Correcting ESL Students Part 2

Back in July I wrote about correcting ESL students and how many of my students tell me that they wish native English speakers would correct them. I tell these students that most Americans might think it's rude to correct an ESL speaker and we usually will not do it, unless asked. I advise my students to ask people to correct them; if the relationships is an appropriate one.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been taking a weekend class and I spend a lot of time with my fellow students. We have one student who is from Romania. Her English is very, very good. However, as with most ESL speakers, she has made a couple of English errors. The errors are consistent. I don't know if anyone else in my class has picked up the errors. (It's not a class related to English.)

Interestingly, I have experienced very strongly what I told my ESL students we Americans feel. I feel that it would be very, very rude for me to offer her some suggestions or corrections to her English. It's almost like I would never even dream of doing it.

So, I emphasize again, if you're an English language learner and you want native speakers to correct you, you must ask them to do so.

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