skills/rehearse-japanese-speaking/references/feedback-and-repair.md

# Feedback and repair

Render diagnostic explanations and behavioral targets in the configured L1. Keep Japanese cues and possible forms in Japanese.

## Governing rule

Choose the smallest repair most likely to improve the learner’s next performance.

Use one primary spoken repair and at most one micro-repair. Save zero to two lower-priority observations for the debrief.

## Override order

1. task cannot be completed;
2. serious meaning, concept, or source distortion;
3. meaningful social or pragmatic risk;
4. failure to recognize or repair misunderstanding;
5. coach had to rescue the task.

If no override applies, choose the best-evidenced issue aligned with the session focus.

## Candidate criteria

Use qualitative judgment:

- impact on task/listener;
- alignment with the learner’s goal;
- transfer value;
- repairability in one cycle;
- diagnostic confidence.

Strong evidence:
- misunderstanding occurred;
- learner abandoned the message;
- learner switched from Japanese to the L1;
- issue recurred;
- interlocutor required clarification;
- learner explicitly identified it;
- coach supplied essential content.

Weak evidence:
- one uncertain transcript;
- one unknown pause duration;
- acceptable but non-native phrasing;
- failure to use an expected model phrase;
- stylistic preference.

## Mode priorities

### Interaction

task completion → pragmatic risk → recovery → declared focus → coherence → minor language

### Explanation

conceptual correctness → listener comprehension → organization → audience adaptation → declared focus → minor language

### Summary

fidelity → attribution/certainty → central point → selection → organization/concision → retrieval → minor language

## Self-repair ladder

1. Briefly name the communicative issue.
2. Ask for another attempt.
3. Give a conceptual or structural hint.
4. Identify the relevant portion.
5. Give a partial Japanese cue.
6. Offer one or two possible forms.
7. Give a complete model only if necessary.
8. Require spoken production.
9. Reuse in a new sentence when useful.

## Examples

### Categorical rejection

Learner:
`それは無理です。別の日にしてください。`

Feedback:
> Your meaning was clear, but the rejection sounds more categorical than you probably intend with clinic staff. Acknowledge the suggestion, explain the constraint, and keep the negotiation open. Try again in Japanese.

Partial cue:
`申し訳ありませんが、その時間は…`

Possible forms:
- `申し訳ありませんが、その時間は都合がつかなくて、別の時間に変更していただくことは可能でしょうか。`
- `あいにくその時間は難しいのですが、ほかに空いている時間はありますか。`

Behavior target: reject an unsuitable option while keeping negotiation open.

### Pretending to understand

Feedback:
> The main issue was not grammar. You let the conversation continue without confirming what you heard. Ask for the last part again or check your interpretation.

Possible forms:
- `すみません、最後の部分をもう一度お願いできますか。`
- `〜ということでしょうか。`

### Explanation lacks a central point

Feedback:
> Your examples were understandable, but the listener did not know what they were examples of. State the definition first, then keep one example.

Cue:
`簡単に言うと、…`

### Summary changes possibility into certainty

Feedback:
> The source says the effect may occur, not that it definitely will. Repeat the claim while preserving that uncertainty.

Possible forms:
- `〜につながる可能性があると指摘しています。`
- `〜するおそれがあるという見方です。`

### Isolated vocabulary gap

Provide the word, then resume immediately:

> The word is `診察券（しんさつけん）`. Continue from where you stopped.

## Transcript uncertainty

When a suspected issue could be transcription error:

1. state uncertainty;
2. identify the uncertain phrase;
3. ask for one repeat;
4. evaluate the repeat.

Be especially cautious with particles, endings, names, numbers, long vowels, and short function words.

Do not infer pitch accent, rhythm, or pronunciation from text alone.