Elementary learners attitudes towards peer correction in english writing at VUS center

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE ELEMENTARY LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS PEER CORRECTION IN ENGLISH WRITING AT VUS CENTER A research project submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL by PH M PHÚC KHÁNH MINH Supervised by PHÓ PHƯƠNG DUNG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JANUARY 2015 Table of Contents Abstract CHAPTER 1: Introduction CHAPTER 2: Literature review CHAPTER 3: Methodology CHAPTER 4: Results and discussion CHAPTER 5: Conclusions and recommendations 11 References 12 Appendices 15 Abstract It is known that teacher written feedback plays an important role in teaching writing skill By using a questionnaire, the study investigates elementary learners’ attitudes towards a particular technique of error correction in English writing – peer correction The questionnaire findings reveal that students have both positive and negative attitudes towards peer correction, depending on the role the students are playing For instance, when the students correct their friends’ writing, they tend to feel confident and excited; however, when the students have their writing corrected by their peers, they become unsure, worried, and scared to an extent Thus, the researcher suggests that peer correction should be applied in a proper way, with teachers’ careful supervision and monitoring Keywords: attitudes, peer correction INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study The importance of providing feedback to learners’ writing cannot be denied in the second language learning process The available literature shows that there are various ways to provide feedback that are commonly used in teaching a language: teacher correction (with comments), error identification, commentary, teacher-student conference, peer correction, and selfcorrection Peer correction has been discussed in first language settings (George, 1984; Jacobs, 1987; McKendy, 1990; Herrington & Cadman, 1991) Witbeck (1976) concluded that peer correction leads to a "greater concern for achieving accuracy in written expression in individual students and creates a better classroom atmosphere for teaching the correctional aspects of composition" (p 325) However, in most of the studies, the importance of feedback, ways of providing and receiving feedback as well as what the effect of feedback on students' writing are perceived as crucially significant aspects (Lee, 2005; Noora, 2006) What have been neglected in such studies are the attitudes of the learners and teachers towards error correction (Katayama, 2007) All of the above arguments have been a drive for this study to be conducted under the title of Elementary Learners’ Attitudes towards Peer Correction in English Writing at VUS Center 1.2 Aims of the study The study aims to investigate elementary learners’ attitudes towards a type of feedback – peer correction Then, the researcher will be able to find an appropriate way to apply peer correction into practice for better quality of learning and teaching activities 1.3 Research question The main question of this research is “What are elementary learners’ attitudes towards peer correction in English writing at VUS Center?” 1.4 Significance of the study There is considerable significance of this study in the English writing teaching activity at VUS Center Firstly by reading this study, teachers of English are expected to have a better view on learners’ attitudes towards peer correction Secondly, this study will help the teachers of English decide whether to use this feedback technique in teaching writing, hoping that this study will give a contribution to writing teaching and learning activities using peer correction approach Finally, it is expected that this study will be one of the references for other researchers in the same field to explore more deeply about learners’ attitudes towards peer correction 1.5 Scope of the study The study is carried out at VUS An Duong Vuong Center in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam The study only focuses on the attitudes of elementary learners towards peer correction in English writing Hopefully, the findings of the study will reflect the actual situation and help the researcher find out effective approaches to teaching English writing, using peer correction 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Language attitude Richards, Platt and Platt (1992) have defined learners’ attitudes as “the attitudes which speakers of different languages or language varieties have towards each other’s languages or their own language.” The authors have also emphasized that language attitudes may have an effect on second language learning, and the measurement of language attitudes provides useful information for language teaching and language planning Moreover, Nunan and Lamb (1996) have concluded that “the attitude of learners towards the target language, the learning situation and the roles that they are expected to play within that learning situation will have an important effect on the learning process.” In brief, language attitudes can be seen as the attitudes of learners towards a language and the learning situation of that language, which express the positive or negative feelings about the language learning process The importance of knowing learners’ attitudes cannot be neglected since learners may lose