A Study on A Student’s Self—Repair

【Abstract】The focus of this paper is on one kind of self-repair： self-repair issuing from self-initiation. It explains what repair is， and presents an observation analysis about a students self-repair. It concludes that self-repair is an important part of students language learning. It should be encouraged under the supervisor of teachers in foreign language classroom.

【Key words】self-repair; self-initiation; error

I. Introduction

The phenomenon of self-repair has long been the focus of some linguists such as Sacks， Schigloff， Levison， Craig Chandron and Evelyn Hatch etc. If we take a detailed look at the students utterance in classroom and elsewhere， we may find many self-repairs exist. As Leo Van Lier pointed out： an ethnographic approach to the issue shows that repair is not simply a matter of learners committing errors and teachers correcting them in various ways. It is rather a matter of continuous adjustment between speakers and hearers obliged to operate in a code which gives them problem. This adjustment in interaction may be crucial to language development ， for it leads to noticing discrepancies between what is said and what is heard， and to a resolution of these discrepancies. In Psychology of Language by David W Carroll： Speakers routinely monitor their utterance to ensure that they are saying what wanted to and in the way they wanted to. When errors are detected， speakers interrupt their speech nearly immediately and begin editing their utterance. So here come the questions for the teachers in foreign language classroom： 1. Should the students be encouraged to do self-repair in their utterance？ 2. Is self-repair helpful for the learners language development？ In this paper， some solutions of these questions are supposed to be found.

II. What is Repair

According to VanSacks and Schegloff， there are four types of repair. They are 1）self-repair issuing from self-initiation， 2）self-repair issuing from other-initiation， 3）other-repair issuing from self-initiation， 4）other-repair issuing from other-initiation. In this paper， the focus in on self-repair issuing from self-initiation. According to VanLier， repair can be defined as the treatment of trouble occurring in interactive language use. From time to time we spontaneously interrupt our speech and correct ourselves. These corrections are referred to as self-repair.

The errors made by learners have always been a central point of interest for teachers and researchers. In the grammar-translation days， errors generally indicated rules insufficiently learnt or knowledge imperfectly assimilated. In the audiolingual days errors were regarded as cracks in the foolproof stimulus-response-reinforcement sequence. Later on， in the late sixties and early seventies a number of teachers began to realize that error were perhaps not just aberrations， admissions of guilt or inadequacies， or failure in the pedagogic system， but might be evidence of the learners creative efforts to build a new linguistic structure， in the similar way to children learning their first language.endprint

In ordinary first language conversation， many people commit errors， but the mechanism of repair is organized in such a way as to avoid the face-threats and loss of face that might result from overt correction. Generally， hearers， upon hearing an error， leave it up to the speaker to do something about it， in other words， they expect speakers to do their own repair.

In second language classroom， in order to become a competent member of a speech community， one must participate in the affairs of that community. Also in order to develop communicative competence one must learn to use the language code the way it is supposed to be used. This crucially involves letting speakers do their own monitoring and repairing rather than doing it for them. Repair is， in a sense， a mechanism to correct for imperfect adjustment. In other words， the better we adjust， the less we are likely to have to rely on repair.

One thing that should be pointed out is that there are differences between repair and correction. Corrections occur only where there is an error， while repair can occur even without error. It appears where there is a trouble source， or more specifically whenever adjustment in interaction language use is necessary. The aim of correction is to make something correct while the function of repair is more broadly to make something appropriate， or more broadly effective in a certain context.

III. An Observation of A Students Self-Initiated Repair

According to Levelt， self-repairs have specific structure that consists of three parts. First we interrupt ourselves after we have detected an error in our speech. Second， we usually utter one of various editing expressions. These include terms such as “Er， Oh， I mean，” Finally we repair the utterance. The data in this paper came from an interview of fifteen minutes between a senior student and an advanced teacher for an oral test.

Example 1. “When she look at .his own. Eh. her own picture…”

In this example， the student realizes the error of personal pronoun and uses the word “Er” as self-initiation and repairs by herself.

Example 2. “So. So eh we we can not we contradict. Contradicted.”

Here， the word “contradict” is detected to be an error of tense. So， after a short pause， she repairs it， using the right form “contradicted”.

Example 3. “He committed suicide to end his tragi-like tragi-life.”

Here is a phonological error. The student repairs it immediately after the occurrence of the error without any hesitation.endprint

Example 4. “He can， he can er just sit. Sit er when when he he come to a city， he  sell his products， just by eh sitting in the hotel…”

In this example， the student has a trouble organizing the content and she uses a pause filler “er” to gain time to reorganize the content in an appropriate way.

Example 5. “He just did something（laugh） er un-unloyalful er. I=illegal u=unloy=unloyty er… I I mean that he turned against her， so…”

This example shows a lexical trouble in the utterance. The student tries several times to figure out the correct word， but fails. Then she uses another phrase and gives the right and does the self-repair successfully.

In the fifteen-minute interview， all together there are 39 errors concerning about phonological， lexical， grammatical， content errors which are self-repaired. Usually， long sound， interjection， laugh， cough， repetition， pause， pause filler including： eh， er， I mean， etc. are frequently used as initiation. Of course， it doesnt mean the more repair， the better. But at least it shows the student has the ability to detect the trouble and make some repairs almost simultaneously.

IV. Conclusion

In the second language classroom， much attention has been put on students error and error analysis in which emphasis is put on how and when teachers correct the errors. In other words， heavy emphasis is put on the other three types of repair. Less focus is put on students self-repair issuing from self-initiation. Since error is almost inevitably in and outside classroom， the aim of language teaching is the appropriate use of the language by the learner. Allowing learners chances to do self-repair can help them more actively involve the classroom interaction. From the social point of view， self-repair gives the learners an opportunity to restore face. It also provides the teacher with information about the status of the learners foreign language knowledge. It is high beneficial for the teacher to let learners correct themselves， this enabling them to form their own self-monitoring mechanism about the target language.

Allowing more opportunities for learners rather than teachers to undertake correction enables the learners to engage more in communicative and meaningful interaction. Interaction in this way assists the learners to develop their communicative and interactive competence. Teachers role in classroom interaction should become a guilder rather than a controller who always directs learners what to do and how to do it including the matter of repair.endprint

Self-repair is a part of interaction that is essential for foreign language learners to learn how to do it in order to communicate in a real world. If the learners are regularly deprived of the opportunity to practice self-repair， they may have difficulties in solving troubles in real communication. So self-repair should not be only regarded as low language proficiency of the learners and should be highly encouraged in foreign language classroom.

References：

[1]Dick Allright & Kathleen M Bailey.1991.Focus on the Language Classroom：An Introduction to Classroom Research for Language Teachers[M].Cambridge：Cambridge University Press.

[2]Stephen C，Levinson Pragmatics.2001[M].Beijing：Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

[3]Kurhila，Salla.2001.Correction in Talk Between Native and Non-Native Speaker.Journal of Pragmatics，33.

[4]Leo Van Lier.1988.The classroom and the Language Learner：Ethnography and Second-Language Classroom Research.Longman Pub Group.

*本文为广西高等教育教学改革工程立项项目A类课题《高职高专大学英语生活化教学模式的探索与实践》（项目编号：2014JGA289）的部分成果。

作者简介：陈环（1971-），女，广西平乐人，桂林师范高等专科学校外语与旅游系副教授，英语语言文学学士，主要从事英语教学和研究。endprint