Helping Ss Feel Safe (Part 2)

[Kaylene]

Do your Ss feel a freedom to make mistakes in your classroom? Do they know that if they make mistakes, it won't kill them? You may have to tell them directly that making mistakes is OK...

"WHAT??" you may ask. "Miss Kaylene, what do you mean it's okay for my Ss to make mistakes?? I want their English to improve so they should be getting better and better all the time! There should be few errors--this is the true sign of progress!"

If this is your objection, I am afraid I have to disagree with you. Many language educators strongly believe it is only by making mistakes (and usually many mistakes!) that a person will be able to overcome the challenge of learning a foreign language successfully. In fact, where your Ss are (the first several years of their language study and exposure) is a critical time when more big mistakes will probably be made--but the fastest amount of progress is also possible!

So, when you think about the atmosphere of your classroom, ask yourself if you are helping your Ss to know that:
1) making mistakes is natural, okay, and healthy;
2) mistakes are only negative if we never learn something from them;
3) you want to help correct at least some of their mistakes because you love them and you want their English skills to improve;
4) you and the other students will not treat them in a bad way if they make a mistake during the class

If we can show our students that we don't hate them or their mistakes, but that we want to use their mistakes to help the whole class grow, we can have a more encouraging classroom atmosphere where Ss are less afraid to try and speak/write in English.

~~Miss Kaylene~~