WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG??
I often question myself everytime I have to correct a student of mine. Am I doing the right thing? Linguistically speaking, there`s very little that can be considered wrong, but despeite this, we keep correcting students over and over.
It`s obvious that learning a second language is different than learning the first language. Is that why we have to tell our students that they are wrong when they mispell the th, even knowing that everybody would understand them? How can we know when to correct and when not to? For me it`s kind of instinctive. Part because I was trained in certain methodology that describes a fluency practice as being "correctless" and also because I have certain experience. The problem here is that I want more. Not that I`m asking for a manual entitled "When to and when not to correct your students", but other teachers opinion would be really nice. I think we are still to determine what the limits for correct are. What do you think? Correct them like a grammar book, or let them speak despite the "errrorrss".
2 comments:
Firstly, I have to say I love the new look of the blog!
I think one of my flaws as a teacher is that I don't correct enough when my students are speaking. However, I think that for a lot of students, fluency is more useful than accuracy and that communication is the key. I know I make mistakes when I speak and write Spanish, but people understand me and at the moment I don't need perfect Spanish.
At the end of the day, our level of correction should reflect each student's needs.
That`s exactly my opinion. Of course we want to improve as speakers of other languages (and want our students to improve), but is it more important than just being able to communicate?
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