Blunder

I'm really excited about how my BE students are keen on exploring the kind of autonomous learning I have outlined in the "Dear Learner" letter. They read and always proudly tell me how much reading they've done so far, they get themselves monolingual dictionaries, they choose movies we watch together... they take charge of their own learning!

I seem unable to steer clear of making inappropriate remarks now and then though and I'm afraid I made a bit of a blunder yesterday. The student produced a second-hand Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's dictionary and I, instead of bursting with praise for such a bold effort, set about to investigate when it was published as I'm aware that all pre-1990 dictionaries didn't draw on corpora analysis... Not really the most important thing for an intermediate student, is it? Oh well, I tried to backtrack and point out that it would definitely be of great use to him but the harm had been done.