What kind of correction do you prefer from a teacher?

First post!

I've taken well over 1000 language lessons online, so I've had a wide variety of teachers, and experienced a lot of different teaching styles. I study aspect of a language except for conversation by myself, so when I talk to a teacher I just want a casual chat. I state my preferences when I request a lesson, and let the teacher decide if they are comfortable teaching me. I type "I'd like a 100% L2 conversation, no corrections and no fixed topics, if possible."

Stating "no corrections" causes concerns with some teachers. Some even try to draw me into a debate about learning styles before they have even accepted the class. That being said, I haven't had a single person reject my class because I ask for no corrections. Unfortunately, some teachers forget when we finally have our class, and some will even try to debate me again during our class time, Gasp!

It's a very small percentage of teachers who oppose my method like this; maybe 1%. But many others would prefer to correct me. I've explained why I do it this way, but regardless of my reasons most people disagree with me. That's the nice thing about one-on-one classes. I am the boss, and as long as the teacher agrees beforehand, they are required to do things my way.

Rather than explain why I don't get corrected in my lessons, and losing the argument again, I'd like to hear from you. Do you ever take online, one-on-one classes? What kind of corrections, if any, do your prefer?

I think it's important to ask upfront how the learner wants to be corrected ... I have spoken online with some people who want to be corrected as they speak but i find this can get in the way especially with a real begginer how can you get a sentence out if you are corrected every other word and this can also lead to a lack of confidence in the language you are practicing. One way around it is to have a lesson have the teacher ,make notes of corrections then agree to start each lesson with a quick lookover what mistake their were laast time see if the student can see where they went wrong by themselves as often you sleep up translating as you go in a new language and a lot of students know thier mistakes.

Here in Spain my neighbours listen to me and correct me afterwards or politely ask me if i meant xyz? and I realise my mistake.

If I was your teacher I would respect your wish not to be corrected. In a way it is even easier to teach if you don't have to correct your students. :) 

I agree though that you don't necessarily need to correct everything a student says in a wrong way, but maybe just mistakes that a students makes repeatedly. However, I would not interrupt a student while speaking.

Personally I like to be corrected. Whether I need a long explanation or not depends on a mistake that I make. If it is a small mistake and I know the rule already, then I don't need a long explanation. But if it is a mistake that I make repeatedly, and I think I am speaking correctly, then maybe I would need an explanation. It happened to me that I said a word in a wrong way for YEARS and only after 6 years or so my husband finally corrected me.

I agree it is not fair to interrupt when someone is trying language learning is difficult enough 

How many languages do you speak Leo 100s of lessons in what ? I'm curious

This is the first time I've ventured into online learning for languages but I have taken some classroom lessons before and always found correction to be best when it encourages the learner to figure out for themselves what the error was and think about how they could construct the sentence better.

I agree with Jade too, I think it's best to ask the learner in advance how they wish to be corrected. If the other participant in the conversation can understand what the learner is saying I think it can be affirming for a learner to continue with the conversation uninterrupted and gain confidence that way. With perhaps just the most important errors pointed out afterwards. 

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

How many languages do you speak Leo 100s of lessons in what ? I'm curious

I speak 10 languages (all the ones on my list). 

Learning should be fun and interactive, not authoritative. You teach not to impress but to express. I definitely love my teachers who actively involve us (their students) in the discussion. Just enumerating the do's and don'ts is boring.