Consciousness-raising, Error Correction and Proofreading

Abstract: The paper discusses the impact of developing a consciousness-raising approach in error correction at the sentence level to improve students ’ proofreading ability. Learners of English in a foreign language environment often rely on translation as a composing tool and while this may act as a scaffold and provide some support, it frequently leads to predictable and persistent errors. Such fossilization can cause inaccuracies that detract from student composition and that require instruction and repeated practice in order to eradicate the errors. The current paper reports on an experiment in consciousness-raising about specific categories of errors with a group of 30 students in the Faculty of Education in Zayed University, Dubai during the spring semester 2014. Post-test results compared with those on a pre-test indicate a significant improvement in students ’ performance as a result of structured input (specially prepared grammar materials) and focused instruction (teaching that focuses on each specific grammar point identified as problematic)