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Mistakes are your Friend
89% (32)
8% (3)
3% (1)update
read Gord’s comment on this entry on Steve’s blog: he speaks eloquently and covers a couple of points I forgot to make.
Over at Steve Kauffman’s Blog there has been some discussion about mistakes and language learning. On March 14th, Steve posted an entry about the usefulness of making mistakes as a language learner. I responded with a comment that in part says
Sticking to the tried and true simple sentences is not going to improve your command of language. Learning language is like learning a musical instrument only the ones who put in countless hours of practice and use will be recognized as masters.
This is something I truly believe and actively advocate that my students pursue. However not everyone agrees with me.
Once commenter, pako, states:
Making mistakes won’t help you to learn a language. It only reinforces your bad habits. It’s really better to use simple sentences - but 100% correct. Speaking a language is all about imitating other people - not repeating your own mistakes
I then responded by drawing an analogy to learning language and learning to play a musical instrument (in this case the piano) to which Pako essentially said that I am comparing apples and oranges. However in an entry posted yesterday Steve says Blinger is right - can’t argue with that.
However later in his entry Steve writes about something that I do not entirely agree with.
When writing, all mistakes should be corrected. When speaking you should not worry about your mistakes at all. When writing you should expect to see some things corrected so you can learn from them.
I do believe that writing should see more corrections than speaking. However I do not agree that all mistakes should be corrected because if every mistake is correct students will have their paper returned with a sea of red ink. This would potentially have an adverse affect on a learners confidence. I instead suggest when correcting students writing to focus on only a few mistakes that are interfering with the message or perhaps are related to recent structures covered in class.
In the end it all comes down to accepting that mistakes are a natural and necessary part of language learning. It’s just a matter of how much error correction you see as necessary. To me the purpose of language is communication and if the messsage gets across you have succeeded. Of course as you stretch your linguistic muscles the ability to pass on more complex messages improves as well. Enjoy your mistakes - they are a part of the journey.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Mar 22, 2005 at 03:23 PM
About_Language | Teaching | Learning_Strategies |
Marco Polo wrote 266 words on Wednesday Mar 23, 2005 at 01:48 AM
I agree with you, Blinger. But the lack of context makes it difficult to pass judgement. Are we talking about in-the-classroom learning? Or actually using the language “out there with the natives”? This brings up another question: when is a mistake a mistake? Or, how do you know you’ve made a mistake? When someone tells you “that’s wrong!” or when you are trying to get something (or somewhere) in the target language, and the natives don’t help or give you something you didn’t ask for? And for a genuine learner, which “correction” is more impressive? I don’t think there’s any evidence to suggest that “making mistakes reinforces bad habits”. (Does getting something right ONCE mean it’s “fixed” for life? No! So, making a mistake ONCE doesn’t mean the mistake is engraved in stone in the student’s mind.) Correcting all written mistakes can not only result in discouraging a student, it can also result in nothing at all - one look at all that red ink and the eyes glaze over, the paper is crumpled, the bin is aimed at… Where is the evidence that making all those corrections actually results in improved performance? Huh? HUH?? A simple experiment can prove to the teacher the truth of this with regard to correction of oral production as well. And last but not least, let’s not forget the “game of school” is to get good grades, get good scores on tests, and NOT FAIL. It’s not about learning. Telling students they should not be afraid to make mistakes is like telling them they should stand up while sitting down.
Sean. wrote 130 words on Wednesday Mar 23, 2005 at 11:36 AM
Marco Polo,
In my class I do correct mistakes, but only ones relevant to that days lesson. Additionally my exams are more based on fluency skills and ability to express oneself rather than on error correction.
I do agree that mistakes without correction is not very helpful. In the Korean context, however, students by the time they have reached the university level (where I teach) have had a minimum of six years of instruction which has primarily been about grammar and vocabulary instruction with little concern for communicative competence. To gain comunicative competence students need to accept that making mistakes is necessary and that involves raising confidence as well as raising tolerance of ambiguity - both of which I spend a great deal of time working on in my classes.