their language competence easily when possessing a negative attitude Hence, it is advisable for teachers to decrease the negative attitude of learners, and to promote their positive feeling with determination, courage and academic success 2.2 Peer correction In the early methods of language teaching, teachers were considered to be the sole source of knowledge However, the recent approaches and methods have emphasized on learners’ cognition and their autonomy With such a change, student-oriented techniques of error correction, such as peer correction has come up As a correction technique, peer correction has been backed by a lot of theories of language teaching According to Paul Rollinson (2005), the principles operating behind applying this technique are: Peer feedback is less threatening than teacher feedback because students are more comfortable with their classmates and therefore, getting corrected by own friends evokes less anxiety When correction comes from the teacher, it reinforces teacher’s authority In a traditional language class, the teacher is the authoritative figure and he/she is considered the sole source of knowledge Students play the role of just a passive receiver of information In contrast, the practice of peer feedback leads the classroom to be less dominated by the teacher The involvement of peers in the correction process makes the classroom atmosphere more supportive and friendlier Since peer correction offers opportunities to the students to be responsible for their own learning, it is also advocated by the practitioners who believe in learner autonomy Ágota Scharle and Anita Szabó (2000) have strongly suggested peer feedback to be applied for checking, especially, students’ written work They have provided an outline of how it can be applied in classroom; once students finish writing, the teacher gives one essay (or any written work) to each student and students are asked to evaluate each other’s work They correct the errors and send notes to the respective authors about what they have corrected In conclusion, there is evidence to consider peer correction as a technique which is a considerably “good thing” to in class Therefore, this study is conducted to acknowledge learners’ attitudes towards peer correction and to find a good way to apply this technique into practice 7 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research methods In conducting this study, the researcher used the descriptive method based on a designed questionnaire to collect data needed Elementary students whose ages range from twelve to seventeen at VUS English Center, which is a considerably popular English center, are selected and considered as the subject of the study All of the chosen learners have been practicing peer correction for a period of four lessons with the instruction and assistance from the teacher in charge On the next session, all of the students will be given a questionnaire to complete The questionnaires are to be collected afterwards and the data will be processed by using the SPSS 18 software 3.2 Participants and procedure For the population of this study, twenty one students in an elementary class at VUS English center were chosen During four lessons, the class will be practicing peer correction activity with the instruction and assistance from the teacher, following an outline from Ágota Scharle and Anita Szabó (2000); once students finish writing, the teacher gives one essay (or any written work) to each student and students are asked to evaluate each other’s work They correct the errors and send notes to the respective authors about what they have corrected The next stage is design for the learners to receive an attitude questionnaire which is designed to investigate their attitudes towards peer correction in English writing 3.3 Research tools Questionnaire is the central tool of this quantitative research through which questions are answered by participants In order for the questionnaire to be reliable and valid, it is important that the questions are constructed properly Questions should be written so they are clear and easy to comprehend Another consideration when designing questions is whether to include open-ended, closed-ended, partially open-ended, or rating-scale questions (Jackson, 2009) Advantages and disadvantages can be found with each type: Open-ended questions allow for a greater variety of responses from participants but are difficult to analyze statistically because the data must be coded or reduced in some manner Closed-ended questions are easy to analyze statistically, but they seriously limit the responses that participants can give Many researchers prefer to use a Likert scale because it is very easy to analyze statistically (Jackson, 2009, p 89) According to Jackson, it is important to emphasize that descriptive research methods can only describe a set of observations or the data collected It cannot draw conclusions from that data about which way the relationship goes Therefore, this study uses descriptive research tools and mainly describes the learners’ attitudes towards a correction activity which they have experienced 9 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The graph below presents the percentage of the learners’ attitudes when they had to correct their friends’ writing In details, 38.1% and 47.6% of the students felt excited and interested in doing peer correction with others’ writing respectively However, there