The interlanguage hypothesis stresses that errors are a normal part of the language learning process. At the same time, in the view of many, the teacher has a responsibility to provide short cuts for the learner through appropriate corrective feedback. Conventionally, this has been taken to imply correction of expression by requiring repetition of the desired form. However, the teacher's insistence on grammatical accuracy may set up a conflict with the student's own search for communicative efficiency. Parents correct the content of their young children's speech in ways that respect the children's attempts at communication. Teachers might formalize techniques such as expansion and paraphrase from the correction procedures of parents, particularly when the student's attempts at communication are all intelligible but still deviant at times. It is suggested that the most promising way of getting students to accept precision as a worthwhile goal, without denigrating their achievement in establishing some sort of communicative competence, is to adopt a functional approach that shows how grammatical form contributes to meaning. (Author/AMH)