This is the fourth in our series of mini-articles aimed at helping language learners become aware of their own learning processes and judge which teaching approach works best for them. The articles are written in plain language without jargon so that the latest discoveries in the field are accessible to everyone without distinction.

Research shows that while parents often respond to the semantic content of what their children say (“No, that’s not a puppy; it’s a cow”), they rarely respond to the grammatical state of their children’s sentences. In fact, when parents respond to speech errors, they often respond positively.

This shows that in natural communication only the errors of meaning that make communication difficult are corrected.

However, as we saw in our previous mini-articles, this does not prevent children from acquiring a perfect command of the language in a relatively short period of time.

There are clear implications here for second language teaching. In the light of current research, we can say that teachers should only deal with these errors so as not to create a negative atmosphere. They should correct only those types of mistakes that impede communication, not just each and every mistake the child makes.

Unfortunately, modern classrooms do not reflect this type of practice. Second language teachers have a tendency to overteach context-free grammar (which is NOT natural communication) as well as to overcorrect students; thus creating a negative atmosphere in which some students may be afraid to express themselves for fear of being corrected

This results in students losing fluency as they generally try to analyze the rules and grammar before saying something, to avoid being “punished” for being wrong.