한태민 wrote 175 words on Wednesday Mar 23, 2005 at 08:11 PM
I frequently have coworkers or friends ask that I correct their “mistakes.” It seems to me that, especially when it comes to spoken language, even defining what a “mistake” is can be a slippery slope. Is it a mistake if it sounds a bit awkward, even if I can’t quite put my finger on why? Is it a mistake if my grammar teachers harped on the point back in North America, but native speakers frequently use the same construction?
And worse yet are the sentences that are so bad that I just don’t even know where to begin correcting.
I guess that’s why I’m not a professional language teacher. ^^
I found the thread interesting on the Linguist on Language. But everyone on “both sides” of the arguement seems to be saying the same thing: you have to accept the fact that there is no way you will get out of making mistakes in learning a foreign language. Thus mistakes are unavoidable so don’t be embarrassed (I think that’s subtly different from “mistakes are necessary”)
Sandy wrote 108 words on Wednesday Mar 23, 2005 at 08:49 PM
No this ‘softly-softly’ approach is a load of crap. The best thing you can do for a student who hands in bad work is the following.
First, stare at the page blankly, then let out a blood-curdling curse. Then stare at the student wildly, and crush the page up into a small ball. Hurl the ball at the student, shouting something like ‘this is the worst piece of writing I have ever seen in my life!.
I can guarantee that the student will never hand in an inferior piece of work again, as long as he/she remains in your class - which might not be for very long.
Sean. wrote 79 words on Wednesday Mar 23, 2005 at 09:47 PM
한태민,
I’m not sure why your name is broken here, some Korean names display and some do not - sorry about that. You are definately correct about the slippery slope. It is hard to determine what to correct and what not to, but I do want my students to not fear or be embarrassed by mistakes.
Sandy,
That was hilarious. Not because I would actually do it, but because I have wanted to. Far too often I might add.
David (TEFL Smiler) wrote 393 words on Friday Mar 25, 2005 at 12:59 AM
I basically agree with Blinger here, but I thought it might be useful to take this a little further, if I may.
At one stage people decided to use two separate words: ‘mistakes’ and ‘errors’. They decided that ‘mistakes’ would represent inaccuracies caused by a lack of knowledge - ie things you didn’t know you were getting wrong - and that ‘errors’ would represent accidental slips. Or perhaps it was the other way round; I can’t remember.
While this seems at first glance to make sense, in fact it’s a bit tricky: how can the teacher (or person in that kind of role) be aware of when a language learner actually does or does not know something? And besides, what was the intention with this division? That you would correct one kind more often than the other? Which one, then? When? And why?
Like with most issues in ELT, this boils down to the basic question: is language more teachable or learnable? Will you learn better if an external source tells you what is right or wrong? Or is this something that can only really happen in your own head?
I think that the most important thing to notice about mistakes/errors is that highly motivated, confident learners will probably try to find out for themselves how to sort out any mistakes they make, resulting in few mistakes in a shorter period of time. So shouldn’t we be focusing on affect?
As for error correction - when, why and how - I think it really depends on the context and the individual learner styles. Some learners can take more correction and make use of it without becoming de-motivated, whereas others can’t. It would take a teacher with extraordinary psychological mind-reading skills to always know one from the other, although we try our best!
Me, I prefer group error correction slots, sometimes even changing the examples I’ve heard, just to help ensure that anonymity prevails. In terms of immediate correction, a simple glance can normally help a learner recognise that they need to change something about what they’re saying.
At times I’ve been known to ‘correct’ errors in the least diplomatic way possible: laughter. Well, sometimes you just can’t stop yourself! And it isn’t intended as being cruel. In fact, I would argue that they even appreciate it. Anyway, that’s enough of my secret method!
Елизавета wrote 160 words on Friday Mar 25, 2005 at 08:33 AM
My husband is a native French speaker. Up until recently, when we would speak French, he corrected my pronunciation constantly. We couldn’t have a normal conversation because he was always correcting my nasal vowels. This was very disheartening. Not only could we not have a normal conversation, but it was the same corrections over and over. Try as I might to fix it, I could never seem to get the pronunciation correct consistently. (He never corrected my syntax or word choice.)
