A Survey On Students’ Oral Errors And Error-correction Strategies In Middle School English Class

English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education（2011 Edition）clearly states that cultivating students’ oral English ability is the focus of current English textbooks.In addition,the focus of English teaching is changing from mechanical practice to meaningful learning,so the analysis of students’ oral errors is becoming more and more important.Teaching mainly takes place in the classroom,which is also the main place for students to practice their oral English.In fact,classroom teaching is a process of constantly discovering and correcting errors,especially in oral English teaching,oral errors and error correction have always been the focus of teaching.In this paper,based on the theory of Contrast Analysis and Error Analysis,the author reviews the research on English errors and error correction in different periods at home and abroad,and three research tools are used,including questionnaires,interviews,and classroom observation.The third grade in a middle school in Xi’an,Shaanxi Province are served as the object of study,and 880 students and 8 English teachers are included in the survey.Through survey and study the oral errors and error correction strategies in English class at the junior middle school,this paper aims to answer the following questions: 1.what are the types and causes of oral English errors of junior middle school students? 2.What oral error correction strategies are commonly used by junior middle school English teachers in class? 3.What are the factors that affecting the effectiveness of oral English correction for junior middle school students?Through study and analysis,the author draws the following conclusions: First,the types of oral errors produced by junior middle school students include pronunciation and intonation errors,vocabulary errors,grammar errors and pragmatic errors.The causes mainly include the following factors: interlingual interference;intralingual interference;cultural differences and inadequate language input.Second,the oral error correction strategies commonly used by junior middle school English teachers in the classroom include error correction methods,error correction time and error correction forms.And error correction method commonly used by teachers in class mainly include explicit correction、retelling、guidance and metalinguistic clues;error correction time commonly used by teachers in class mainly include immediate correction、correction after a word、correction after a student’s statement、correction after class and ignoring errors;error correction forms commonly used by teachers in class mainly include teacher-correction,student-correction,learning group members correction,other students correction and other forms.Thirdly,the factors affecting the effectiveness of oral English correction mainly include the following three points: 1.stubborn exam-oriented education;2.limited classroom time;3.different views on correcting strategies between teachers and students.Based on these findings,the author puts forward the following teaching suggestions: 1.follow the law of cognitive development;2.choose error correction manners flexibly;3.enrich the reserve of error correction knowledge.