fossilization

Request for help: fossilization? | Mary Lynn | November 29th, 2001

Dear All,

This is a request for help with a teaching/learning problem I'm wrestling with.

The context is: Intermediate level adult students in Mexico (L1 Spanish), most of whom have been studying English for a good while, following (up to now) a structural syllabus.

The problem: when speaking 'freely' (i.e. focus on meaning, not form), they make a lot of basic errors. The one I particularly want to deal with is a mix-up between 3 rd person singular and plural forms, e.g. '*They goes...' and '*She go...'. I'm not sure whether this is really a case of fossilization or what the source of the error is, but it's quite common. Correcting them doesn't help - they usually recognize the error when it's pointed out and can correct it (they 'know' the forms), but it doesn't change their production at all. Sometimes a 'questioning' correction (e.g. 'She go...?' with rising intonation) elicits a completely blank response, which makes me think it is fossilization, in these cases.

I'm thinking of trying some kind of drill-like activity that will make them consciously focus on the form and hopefully, develop some automaticity of use, but I would like it to be meaningful, not just rote. The only idea I have is to use a lot of personalized examples about people in the class (likes/dislikes, activities, etc), maybe get a list of sentence stems (Name + verb, e.g. 'Jorge likes', or Name + activity/topic, e.g. 'Jorge + drinking beer'- I'm not sure which would be more effective in terms of reinforcing the verb forms) up on the blackboard and then do a fast drill around the class where they have to complete the sentences. I'm not at all sure this will help them to remember the forms in future use, but I can't think of anything else. As a follow-up at a later time, I might also get them to do intensive pair work listening where they correct each other's mistakes.

Has anyone run into the same problem and, if so, what did you do and how did it work out? I'm not particularly interested in theoretical explanations at this point- I feel we can speculate about that until the cows come home- but anything that has worked for others would be very welcome, or any ideas about how to tackle this kind of problem.

Muchas gracias,

Mary Lynn

Re: Request for help: fossilization? | Laura McLean | November 29th, 2001

Hi, Mary Lynn,

My Italian learners often have the same problem, even making occasional slips at the advanced level. I'm sure you know and have used a number of "tricks" to make your students aware of the mistake and its frequency (handing out a card with an "s" to students who have "forgotten theirs", taping a large "s" to the front of your shirt like Superwoman in an attempt at humor, tapping on a table or the board when the "s" has been omitted, getting the other students to chime in "sss" and anything else which is appropriate for your learners). The issue for me is deciding to what extent and in what contexts the omitted "s" is a problem and should thus be called attention to: it rarely causes comprehensibility problems, after all. In fact, intermediate students who are involved in a heated discussion will only become annoyed or distracted by having their attention called to such a "trivial" error.

At the intermediate level and beyond, I like to appeal to the students' intellect (and pride?). First I help them become aware of the omission and its frequency, using techniques such as those mentioned above. Generally the students are surprised and amused when they realize what's happening. Then I reassure them that it's not a big deal and that the late-acquired "s" is actually quite normal (otherwise they become extremely discouraged and frustrated), and that in certain contexts it's more of an issue than in others. I get them to brainstorm situations in which this type of correctness counts more: written work, formal presentations, job interviews, wanting to make a favorable impression or whatever. Then I point out that if they can remember to use the "s" they'll automatically sound more "advanced" or "more English" or whatever - great payback for such little effort - and that my job as a teacher for the next couple of weeks will be to help them remember it because my job is to help them improve. This is the point at which controlled exercises could also be useful, as the students will recognize their purpose and not feel they are "too advanced" for such things.

For some students the omitted "s" is actually more of a consonant cluster pronunciation problem, so you might attack the problem with specific pronunciation exercises and let them know that sometimes you don't hear them saying the "s".

I have found generally that this type of attention is enough to improve the situation a great deal, without creating unnecessary trauma or seeming to be more interested in what might seem to be a nitpicky detail rather than in what the learners actually have to say. It improves the situation at least for the duration of the course. Many learners who haven't been practicing and who have gotten "rusty" tend to fall back into omitting the "s", and some people seem more plagued than others by the whole issue.

Hope this was relevant.

Laura McLean

Re: Request for help: fossilization? | Jerry Talandis | November 29th, 2001

Hello Mary Lynn,

This is Jerry. Here are some ideas for your problem. First of all, from what I've been reading for my MET module, teachers really have little control over what students learn and when. Seems that we all have our natural order of learning grammar, and it varies by culture and L1. So, what ever you do, it will probably be better than nothing, but your efforts won't guarantee the results you want when you want them.