I decided to ask him to stop correcting every single pronunciation mistake and only correct the mistakes that would cause confusion. I cannot hide my English accent (unfortunately), so let’s concentration on the important mistakes.
Since then, we have had a much better time with our French discussions. Also, he recently told me that my French had greatly improved! I think that I became less ACUTELY AWARE OF MY OWN ACCENT and more relaxed and confident in my abilities.
julian gilbert wrote 147 words on Friday Mar 25, 2005 at 08:14 PM
Interesting discussion about correcting mistakes. In my experience students like to be corrected, they often complain that native English speaker teachers don’t correct them enough. To avoid the problem the french learning woman had, I don’t stop my students as they are speaking but make a note of the mistakes on some paper. I also include things that they said that were right and should be commended. Then I go through it all at the end of the lesson.
With writing O do the same; on a separate page I write the things that should be improved and also comment on the things that were good. this avoids the ‘sea of red ink’ problem.
Then in the following lesson I create exercises that include practise of the problems I noted previously.
By the way, great blogsite; I’ve just started one also about teaching in Poland, at [url=http://www.english.blogeasy.com]http://www.english.blogeasy.com[/url]
Steve Kaufmann wrote 153 words on Saturday Mar 26, 2005 at 03:15 AM
I feel that it is best to make only a few corrections or suggestions during conversation. Learners say they want to be corrected, but in fact they should not be corrected every third word or even every third sentence. It is important that the conversation by natural.
In writing correction what we do at The Linguist is to limit the writier to 300 words. Every awkward construction or grammar error is highlighted and a more natural or correct phrase is substituted. This is done on line and the learner sees both the original text and the corrected text with the changes highlighted.
As much as possible corrections consist of useful and natural phrases that learners put into their developing database of phrases.
We try to get the learners to focus on the 5 elements of CLEAN English, Clarity, Logic, Effectivenes, Accuracy and Normal Usage. We track their problems statistically. It works quite well.
Sean. wrote 201 words on Saturday Mar 26, 2005 at 09:17 AM
David,
I agree with you about the need to read your students ability to accept correction/criticism. Not every student can readily accept it and even those that can, sometimes have a bad day and don’t want to hear it. This does make teaching like walking through a minefield at times.
Елизавета,
Actually that’s what I do with my wife’s English - though she doesn’t make many mistakes - and what she does when I speak Koeran (I do make many many mistakes)
Julian,
I do the same thing with error correction. I make note of 2-3 common mistakes across the class and “fix” them at the end of the lesson on the board. While observing students doing activities I will periodically fix mistakes on the spot, but usually only if it is interfering with communication.
Steve,
I would love to correct my students writing in that fashion. But I have 170 students. It’s just not possible for me to spend that much time on the computer. If I had a lower teaching load and no graduate school, I’m sure I would be doing that. Anyhow this is my final semester of grad school and I am looking forward to the freedom.
Jiri wrote 27 words on Tuesday Mar 29, 2005 at 06:21 AM
I posted something very much like this entry some time ago: http://malaysia-bohemia.blogspot.com/2004/05/dear-mistake.html
The idea was rather crazy though and I don’t think it worked out very well.
Sean. wrote 142 words on Tuesday Mar 29, 2005 at 02:52 PM
Jiri,
Yes the idea does seem a little off-beat. But a lot of what I do with my students doesn’t always work either. I believe mistakes work for us in more than one way.
When you prepare an activity that bites, you learn from it and figure out how to improve for future lessons. Another thing I’ve implemented for myself is the “Three Strikes” approach. If something fails the first time, do it again, and do it again. If it fails all three times, the lesson/approach is probably flawed. If it only fails once, it could be due to the class you taught re: chemistry or attitude, bad food in the cafeteria, looming exams or other such things. Try again with other classes and if it works, then you probably have a good activity. Not everything works for every class and/or teacher.