Treatment of spoken errors in secondary schools reactions of english language teachers and students

This study attempted to find out the treatment of spoken errors done by English language secondary school teachers, including their views on L2 errors, frequency of treatment and spoken error treatment strategies teachers use. It also attempted to find out students’ views on the aspect of error treatment and their preferences on spoken error treatment strategies. The study was exploratory, descriptive and case in design. Interlanguage theory provided the framework for this study. The data for this research were collected through questionnaires for teachers and students, and observation. Observation was done in the classrooms when the lessons were in progress. The study used 100 Form IV students and 15 teachers from four secondary schools namely Pamba, Mwanza, Mkolani and Buhongwa. The findings show that all teachers used in the study recognize the importance of spoken error treatment in second language teaching and learning, and they treat the errors when the errors are committed. The findings show that teachers play a central role as the data show that many teachers treat spoken errors themselves and some of them sometimes use different strategies such as letting students make self-correction, translating words for students to simplify understanding or ignoring the errors. On the other side, many students preferred teachers’ immediate error treatment while others preferred other approaches such as other students’ assistance on spoken error treatment. It is recommended that English language teachers should include remedial classes in their schemes of work for language error treatment which would at least cover the errors committed when teaching a particular topic. It is also recommended that teachers of other subjects should also play that role of correcting students’ language errors in an attempt to minimize the extent of the problem and help students improve language proficiency.