RULE ADAPTATION PROBLEMS IN THE COURSE OF MISTAKE CORRECTION (BASED ON A PROFESSIONALLY ORIENTED ENGLISH GRAMMAR COURSE AT UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The paper focuses on a vital issue faced by the English teachers regarding correcting grammatical mistakes, which involves not only identifying, correcting and commenting on mistakes, but also producing a valid and relevant grammar rule, usually modified and different from the prescriptive grammar books. Though this process of correcting mistakes may seem primitive, the research shows that problems arise at the initial stage of mistake identification and tend to have a snowball effect and result into communicative failures if not properly addressed. The main research methods employed are observation, question and answer sessions and written work screening. A total of 243 second-year students’ written samples (tests, quizzes, homework exercises) with formulated grammar rules over the period of 2018-2021 as well as their oral answers in class have been analyzed. First all of all, the reasons for the students’ inability to spot and correct grammatical mistakes are ignorance of the grammatical rules and their inability to matchconf2022@iseic.cz mistakes with a particular grammatical principle. The second reason is students’ lack of experience in grasping concepts from English grammar textbooks for teaching schoolchildren. Finally, faulty correction of mistakes is put down to lack of skills to synthesizing grammatical information. To overcome these problems, exercises on grammar rules from authentic textbooks of varying complexity, critical discussions on student presentations aimed at correcting grammar mistakes and introducing the corresponding rules, and role-plays where the aspiring teachers must respond to the students’ answers and correct their mistakes are suggested.