[Online TESOL] Question 2, and 6 in module 7

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Question 2 was to find the sentence that is not true.
I was little bit confused with the statement 1,2
'Teachers are afraid of their students making mistakes' and 'Student's errors are a sign of failure'
I chose number1 but the answer was number2 'Student's errors are a sign of failure'
Strickly speaking, if a student use certain grammer incorrectly, that means that the student doesn't understand the use of that grammer so this could be a sign of failure of the understanding.
I don't understand why teachers are afraid of their students making mistakes. They are students so naturally they make mistakes and through these mistakes, they can learn more and better.

And for the question 6, "Correcting every written mistake that a student makes can be very discouraging"
I thought this was not true. Of course correcting every spoken mistake could be discouraging but we're talking about written mistake. Teacher should correct the written mistakes unless they don't know if they made a mistake or not. Personally, when I learn English in academy, my written essays were all corrected and it helped me a lot.

Could you explain it to me please?

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Date 16-04-16 19:14

Hi Eun Sil Seo,

Well, let's take a look your questions!

In regards to question 2 I truly do understand your point. However, the first statement, "[t]eachers are afraid of their students making mistakes" I have found, over time, that this is true, and mostly when it comes to new teachers who have not been teaching for a long time. This is a general truth, and does not apply to all teachers. In regards to the second point, "[s]tudent's errors are a sign of failure", I understand what you are saying, but I believe it is the wrong kind of mentality to have. We should see mistakes not as a sign of failure, but as a signpost pointing us in the direction of where we should focus our student's attention. That is why the second statement is false.

As for question 6, I think this answer makes more sense than the previous one. Of course you would like it if your teacher corrected every single written mistake, but this is time consuming for the teacher, possibly discouraging for students, and sometimes even counter-productive. Now in your case this is a good thing, and that's fine, but we need to keep in mind that some students, especially younger students, are quite sensitive and can find red marks all over their paper that they spent a lot of time and effort completing, to be quite discouraging. This is a general truth, and does not apply to all people. However, more importantly, while it is our job to correct student's mistakes sometimes, it is often better to guide students and help them correct themselves. A teacher should not ignore a mistake, this is true, but sometimes it is far better to underline a mistake, and thus indicate to the student that they have made a mistake, and then hopefully they will correct themselves. This gets students to find their own answers, it is more memorable, and they will be less likely to make that mistake again in the future. That is why the answer is true.

Anyhow, with all that being said, I do understand your logic, and it is okay for you to question the validity of these answers. Keep in mind that TESOL is not a science, and while a lot of the ideas taught in the course truly do make logical sense, there will be some ideas that you will disagree with, and that is completely fine. Moreover, this may be due to a cultural difference, which is quite interesting. Ultimately though, every individual teacher will have to decide for themselves what practices make sense both for them and their students. I think these two questions would be better if they were written questions, because then you could have explained your logic, and I probably would have given you full marks. Unfortunately they are not, but I applaud you for you tackling them.

Anyhow, I hope this helps, and I wish you a happy weekend!

Hi Eun Sil Seo,

Well, let's take a look your questions!

In regards to question 2 I truly do understand your point.  However, the first statement, "[t]eachers are afraid of their students making mistakes" I have found, over time, that this is true, and mostly when it comes to new teachers who have not been teaching for a long time.  This is a general truth, and does not apply to all teachers.  In regards to the second point, "[s]tudent's errors are a sign of failure", I understand what you are saying, but I believe it is the wrong kind of mentality to have.  We should see mistakes not as a sign of failure, but as a signpost pointing us in the direction of where we should focus our student's attention.  That is why the second statement is false.

As for question 6, I think this answer makes more sense than the previous one.  Of course you would like it if your teacher corrected every single written mistake, but this is time consuming for the teacher, possibly discouraging for students, and sometimes even counter-productive.  Now in your case this is a good thing, and that's fine, but we need to keep in mind that some students, especially younger students, are quite sensitive and can find red marks all over their paper that they spent a lot of time and effort completing, to be quite discouraging.  This is a general truth, and does not apply to all people.  However, more importantly, while it is our job to correct student's mistakes sometimes, it is often better to guide students and help them correct themselves.  A teacher should not ignore a mistake, this is true, but sometimes it is far better to underline a mistake, and thus indicate to the student that they have made a mistake, and then hopefully they will correct themselves.  This gets students to find their own answers, it is more memorable, and they will be less likely to make that mistake again in the future.  That is why the answer is true.

Anyhow, with all that being said, I do understand your logic, and it is okay for you to question the validity of these answers.  Keep in mind that TESOL is not a science, and while a lot of the ideas taught in the course truly do make logical sense, there will be some ideas that you will disagree with, and that is completely fine.  Moreover, this may be due to a cultural difference, which is quite interesting.  Ultimately though, every individual teacher will have to decide for themselves what practices make sense both for them and their students.  I think these two questions would be better if they were written questions, because then you could have explained your logic, and I probably would have given you full marks.  Unfortunately they are not, but I applaud you for you tackling them.

Anyhow, I hope this helps, and I wish you a happy weekend!

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