Language Errors in an English-Medium Instruction University SettingHow do Language versus Content Teachers Tackle them?

  1. David Lasagabaster 1
  2. Aintzane Doiz 1
  1. 1 University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
Revue:
Porta Linguarum: revista internacional de didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras

ISSN: 1697-7467

Année de publication: 2018

Número: 30

Pages: 131-148

Type: Article

DOI: 10.30827/DIGIBUG.54043 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

D'autres publications dans: Porta Linguarum: revista internacional de didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras

Résumé

Since attention to content usually prevails over language matters in Englishmedium classes at university level, there are relatively few studies dealing with the content teachers’ position on language issues. This is why the present study intends to (i) compare the content and language teacher’s position regarding errors in students’ written work; (ii) identify the most frequent errors in the students’ essays; and (iii) determine whether there is a correlation between the mark assigned by the content teacher and the number/ type of errors the language teacher comes across. In order to address these issues, we analysed 20 essays produced by students who were taking “World economic history” at the University of the Basque Country and compared the corrections made by the content and the language teachers. The results confirmed that the content teacher’s and the language teachers’ position with respect to language differs significantly, that grammar errors are the most frequent errors, and that there is no correlation between the number of errors and mark awarded for the essays. We believe that comparing language and content teachers’ approaches to error correction may shed light on how we can improve students’ writing skills.

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Information sur le financement

This article falls within the work carried out in the following research projects: FFI2016- 79377-P (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; AEI/FEDER, EU) and IT904-16 (Department of Education, University and Research of the Basque Government).

Financeurs

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