That said, there are some things I think can help. Vigotsky's "ZPD" (Zone of Proximal Development) comes to mind. Perhaps the reason why your students aren't learning the point you want is because it lays outside their ZPD.

I suggest trying out different ways of getting them to notice their output. Get them to look at what they produce and ask them to reflect on it. Perhaps they can notice for themselves what they are doing, and in time, improve. One way to do this is to tape or video them doing a short task designed to illicit the desired point. Transcribe the performance (or get them to do it), and ask them to correct any grammar mistakes.

I'm basically doing this for my MET assignment, and I'm hopeful it will help students notice their form.

Good luck,

Jerry Talandis

Re: fossilization? | Jake Kimball | November 29th, 2001

In response to Mary Lynn:

Fossilization, I'm sure is a problem we all face.

A number of studies have shown fossilization to be a serious problem without much in the way of a remedy. Guess that's why it's called fossilization.

Somewhere in Ellis' tome (Study of SLA) I recall reading that direct grammar instruction as well as various forms of correction has little or no effect on production.

Since I don't want to sound pessimistic, I'll describe my own efforts to do the same. I work in Korea and have the same problem. Here are a couple of ideas you can try. They work reasonably well as long as you keep at it.

1) Record some chronic offenders in the act of neglect. Then play back for them the recording and ask them to find their mistakes. Have others find the mistakes and point them out. Brave souls sometimes like this. They always go "Oh my God! Do I really talk like that?"

2) During one of the drills, choose a student to be the teacher and make corrections.

3) Before reading through stories, articles, or whatever, have them use a colored pencil (I like red) to shade in the part of speech you're emphasizing. Then do the reading, Q/A, discussion. Visual cues make a difference for some learners. This can become tedious so don't have them spend much time on it (while scanning or skimming is enough).

It could be that you need to focus more on form. Students may be getting too many 'message received' signals that they've accepted certain forms, even unconsciously.

It could be that they're just backsliding, too.

It may take a few months of training. Try it and see what happens.

Jake Kimball

Re: Request for help: fossilization? | Colin Graham | November 29th, 2001

Hi Mary Lynn,

It may be a case of fossilization and often with (very) high-level students there is little hope of change because they know pragmatically that it doesn't interfere with their ability to communicate. The problem I have is with articles, even at the very high levels. There are no articles in Japanese.

I developed a traffic light system with my high level students. They have a red, yellow or green counter that they put in front of them when they have a specific aim for correction. No counter means a peer or I can correct as we see fit - sometimes letting errors pass and sometimes correcting. Red means do not correct me - I want to communicate without being stopped. Yellow means anyone can correct me when I make a nominated error (e.g. forgetting "the") and Colin can correct other others, if appropriate. Green means anyone can correct me anytime I make an error of any kind.

Students can change the counter at any point during the lesson, and they do so. They have learned to say what error they want to have corrected if they put a yellow counter down.

At first red was the most popular. Then they decided yellow but that didn't work too well because they didn't know what to ask for. With green, they tended to change to yellow and focus on an error if I pointed it out, otherwise staying on green when it was a peer correction (interesting point psychologically!).

Most now use green when they want me to signal a focus, or don't bother putting out a counter. One student always puts yellow and says "the" or "and". It's become a bit of a joke but we do correct him and he is, occasionally, getting better.

This took about 6 or 7 lessons of negotiation and is still a bit unsettled and I would only do it with upper-intermediate or advanced level students but it seems to work for us.

The students seem to appreciate being able to tell everyone- including me- not to correct, if they want that, and it also had a knock-on effect the other way. Students who said they wanted to have all of their errors corrected suddenly realized it wasn't such a good idea after all.

Let me know if you want more detailed info about the process I went through in setting this up.

Good luck, I hope it works out for you!

Colin Graham

Re: fossilization? | Mary Lynn Hughes | December 13th, 2001

Dear All,

A belated thanks to everyone who posted ideas and shared their experiences regarding students' (apparent) fossilization of basic language errors. The ideas were most interesting- the 'traffic light' system should win an award for originality- and I think the basic approach of making students more aware of their errors, in a constructive way, is the right way to go.

I didn't have time to do more than one session with each of my classes (in one case, I noted, then wrote up common errors made during class, got them to go through them, discussed why they think they make them and what they can do to improve; in the other group, I used a drill- type activity based on students' likes, experiences, activities, etc and got them to 'report' on other class members at speed with peer correction of any errors, then asked them to decide in which situations such accuracy matters to them), but they seemed to appreciate the effort and, having been reminded of their typical weaknesses, to be more determined to work on them.

Unfortunately, I finished my teaching in Mexico last week, so could not continue and see how things went over time. However, I'm sure there will be lots of other opportunities with other students!

All the best,