English teachers do to adjust the in-class error correction strategies basedon Leo van Lier’s Conversation Theory? Thirdly, what differences are made on students’classroom engagement and motivation in English learning by the adjusted error correctionstrategies?The major findings of this study are briefly concluded as follows:Firstly: There is still teacher-centered in classroom error correction stage which isseriously unbalanced between teacher and students in today’s high school English class.Meanwhile, the way to correct students’ errors in class is inflexible and single. Otherwise,most error correction strategies are focus on the question itself which overlook the otherfunctions that error correction can have.Secondly: It can be seen that students are chronically and passively accepted duringin-class error correction. Some students are not convinced by teachers’ rejection and somefeels embarrassed when their mistakes are pointed out by teachers and shown to the wholeclass as a negative examples. However, most students prefer to correct by themselves and theythink it’s good for them to understand and strengthen the key points if they have more chances to engage into the error correction activities.Thirdly, according to the research result, we can see that the adjusted error correctionstrategies are much easier accepted by most students in senior high. It has a great and positiverole in improving students’ engagement and motivation in English learning.