IAFOR International Conference on Language Learning - Dubai 2015

IAFOR International Conference on Language Learning - Dubai 2015

IAFOR International Conference on Language Learning - Dubai 2015

Social science research suggests that using a red pen for essay marking evokes a
negative student response. Beyond the choice of marking color, ELL students are
often overwhelmed by the assorted scribbles, circles and slashes that teachers apply to
the written essay in an effort to illuminate and correct syntactic and semantic errors.
The use of a color-coded marking matrix allows teachers to easily indicate the
problem areas while prompting students to interact with their text on a visual level to
make recommended corrections independently. The matrix is a discrete set of
grammatical and lexical elements; each assigned its own color. By highlighting the
mistake, either manually or electronically, the teacher is able to give the student a
visual depiction of areas of writing weakness. Simply correcting the student error
does not ensure that future mistakes of the same kind will not occur. At a glance, a
student can assess her writing weaknesses by color prevalence and can actually track
her progress in subsequent writing activities by comparison. In addition to the colorcoded

writing elements in the matrix, students can use corresponding columns for
translations as well as hints for remediating the particular error. Teachers and students
agree upon the colors that denote the elements, and the matrix legend is co-created by
the class for the term. Rather than marking being seen as the endpoint of a learning
experience, color-coded marking introduces student empowerment and self-correction
for maximum engagement and retention.

Theresa Storke