Grammatical Errors in Pre-service English Teachers’ Argumentative Essays and their Views Regarding Error Correction

Abstract

This study seeks to identify grammatical errors in argumentative essays written by prospective teachers of English as a foreign language in the fifth semester of college, determine whether students are aware of their mistakes, and discover their experiences with grammar instruction and error correction. We conducted an Error Analysis and contrasted results with a grammaticality judgment test (GJT) to assess students’ awareness of grammatical errors detected in their essays. Using mixed methods research, we compared results with a survey to discover the students’ views on English grammar learning and error correction. The most common errors were verb phrases, subject usage, clause patterns, prepositions, and verb patterns. Of these errors, prepositions, verbs, and clause patterns were the most problematic in the GJT. When characterizing grammatical errors and contrasting them with their judgments and opinions, we found that students did not overcome their most frequent mistakes, as they failed to identify and correct the same types of errors in the GJT applied one year later. Students are aware of their grammatical weaknesses since the contents considered the most challenging to learn coincide with those in which they perform worst on the test. Finally, students suggest alternative feedback strategies, including peer monitoring, to make their error correction process reflective.