When might we shy away from correcting student errors?
I’ve listed some possible answers below. Whilst you look through them, you might want to ask yourself which you consider to be good reasons not to correct.
when the teacher’s involvement would interrupt the flow of a group activity or pairwork
when correcting the error is significantly beyond the student’s current capabilities in English, or involves a grasp of the language they are not yet close to achieving
when the error was a slip of the tongue
when your student’s mistake shows they don’t understand a language point you have planned to work on another day
when the focus of the lesson is on listening or reading comprehension, not on accuracy in spoken English
when the error is fossilised, your student is aware of the problem, and drawing attention to it would only frustrate them
because correcting spoken English just doesn’t seem right
because we are worried that correcting a student’s spoken errors in front of their peers will knock their confidence
when we lack confidence in our own grammatical knowledge and competence, and fear being found out
because we are tired that day and don’t want to take on the responsibility of correction