Is your language exchange partner an incompetent fudge?

[Serpent]

Great post!
I'm asking everyone who disagrees with the examples not to derail the thread further. I disagree with one too

Instead, let's try to go back to the original topic Do you prefer descriptive or prescriptive tutors, and why? How to spot a tutor that's incompetent or doesn't match your needs?

[tarvos]

As a tutor myself who has to teach English and Dutch on a daily basis I would prefer a more descriptive tutor, but that is not to say that prescriptive elements shouldn't exist. I don't see a problem with "Can I" for "May I", I allow split infinitives, and in ordinary speech I'll give a lot of leeway to things most tutors would be a little bit more frightened of. Even more modern usages like "because" as a preposition, I'm okay with that sort of thing if people understand it's an informal, personal register that they are using that in.

I would really prefer to think that a tutor who has no idea of register isn't good at his or her job - part of people's job is to teach what language is used in what kind of situation, and register is a part of that.

Now when it comes to job applications I think that's a very iffy area and I would be inclined not to care about things such as vegetarianism, body art and so on but I know many older people find this important. I am well aware of what it means to be representative (I work as a TEACHER) but I think we also need to realize that part of the way we are and look isn't really up to old-fashioned societal norms. I, as a teacher, don't sport visible body modification for example but I am quite upset that people think it should be a criterion for hiring me. Now my English and teaching skills are quite relevant so I think my experience and linguistic ability (i.e. the way I write my cover letters and CV) should be written in good English (and even if I was a programmer or a scientist I would make that effort - things looking decent is always a good idea, because it shows care, and people like other people to take care of their stuff).

I haven't had many incompetent tutors, but tutors that don't match my needs are rife. This has more to do with personal chemistry.

[kimchizzle]

I think both types of tutors can be very beneficial because essentially each one is helping you improve your understanding of a different aspect of the language.

The prescriptive tutor can be extremely beneficial to the beginner student and also the student want to learn a formal and academic register. The reason I think prescriptive tutor is so good for beginners is that it gives the student a really solid foundation of grammar, they are drilled what is right and what is wrong a lot and so this helps them going forward in their studies.

A descriptive tutor is really beneficial for the more intermediate and advanced student. By this point the student has developed a good grasp of proper grammar, but they can learn the situations where those grammar rules can be bent or broken without it affecting their knowledge of how the grammar is supposed to be used in an academic or formal setting. This type of tutor can be very beneficial to teach students how the language is actually used in casual conversations and everyday life outside of an academic or formal setting. Many times a descriptive tutor for a student will simply be a native speaker who is their friend and who the student begins to copy their way of speaking in conversation and asks questions such as, "I learned you are supposed to say it like this in class, how come you say it like that?"

Often in the classroom, teachers tend to lean more towards the prescriptive in my experience which leads to students being able to communicate but a native speaker finds their way of talking in casual conversation very stiff and overly proper. I'm sure many of you have witnessed this before or it has happened to you.

I think it is best to start with a prescriptive tutor as a beginner and begin learning from a descriptive tutor once you have a better understanding of proper grammar. In my opinion, it is better to know the right way the grammar works first, then learn all the situations where you can get away with saying and writing things the "wrong" way later, instead of learning all the "wrong" ways first, then having to learn the correct grammar later.

Drawing an analogy from painting, most art teachers advocate a novice painter to learn the classical style of painting first, focusing more on realism of colors and shapes and also focusing on proper brush techniques, before the student learns impressionist styles. This way the painting student learns the proper techniques before learning the ways the rules of what they learnt can be broken.