"Imprinting errors in your brain?" The case for corrected written homework!

I think about this concept a lot. That once someone understands the meaning of what you say, you use that particular expression going forward even if it's not the best linguistically. I see this a lot with non-native English speakers here in DC. A person can understand every word a native speaker says, but has 'imprinted' non-native language usage. I believe that much of it is inevitable, though.

Actually, given enough comprehensible input, one can learn to speak (and yes, write) grammatical Chinese, without any native speaker corrections. However, you might not be able to explain why it's grammatical. For that, learning about the language through prescriptive intervention might prove helpful (or at least interesting). There's no evidence that it will aid acquisition, though.

xiaodai, I am convinced that correction is a shortcut for an adult learner, as are grammer rules. But I cannot prove that. Are there any studies on that?

Henning, in your example, if you had written it on the Forum you probably would have gone back and corrected that error, optionally adding a note that it was edited to fix grammar, in order to prevent others stumbling. In the comments here, you could only add an additional comment about the error (if you wished to), which might appear a hundred comments down the page. People would still be learning your error and there's nothing you could do about it. That's why I regard uneditable comments as educationally unsound. Xiaodai, I really like the comprehensible input way of learning but there's a catch. Yesterday I was listening to a couple of Pimsleur Cantonese lessons where they keep asking the learner to generate similar sentences, saying "be careful about the word order", and as far as I can tell there are two very different patterns that are chosen arbitrarily. I'm going to have to consult a grammar book (not their intention!) or pick one pattern as my standard and settle for 50% incorrect. There's a danger in believing it's better for all students to work it out themselves, which it is, but you then must accept a duty to be there to catch those few who just don't get it at all, or worse, get it the wrong way round and "help" fellow students. For many teachers and courses, the cost of fulfilling that obligation is higher than their time budget allows.

Henning & Auntie Sue, There are studies suggesting that adult learners might be the best learners of second language. They bring to the table their world knowledge and the ability to extrapolate from it. This knowledge includes grammar and other linguistic information, all of which can be an aid in making input comprehensible. And while there are many ways to learn, and many different learning styles, there is only one way all learners acquire language: that's just the way our brains have evolved.