Error-Analysis and the Teaching of Composition

Kroll, Barry M.; Schafer, John

doi:10.2307/356937

Cited by 35 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…During the actual process of formative assessment-reading a student' s written work, for instance, to give feedback for revision-certain ethical problems can hinder the professor from unveiling some of the mystery of assessment and thereby promote an authoritarian stance that counters the dynamics of authorities. Thus, professors can read students' writing primarily to find errors (Williams, 1981), instead of recognizing that error can be a sign of risk taking and learning (Kroll and Schafer, 1987). To counter this error-prone approach to reading, professors might consider using praise in responding to students (Daiker, 1989;Dragga, 1988;Zak, 1990) or at least modify a predominantly negative approach of error hunting by including comments that acknowledge a student' s communicative successes (Reed and Burton, 1985).…”

Section: Ethical Issues Related To Classroom Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unveiling Some of the Mystery of Professional Judgment in Classroom Assessment

Speck¹

1998

New Drctns for Teach & Learn

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Section: Ethical Issues Related To Classroom Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unveiling Some of the Mystery of Professional Judgment in Classroom Assessment

Speck¹

1998

New Drctns for Teach & Learn

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“…Composition teachers have often held themselves responsible to point out errors in the student's composition. More recently, however, student mistakes in writing are being viewed not just as the result of carelessness, but rather as the consequence of faulty thinking (Bartholomue, 1980;Kroll & Schafer, 1978;Shaughnessy, 1977). The development of the methodology of error analysis as applied to writing has followed a course similar to that of reading and mathematics.…”

Section: Error Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As noted by Kroll and Schafer (1978), the implications of a product and process approach are very different. The product approach views errors from a negative perspective as failures on the part of the student, as well as instruction, and strives to create taxonomies of the kinds of errors that are produced.…”

Section: Error Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational Diagnostic Assessment

Bejar

1984

J Educational Measurement

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A strong demand currently exists for testing instruments that are capable of providing more informative and diagnostic results than typical tests offer. This paper reviews approaches that have been proposed for educational diagnostic assessment. Two major approaches are identified: (a) deficit assessment, which focuses on weaknesses of the student, and (b) error analysis, which focuses on the kinds of errors the student commits. This paper also reviews recent work related to diagnostic assessment that is based on the integration of methods from cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence. It is concluded that the development of powerful diagnostic instruments may require a reexamination of existing psychometric models and possibly the development of alternative ones. It is also pointed out that the traditional approach to the specification of content in terms of static taxonomies may not be appropriate given the dynamic and sequential nature of diagnostic assessment. Finally, it is noted that the psychometric and content demands of diagnostic assessment all but require test admininstration by computer.

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“…In this vein, we would do well to remember also that L2 coherence problems often involve more than simple lack of familiarity with cohesive devices. Kroll and Schafer (1978) rightly observe that a perceived lack of coherence in L2 communication may arise due to a difference between reference in spoken and written discourse, the cultural difference between the L2 communicator and the intended audience, and simple poor instruction the L2 learner may have received in previous English classes. Indeed, research generally confirms the suspicion that relying on grammar drills that review grammatical elements, rather than employing text-analysis exercises that get students thinking about how to cross sentence boundaries, may escalate the cohesion/coherence problem.…”

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confidence: 96%

Nuclear Sentences: Teaching Cohesion to L2 Business Writers

Dillon

1992

The Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication

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As the number of immigrants and foreign students in the United States grows, so grows the population of international students in business communication classrooms. As second language learners, many will suffer both academic and professional setbacks in our linguistically biased colleges and corporations. Unfortunately, many of the most open-minded, well-meaning business instructors are ill-equipped to serve their language learning needs.Understandably, the business communication specialist, who is hired to teach all students how to use language effectively in business, may be unable to help international students acquire business language. To teach English as a second language (L2), he or she has to know something about students' first languages, but the typical non-heterogeneous mix of L2 learners renders impractical, if not impossible, attempts to discover or design an appropriate variety of learning aids. The mind boggles at the prospect of studying Spanish, French, Russian, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai, Hindi, Farsi, Filipino, Hausa, Arabic, Tagalog, and so on.Too often, specialists who are not formally trained to teach English to speakers of other languages get unnecessarily mired in philosophical misgivings, suffering guilt because they are less adept at hurdling the language barrier than are the students whose &dquo;errors&dquo; they judge (e.g., Iandoli,1987). The notion that language acquisition takes time may partially comfort the instructor as well as the student, but may cause both to slight the importance of the student's immediate needs. A Vietnamese cost accountant who works eight-hour days, attends school at night, and cannot write a coherent memo suffers from a very practical, not philosophical, problem. How can such students write better and faster now?This article describes a lesson designed to meet both the language learning needs of international students and the language teaching needs of untrained ESL instructors in business writing classes. The lesson aims at achieving timely, proficient writing from L2 writers who commit serious errors. By &dquo;serious&dquo; I mean cohesion errors, which research suggests elicit the most negative reaction from native speakers of English and pose the most troublesome pedagogical problems for teachers (Corder

show abstract

Error-Analysis and the Teaching of Composition

Cited by 35 publications

References 1 publication

Unveiling Some of the Mystery of Professional Judgment in Classroom Assessment

Unveiling Some of the Mystery of Professional Judgment in Classroom Assessment

Educational Diagnostic Assessment

Nuclear Sentences: Teaching Cohesion to L2 Business Writers

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