March 15, 2014　=========
☆ correct　正す
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When I teach English, one of the things I *don’t* do is correct mistakes. Unless it is a big mistake and means that the person cannot be understood, I rarely correct my students. After teaching for many years, I noticed that the students who improve at English are the students who *continue* studying and using English.
And guess what I also found? The students who continue studying and using English are usually the ones who don’t have their English mistakes corrected by the teacher. I know this sounds the opposite of what you would imagine, but in fact correcting mistakes can make the student feel stupid or negative about English, and therefore they are less likely to continue studying. They are more likely to give up sooner.
As I said, I *do* correct mistakes where the mistake makes the speaker impossible to understand, but minor mistakes I leave alone. What do you think about this? Would you rather have all your mistakes corrected or would you rather have a good conversation uninterrupted by the teacher because of small mistakes?
Bye,
Chris