Turkish Teachers’ and Students’ Preferences of Error Correction in Different Levels of Proficiency

Errors are an inevitable part of learning. Students make errors during learning process and these errors show that students are actually testing their hypothesis about language. Therefore, how errors are corrected and teachers’ awareness about the issue is important. Students’ preferences, their level of language proficiency, object of the course are some factors that affect treatment of errors. This study aims to shed light on teachers’ and learners’ preferences on error correction in different levels of proficiency. The participants were 242 learners and five English teachers. Five sessions in beginner and low-intermediate classes were voice recorded. American Language Course Placement test was used to measure proficiency level of the students (see Table 1). A questionnaire was adopted to learn about students’ preferences on error correction and to learn about the preferences of instructors, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results of the study show controversy regarding what teachers believe and do in practice. In the records, it was seen that teachers make use of similar correction techniques but the interview results indicated teachers believe different techniques should be used for learners with different proficiency levels. Regarding proficiency level, it was observed that students with different proficiency levels preferred different correction techniques