There are some language teachers who thinks that it is better to concentrate on giving only positive feedback on a students’ achievement, despite criticizing on their failure. Since there are good reasons to both support and oppose this idea, I partially agree with the statement, considering both positive learning environment and drawbacks of only positive reinforcement.
Firstly, I agree, that teaching and learning new language requires positive and friendly environment where you can freely express your ideas and be open to new information. Of course, teachers’ attitude directly forms this atmosphere in the classroom. Imagine having grumpy, strict and aggressive teacher, who will penalize you for every mistake, and on the other hand, you have gentle and caring teacher that helps and supports you. Latter would be perfect for entering new language usage.
However, students should not be fooled by the view of only positive reinforcement, where teacher forgets to correct your mistakes, and make you feel that you do not have any. Since the main aim of studying new language, and having a teacher is to learn the language, using it incorrectly but with confidence is not enough. Teachers also should correct and criticize students’ mistakes and help them to overcome. Teaching without correction, based on only positive feedbacks, ignoring the mistakes is impossible.
In conclusion, considering that positive environment is necessary to learn new language, and it is important to maintain such atmosphere in the group, teachers and students should never forget about correcting and learning on mistakes. That is why, I think that teachers should do both, give positive feedbacks and criticize on student’s mistakes.