Making mistakes in English
I read the article on why it is not alright to make mistakes in English. Mostly I agree, but I think you have to be very careful about what you want to say there.
Students that learn according to the 'communicative method' often end up in trouble around about the intermediate level whee they actually need the rules of the language to improve further.
However, there are lots of students who are afraid to speak because they are afraid of making mistakes. I can tell you this: everyone makes mistakes in a foreign language, and if your grammar is good, you may make mistakes in pronunciation, rhythm or whatever.
You should strive for the best accuracy possible, without worrying over making mistakes.
www.roadtogrammar.com
I think that people often make mistakes because they lose control.
Our brain controls our speach subconsiously - that's why drunk people make many different mistakes.
Although it is very unlikely that you will be able to go for days without making a single mistake, in my opinion, what's really important is to avoid internalizing your mistakes and to make sure you're aware of them. Fossilized errors can be really hard to unlearn. The process of fixing a bunch of mistakes you've been making all along is reminiscent of playing Whack-a-Mole. You spot a mistake, you "whack" it, and then another one comes up, and you "whack" it too, and then the one you just "whacked" comes up again.
What many people do when they're learning a second language is they go on translating in their head no matter how advanced they get, and they end up sounding "Babelfishy". For instance, my parents have been in Canada for about 7 years, and yet it seems that they haven't even learned the most basic rules of the language. I heard them say things like "You have car and you don't have car". Although they do realize they're making lots of mistakes, they just don't worry about correcting them because they're convinced that those mistakes don't affect comprehensibility. Even when their mistakes are brought to their attention, they don't bother fixing them because they think they're "part of their identity".
<<"You have car and you don't have car">>
anonymous2,
You never mentioned, what they actually meant to say.
That confused me.
Cheers,
Trust
They may mean to say "You have cars / a car" and "You don't have any car".
I think even native speakers started by making mistakes when they were babies. No one can pronounce correctly from birth because the tongue is an organ which must be trained somehow.
But I strongly agree that mistakes, while inevitable, must not be fossilized. The difference is whether you want to correct the mistake. Because most mistakes do not affect comprehensibility seriously and correction does take effort, people have all the reasons and motives not to correct mistakes.
Language is a matter of shame and pride. Native speakers are forced to speak like other people, because otherwise they will be laughed at and excluded. The sense of shame and the demand for recognition drives them to speak in a certain way.
For English learners, people usually do not laugh at mistakes because it may look like racism. Most of the time people have to pretend to understand and the learners really think that their English is okay.
If the learners cannot get a job, buy a movie ticket, order a pizza, make friends or other things because of mistakes, I am 100% sure that they will force themselves to correct those mistakes.
It was my father who said that. What he really meant was "Now I'm stuck with this lemon of yours".
hahaha, Aaron, that's hilarious! I had fun visiting that website.
Although making mistakes is an integral part of learning any language(and, of course, speaking it), therefore, it's natural and should not be considered something inadmissible as long as the speakers are ready to correct their mistakes.
I reckon making mistakes while learning a second language is part of the process. When a kid is modelled wrongly he will imitate the wrong structure, word, pronunciation, spelling, etc., and the mistake is quite likely to fossilize. When an adult is learning he tends to translate and mistakes can be seen in the way chunks of words are used, problems with collocation or conjugation are rather common.
How to avoid those flaws? For little children, serve as a perfect model and for grown ups, give them time to get structures, drill them and then have them through an endless period of trial and error, after they get conscious of how they are using the language. In the end, some mistakes won't ever be corrected but still communication will be achieved.