There are basically two different attitudes to errors made by people learning languages other than their own.Probably most teachers regard mistakes as undesirable，a sign of failure either on the students'part to pay attention or‘to listen properly’，or else on the teacher's part to make his meaning clear or to give the students sufficient time to‘practise’what they have been taught.But on the other hand，there is an Italian proverb“sbagliando s'impara（We learn through our errors）”and making mistakes can indeed be regarded as an essential part of learning.In many traditional language classes，students have been made to feel that errors bring discredit on the teacher and learner alike and have been reprimanded for making too many errors.This implies that errors are the fault of the student and could be avoided.

Many people will agree that one of the most inhibiting factors in any formal learning situation is the fear of making mistakes and being thought ridiculous either by native speakers，one's classmates or by the teacher.This leads to the characteristic hesitancy among learners to say anything in a foreign language for fear of appearing a fool.This form of behavior has been described by Earl Stevick（1976：40）as‘defensive learning’.The learner is not so much concerned with attempting to express what he would like to say，either orally or in writing，as rather with saying what he thinks he can without making mistakes.The actual substance of the message is relegated to second place while the learner concentrates on the‘correct’form of what he is trying to say.‘Will I get the accent right？’‘Is that the right adjective for that place？’As anyone who has broken through this barrier will have discovered，there is seldom one right form in any case；there is much more likely to be a number of alternatives.But how many of us as teachers can honestly say that we have encouraged our students to experiment and to think of alternative ways of putting what they want to say？How often does one hear the statement‘I'm bad at languages’？And yet everybody in the world has learnt one language very well：his or her own.If we can all learn a language as infants but find second language learning so difficult，then maybe it is the teaching methods that are at fault.Some good pedagogical reasons have been suggested for regarding errors made by learners of a foreign language leniently，but the most important reason is that the error itself may actually be a necessary part of learning a language.