Mistakes during conversation

When you are teaching, think about what your priority is in the lesson. Is it letting your student speak more? Is it correction of mistakes? Is it simply sentence structure in the form of a light conversation?

Generally, students who decide to have a tutor, are students who already attend other regular ESL schools. They study following a strict curriculum where there is little or no time for conversation. As a result, these students start seeking more opportunity to have a conversation in English with someone who can correct them. The only possibility they have is to find an ESL tutor. You would probably ask why they do not meet native speakers and converse with them instead. Well, culturally, foreign students have lots of difficulties meeting native speakers due to many reasons: they are too shy, or they think their English is not good enough to have a conversation, they are afraid they may be laughed at, etc. That is where the the tutors play an important role of professionals who know how to cope with situations like that.

When you feel that your student is starting to gradually improve his confidence to speak to you, try not to correct him/her too much. Sometimes you will just need to let them speak. If you start correcting them all the time, even for the smallest mistake they make, you will interrupt their line of thought and even discourage them to speak further. So, try to be patient, if you notice an important mistake that you need to correct, take notes and address it after the conversation is over, or when you get a chance during the conversation. Perhaps, correcting mistakes is not priority # 1 at the moment...