While of course overcorrection, unnecessary correction, or plain old controlling correction is counterproductive, I am talking about the timely and necessary correction to enable people. Just last night, a neighbour of mine let me know that I had been pronouncing and spelling her name wrong for a year. I was embarrassed. How did I find this out? Because I specifically asked her to correct me. Her lack of correcting me was her form of being polite. But did it do either of us any good? We laughed about it, but it is an example of how we as students want to be corrected!

Feedback needs to be timely, clear, kind, and specific. Not too many things to correct, but just the right amount at one time. There are many ways to correct and give feedback, and things to look for. It all depends on global and specific learning aims in your course, your lesson, and the task at hand.

Giving feedback is a skill. And like all skills, it takes practice to get it right. In the English language classroom, it is a crucial part of our teaching and needs to be embedded into our lessons. In this workshop we will consider the "why", the "what" and the "how".