MISTAKE OR DISSENT? THE COMMUNICATIVE BARRIER OF A TEACHER AND A STUDENT IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASS

In the process of mastering a foreign language, mistakes are natural. A student cannot independently perceive and recognize their own errors, which is why the teacher plays an important role in correcting them, whereas tact is important to prevent the loss of motivation for the subject. A wrong approach to dealing with errors often leads to communication barriers that contradict the learning goals. What is important is what happens in the students’ minds just before they make a false statement. The teacher may get the impression of a mistake made, while in some cases it is the lack of mutual understanding with the student due to a difference in the worldviews. The students’ language product can be alienated by the teacher due to the unawareness of the intention of the statement and misunderstanding its real meaning. To prevent such a distortion of meaning, it is important for the teacher to pay attention to the error and clarify the actual intention of the speaker. Of course, there is a difference between beginners and advanced students in regards to error correction. Students of the initial stage often make semantic errors that can be interpreted unambiguously. Students of the advanced stage possess linguistic, discursive, pragmatic and sociocultural competencies and have experience in communicating in a foreign language. Therefore, their choice of certain speech instruments is associated with the reflection of meanings filled with individual, authorial content.