How to learn from mistakes?

Question

I write many short articles in french on routine topics such as school, house, hobbies etc. I am a beginner. I post them on langcorrect and writestreak(on reddit) and get a lot of useful, constructive and helpful feedback by people who are fluent in the language. I read and understand their corrections. However, I struggle to incorporate those corrections into my language. How do I make sure that once I get a correction to a mistake, I don't make that same mistake again? I see that even after I read the correction and understand it, after sometime when writing, I make a similar or same mistake despite having it corrected in my previous work. How do I stop this?

Answer 1

Probably a familiar problem for many learners.

I think there are several key elements here:

• Understand the mistake: if there is a more general grammar rule behind it, then there is no point to remember the mistake itself, but rather revise the rule and apply it more consistently. It makes sense to focus on the mistake itself, only if it appears to be very specific, like a figure of speech or set phrase or a false friend.
• One obviously internalizes better the situations that occur frequently. If some turn of speech occurs rarely, one is indeed likely to forget its correct form. A solution could be to use it intentionally in your speech, at least a few times after you were pointed the mistake. Also, it might help to use it in situations where you are not under pressure, i.e., where you can focus on speaking correctly (rather than on the content of what you say or having to answer quickly.)
• Accept that interlanguage fossilization is a real thing - sometimes it is just too late in the learning process to fix the basic mistakes. In any case, one never acquires the native fluidity, level of grammar and richness of vocabulary in a second language (even though some people do better than others, and there are examples of foreigners joining the Academie Français.)