Hi Dennis and all,

last night I was pleasantly surprised- my internet connection was great and I managed to view Richard Gallen's whole workshop.

Undoubtedly, it has given me a lot of food for thought. There are definetly points on which I agree with him, but I think there is a lot to consider in his particular case.

For example, as he himself said, he was an upper-intermediate student already fluent in the language. He acquired the language through living and working in a Spanish speaking environment. He considers his fluency as in a way false, because while he speaks fluently he is not speaking precisely but rather beating about the bush in an attempt to explain a missing word.

Honestly speaking, this is exactly what I am trying to make my pre-intermediate students do. If they can't come up with the word they need, try and expalin it. I believe, that at this level, this is a good way of practicing vocabulary, sentence structure and the general ability to bring forth your ideas.

Also, we must take under consideration the fact that he is a language teacher and a pretty motivated one, both as a tutor and as a student. Therefore, his needs are somewhat different from those of the average student.

I agree on the methods of correction he presented. I also take notes of the mistakes and discuss them with my students , regardless of the age, but usually after they have finished speaking. I agree that sometimes it is better to make the correction right away because this way the student will continue his speech using the corrected expression. At the same time, I believe that interrupting a student for correction is a delicate matter and it must be done with great discretion, especially when it comes to dealing with our age group - teenagers . They are already so sensitive to any form of criticism. Imagine your teenage classes; just as you have menaged to get them going on some activity, you start correcting every mistake they make ( as Richard specifically asked his tutors to do in his case). I have had student's of mine ask me to do that, but in every case, they were adults and quite advanced in their studies.

My experience in working with considerably younger students, struggling in a non native environment, has taught me that the way to achieve good results is through a lot of encouragment and gentle corrections only when absolutely necessary.

Finally, I think we are dealing with two very different goals: Richard was looking for perfecting his language and we are trying to help our students take off, metaphorically speaking, in using the language.

Guys, I'd really like to hear other opinions on the subject.

best, iskra

HI, Helen,

I am so happy to have this opportunity to talk and share with you and other colleagues here, on line, because I can't talk to anybody "in the staff room":(:(:(:( My colleagues are very friendly and are always nice to me, but every time I have tried to start this type of conversation the reaction is "I don't understand". The other foreign teacher, who is Australian, and I tried for a long time to participate more activelly in the school's planning activities. However, our presence at such a meeting necessitated the use of English and because our colleagues find it very difficult to speak English all the time, they simply prefer not to invite us. Finally, he just left, so now I am all alone)::):)

best, iskra

Hi All,

 I think that correction should be done when a learner study

language aspects:grammar,  pronunciation,vocabulary , and we can correct during

consolidation  of them before they are included into speech,

but not when they develop skills especially speaking, we can

correct skills also but after speaking not during while-speaking. Speaking is not only

combination of language aspects but also  it includes thoughts and a learner can forget

what he/she want to tell. Sometimes we kill desire of a learner to speak by our correction.

I don't think that  mistakes are not  SOS, though I know that I should develop accuracy also.

Anna,

It sounds to me as if you have found a sensible balance and practice in your classrooms.

Dennis