July 26, 2006

"How do you feel when you make a mistake?"


Many learners and teachers do their best in avoiding mistakes, when in fact we should like and welcome them. By analysing students´ mistakes teachers can observe how learning is taking place and this way through feedback help students reformulate their trials.

These are sentences taken from the book "Language Hungry" by Tim Murphey which can make us think about this topic:

"Mistakes are actually wonderful things; they can even help the learning process."

"If we´re not making mistakes, we´re not going anywhere" Gordon Forward

"Many people dream of success. To me success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection" Soichiro Honda

"If I make a mistake, it´s okay - I don´t have to be perfect."

If we want to learn English well, we have to see our mistakes as a necessary part of learning.

8 comments:

Nina Lyulkun said...

Hi Annamaria!

It's a good start.
The best of luck!

Nina

Illya said...

Great start to your blog!!! I'm really looking forward to reading more here :-)
Illya

Maria Claudia Bellusci said...

Dear Anamaria,
I think it's we adults who are more self-conscious about making mistakes. And we pass this fear on to students. If we were less worried about making mistakes, we (and our students too)would be more self-confident.
Warmly,
Claudia

Dennis said...

As you will know the term "interlanguage" replaced the expression "mistake" - as applied to language. I like the focus of the study of interlanguage. It's a study of the steps on the way to mastery. And these steps, interlanguage, are seen positively, a record of progress, whereas "mistake" is moralistic and means WRONG!

Dennis

Anonymous said...

hi ana maria!! when I make a mistake I feel sad, but I have to accept this because everybody makes mistakes and this is part of learning.


bye bye

Anonymous said...

hi ana maria!!!!
when I make a mistake I feel bad because I don't wanna to make mistakes but I try to learn with this because is part of life.

bye

Anonymous said...

I´d like to thank DĂ©bora and Alice, my first students to help me on this project.

Ana Maria

Anonymous said...

Hi Ana!
For me, to make a mistake is part of the learning process. From every mistake I learn how not to do it next time. I don't feel frustrated and sad because I'm always building up my knowledge.