Paradox: Understanding your students well may not be in their favor

Yes, it sounds like a paradox but it is true. As you progress in your tutoring career you will notice that you are getting used to all kinds of accents in English. With every new student, you will feel that you start missing some of the mistakes they make while speaking just because you understand them better.

It may sound alarming but you should not be too concerned about it if you identify the problem early and take precaution. There is a very simple solution and you as a professional should be able to master it. It is all about the mind and how it works. Everything that you repeat too often becomes a habit and you start taking it for granted. So train your hearing and attention by doing "attention drills" to recapture your students' mistakes and correct them on time. A fun and helpful way to do it is to change your attention focus so it is forced to be sharp. Every once in a while you can ask your students to do an exercise that concentrates specifically on pronunciation or sentence structure. That way you will fully concentrate on the mistakes they make. Exercises of this type will focus your attention too. I would suggest having these attention drills at least once a week. It is helpful for your student, it will bring variety into your teaching, and will make you more alert towards mistakes your students make.