I highly recommend that you....

[Silverobama]

I said the following thing to a friend of mine who's studying this language. She believes that she can improve her spoken English once she speaks English every day. However, I don't think so because she's not a native speaker and no one corrects her mistakes. So I suggested her:

I highly recommend that you write down some potential mistakes when you're practicing speaking English and then ask for corrections from native English speakers.

Is my italic sentence natural?

"When she practices speaking English she will make mistakes and she should write them down and then ask native speakers for help".

Edited: change colors of the font.

 

[tedmc]

How would learners know what their "potential mistakes are when they speak? It is for natives speakers to tell learners their mistakes by listening to them and correcting them.

 

[Silverobama]

How would learners know what their "potential mistakes are when they speak? It is for natives speakers to tell learners their mistakes by listening to them and correct them.

I don't know if you speak English but if you do, I don't think your English is perfect because you're not a native speaker, even native speakers make mistakes. Am I right?

I want to say that learners should have the realization or know that they might make mistakes and they need to write these "potential" mistakes down and seek help from native speakers.

I've been doing this for more than 10 years.

 

[emsr2d2]

Like tedmc, I don't see how one can possibly know what one's mistakes might be before they've been pointed out by a teacher or native speaker. The closest I can get to your meaning is my own example - I speak pretty good Spanish but I'm terrible at the verb endings for any tense other than the present simple/present perfect. If I were speaking to a Spanish speaker, I might preface the conversation by saying "I'm really sorry but I'll probably get loads of verb endings wrong!" Is that the sort of thing you mean? If so, I don't really understand how writing down "I get lots of verb endings wrong" is going to help me. What I need to do is very clear - I need to study harder!

 

[Silverobama]

I appreciate your help, emsr2d2. Your example is definitely a good one. I'm not a native speaker and I've never studied abroad. I learned English in China so there must be many unidiomatic expressions in my speech. This is my point. Even though I'm fluent in speaking English but there are many mistakes in my expressions. I've spent 10 years here and elsewhere to correct these mistakes and now I make far less mistakes when speaking English.

However, there are still many people learning English in China from unreliable sources and they're speaking unnatural English. They don't correct the mistakes in their speeches. But the one who I made suggestions to was a person who loves English. So I suggested that she could try to find out some mistakes in her expressions when she spoke English.

Also, you speak pretty good Spanish, but it doesn't mean that your expressions are all natural. Well, I don't think this example fits because you might learn from native Spanish speakers while we don't, we learn from teachers of English but they're Chinese.

What can I say instead to suggest her if it doesn't make much sense to ask her to find out or notice her mistakes?

 

[emsr2d2]

I appreciate your help, emsr2d2. Your example is definitely a good one. I'm not a native speaker and I've never studied abroad. I learned English in China so there must be many unidiomatic expressions in my speech. This is my point. Even though I'm fluent in speaking English but there are many mistakes in my expressions. I've spent 10 years here and elsewhere to correcting these mistakes and now I make far less fewer mistakes when speaking English.

However, there are still many people learning English in China from unreliable sources and they're speaking unnatural English. They The teachers don't correct the mistakes. in their speeches. But the one person who I made the suggestions to was is a person someone who loves English no full stop here so I suggested that she could try to find out some mistakes in her expressions when she spoke spoken English.

Also, you speak pretty good Spanish, but it doesn't mean that your expressions are all natural. Well, I don't think this your own example fits is the same because you might have learned from native Spanish speakers while we don't; we learn from teachers of English but they're Chinese.

What can I say instead to suggest to her instead if it doesn't make much sense to ask her to find out or notice her mistakes?

Please note my corrections above. The part I have underlined in the quote is the part I'm trying to get you to explain. Exactly how do you think she's going to find out where she's making mistakes?

I think it would be a great idea to invite this person to join the forum!

 

[Silverobama]

Please note my corrections above. The part I have underlined in the quote is the part I'm trying to get you to explain. Exactly how do you think she's going to find out where she's making mistakes?

I think it would be a great idea to invite this person to join the forum!

I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time on this issue, emsr2d2. I came up with two methods to solve this problem.

1) I'll use your suggestion and ask her to join the forum. Is my invitation natural?
There are some online good language forums with professional English teachers helping people to learn English there. Would you like to check them out?
(Then I'll send her the links.)

2) I wonder if I can say the following to myself because I know I make mistakes.
I usually write down some potential mistakes when practicing speaking English and then ask for corrections from native English speakers.

 

[emsr2d2]

1) I'll use your suggestion and ask her to join the forum. Is my invitation natural?
There are some online good language forums with where professional English teachers and native speakers helping help people to learn English. there. Would you like to check them out?
(Then I'll send her the links.)

2) I wonder if I can say the following to myself because I know I make mistakes.
I usually write down some potential mistakes when practising speaking English and then ask for corrections from native English speakers.

1. Your invitation is grammatically correct with my changes, but it's very formal. I'd say "I belong to a couple of really good English language forums. I'll send you the links and you can see if you fancy joining".

2. You're not clearing up my confusion. How on earth can you identify your own potential mistakes before you've made them? Give me an example of exactly what you would write down.

 

[Silverobama]

2. You're not clearing up my confusion. How on earth can you identify your own potential mistakes before you've made them? Give me an example of exactly what you would write down.

Sorry, emsr2d2. I actually tried my best to clear up your confusion but it seems that I failed.

I think when I said "potential mistakes", I wasn't using the phrase correctly or I probably used an incorrect phrase. But here's a very good example.

You corrected some mistakes in my invitation and when I was writing it down, I knew there were a few mistakes but I didn't where they were. So I wrote it here and asked you for your help.

Also, in my previous threads there are sentences in each of them, I actually jogged down those sentences and then I asked them here and elsewhere because I knew there were not natural. Well, if this concept is still confusing you. I'll just use your suggestion, inviting her and others who love this language here to learn.

 

[emsr2d2]

Sorry, emsr2d2. I actually tried my best to clear up your confusion but it seems that I failed.

I think when I said "potential mistakes", I wasn't using the phrase correctly or I probably used an incorrect phrase. But Here's a very good example:
You corrected some mistakes in my invitation. and When I was writing it down, I knew there were a few mistakes but I didn't know where they were no full stop here so I wrote it here and asked you for your help.

Also, in my previous threads there are sentences in each of them, that I actually jogged jotted down those sentences and then I asked about them here and elsewhere because I knew there they were not natural. Well, if this concept is still confusing you, I'll just use your suggestion, inviting her and others who love this language here to learn.

And there's the rub. You didn't know where your mistakes were until we pointed them out. That's the flaw in your plan. You can't ask someone to make a note of their "potential mistakes" if they have no idea what mistakes they might be making. All they know is that there are probably some mistakes in their text/speech.