IF YOU WANT TO:
Correcting students' diction, grammar, logic, and pronunciation promptly but in a constructive way.
One history teacher says, "Some faculty believe that as long as students talk, a discussion is going well. I believe that poor speaking is like poor writing; it should not be ignored but corrected immediately." She points out that students have few enough opportunities to learn how to argue, to reason, and to discuss issues intelligently. "Seminars should focus on the development of those skills as well as on course content," she says.
"If a student makes an error of fact or logic, mispronounces a word, uses words incorrectly or deals in malapropisms, I immediately correct him or her by rephrasing what they have said. I don't say, `What you said is wrong,' but I do say something like, `I think that what you said might be better phrased as...'"
A professor of French also believes in promptly correcting students' errors. "It's important to establish rapport and a good class atmosphere so that the students are not upset by criticism," he notes. "I do this in several ways. I correct them in a joking manner (laughing with them not at them); I correct them in mock outraged fury; I correct them constantly so they see it as a normal function of the class."
Limitations on Use of Suggestion
Copyright 1983 by the Regents of the University of California