Students' versus instructors' preferences in treatment of errors in ESL classroom / Kamisah Ariffin and Misyana Susanti Husin

Learners make mistakes or errors in the process of learning. Error treatment is very important as learners will get information on their performance and clear understanding of what should have been learned or acquired. However, what kind of treatment can best benefit the learners? This is because the treatment of errors can influence learners’ motivational learning behaviour. This paper, thus, investigates both the learners’ and instructors’ preferences towards error treatment as both parties have intuitive knowledge about the kind of treatment that can benefit learning the most. The classroom observation and survey reveal that there are four common approaches to error treatment, namely: 1) explicit corrections, 2) asking other students for the correct answer, 3) providing clues for self-repair, and 4) ignoring errors. The findings reveal that students preferred explicit corrections the most while the instructors preferred the providing clues for self-repair method of treatment. Pedagogically, the findings point out that instructors have to employ the appropriate measure for error treatment in the classroom for the benefit of learning.