Learn from Mistakes in Learning

English learners, especially beginners, usually think that they still have not got much progress after their certain years of learning. Again, they take a closer look at themselves to know if they have adequate ability to understand English. They would like to judge themselves if they were ‘eligible enough’ to learn English. In fact, it is the crucial stage of their learning, as their experience here will determine whether they continue the learning or just escape from it. Once they think that English is still affordable, they will continue the learning. But, if they judge that English is beyond them, they will end the learning with their long life perception that English is difficult. In this case, the role of the teacher to encourage them from being pessimistic is absolutely needed.

Some learners often worship a standardized of perfection of learning. They think that they must not make any mistakes in leaning. They are afraid of making any mistakes during their learning. This perception, of course, will result in psychological barrier to learners, as they would prefer to keep silent rather than be actively involved in the process of learning. They tend to do nothing to avoid of making mistakes. As a matter of fact, no learner can speak English without making any mistakes.

One of the teacher’s tasks is how they develop technique to encourage learners from the phobia of making mistakes. As making mistakes in learning is a natural phenomena, then the most important thing is now how to encourage these mistakes into ‘good mistakes’ when they learn to speak, experiment with new sentence structures and expand their vocabulary and writing. Being free from the phobia of making mistake will encourage learners to make much use of English in their daily lives.
A good mistake is logical error that makes sense that happens to be wrong. A child may think that 1+1 = 11. The answer is logical, but it is incorrect. He should know that 1+1 = 2. Anyway, his concept that 1+1= 11 is a good mistake. If learners end a letter with: I am looking forward to hear your reply, it is a logical mistake but they should have understanding that it should have been written as I am looking forward to hearing your replay. The role of the teacher is to confront this behavior. Making mistakes should not discourage them, but it should encourage them to learn from these good mistakes to correct language.

No matter how many good mistakes a learner may be facing, teacher should encourage English learners, in both conversation and writing classes, to make good mistakes. Learners should take as many as chances to put the language into practice. They should try something new, stretch their learning muscles, and have no more afraid of making good mistakes. A good mistake is also a mistake that we acknowledge and learn from to avoid repeating. A good mistake is not a good mistake if they have made it ten times before. One think that should be kept in mind is that we have to learn from a good mistake to be the right one and not repeat it. Repeated good mistakes will not be tolerated as good mistake any longer, as they now real mistakes.
So, learn from the mistakes but not to repeat the mistakes.
Regards,

the site keeper

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