You can only learn from your mistakes if you
are made aware of them - otherwise the wrong way of saying something
becomes ingrained. Therefore, it is very important that you ask
your eTandem partner to correct your mistakes.
Please remember in this regard that your eTandem
partner is not a language teacher. He will usually not be able to
explain grammatical rules to you, just as you might find this difficult
to do in your native language.
However, you can both say with a good deal of
certainty if a sentence in your language is correct or incorrect
and how you would express something yourself.
In eTandem, each learner determines what he wants
to learn and how. Regarding corrections, this means:
It is your responsibility to let your eTandem partner know what
and how he should make corrections for you (e.g. by marking
spelling mistakes with an *, paying particular attention to verb
forms or pronunciation, etc.).
You should only correct what your partner wants you to correct.
Here are some concrete tips:
Pay attention to the indirect corrections your partner
makes: if he expresses the same thing to you in a different way,
you may have used an incorrect or clumsy form.
Written eTandem
(e-mail, letters, instant messaging, etc.)
If you have a text from your eTandem partner in front of you
and can read it as many times as you would like, then it is often
tempting to want to correct all of the mistakes. This is, however,
not only time consuming for the person making the corrections,
but it can also discourage the partner who is learning.
Therefore, ask your eTandem partner to concentrate on a certain
type of mistake or to correct a limited number (for example, 8-10)
of mistakes, the ones he considers most important.
If you have the opportunity, use the telephone for making corrections:
this allows for more thorough explanations and follow-up questions
and usually saves time.
Oral eTandem
(telephone, video conferencing, etc.)
With oral tandem, your partner has to pay attention to what
you are saying and how you are saying it simultaneously - and
this is not always easy. Also, you can easily get used to mistakes
and then not hear them.
Perhaps your partner does not like to interrupt you, thinking
it might upset you. Or he plans to bring the mistakes you make
to your attention afterwards - but this rarely works.
If you wish to be corrected more, you should make a point of encouraging
your partner to do so.
Some mistakes are already automatic: you really know how to
say it correctly, but in a conversation you make the same mistakes
again and again.
These mistakes especially - wrong pronunciation and incorrect
sentence structure, for example - can be put right if they are
consistently brought to your attention.
Corrections do not necessarily need to interfere with the flow
of conversation. You will quickly learn to pay attention to your
partner's corrections and to correct them immediately.