were nearly 30% of the learners that felt either confident or unsure towards correcting their friends’ writing Surprisingly, only 4.8% of the participants felt worried when they had to practice peer correction; and none of them felt either bored or scared at all From the result presented, it can be concluded that when the learners had to correct their friends’ writing, most of them had positive attitudes, such as excitement, interest, and confidence Graph 1: When I correct my friends' writing, I feel: 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% No 50% Yes 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Excited Interested Confident Unsure Bored Worried Scared Similarly, the graph shows the learners’ attitudes when they had their writing corrected by peers There were 28.6% of the participants that felt interested but unsure and worried about this activity The percentage of confident attitude was 23.8%, and the number was below 20% for the attitudes of excitement or scare The similar attitude of the learners when they correct or were corrected is the boredom feeling, with 0% presented In brief, it can be stated that 10 when the students had their writing corrected by their peers, a small number of them had such positive attitudes as interest and confidence At the same time, they also felt more worried and scared Graph 2: When my friends correct my writing, I feel: 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% No 50% Yes 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Excited Interested Confident Unsure Bored Worried Scared As a result, it can be concluded that the participants in this research felt more confident when they corrected their friends’ writing than the other activity When they had their work checked and corrected, the learners felt more unsure and scared From this result, the researcher feels that teachers who want to apply peer correction need to give careful instructions to the learners in a detailed way In order to be certain and ensure the quality of the learning process, teachers should monitor this correction technique; for example, teachers should check the comments or the corrections from students so that they can modify the misunderstandings and avoid defective corrections Moreover, since the participants in this research are not fully developed cognitively and emotionally, it is suggested that peer correction should not be applied intensively in the classroom at this level 11 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Two general conclusions can be drawn from the findings of this study Firstly, attitudes towards peer correction are not either positive or negative The participants’ attitudes are significantly different when they were the correctors or were corrected by others The learners had a tendency to feel more positive when they correct their friends’ writing; but they felt scared and worried when they were corrected by peers Secondly, the fact that more than 90% of the learners considered the importance of teachers’ correction shows it is still the teacher’s main responsibility to correct learners’ mistakes As a result, it is suggested that peer correction should be applied in a modest and proper way, with the teacher’s careful monitoring Furthermore, due to the low level of the participants of this study, accurate findings with more detailed attitude manifestations cannot be drawn The attitudes towards peer correction thus are encouraged to be investigated with the larger population, in a different context and with a higher level of English proficiency of learners Word count: 1957 12 References Ágota, S., & Anita, S (2000) Learner Autonomy London: Cambridge University Press Ajzen, I (2001) Nature and operation of attitudes Annual Review of Psychology, 52 Baker, C (1988) Key issue in bilingualism and bilingual education Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Ltd Baker, C (1992) Attitudes and language Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Ltd Davies, P & Pearse, E (2002) Success in English teaching Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press De Guerrero, M C M., & Villamil, O S (1998) Assessing the impact of peer revision on L2 writing Applied Linguistics, 19(4) Diab, R L (2005) EFL university students' preferences for error correction and teacher feedback on writing TESL Reporter, 38, 27-51 From https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/spc/index.php/TESL/article/viewFile/3809/3555 Eagly, A H., & Chaiken, S (1993) The psychology of attitudes Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Ferris, D R (2003) Response to student writing: Implications for second language Britain: Routledge Gardner, R C., & Lambert, W E (1972) Attitudes and motivation in second language learning Rowley, Mass: Newburry House Gower, R., Phillips, D & Walters, S (1995) Teaching Practice Handbook London: Macmillan Heinemann Harmer, J (2004) How to teach English London: Longman Jackson, S L (2009) Research methods and statistics: a critical thinking approach 3rd edition Belmont, CA: Wadsworth 13 Katayama, A (2007 ) Japanese EFL students’ preferences toward correction of classroom oral errors Volume Issue Article 19 From http://www.asian-efljournal.com/Dec_2007_ak.php Krashen, S D (1985) The input hypothesis: issues and implications Harlow: Longman Lavery, C (2001) Language assistant British Council ELT From http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/ Lee, I (2005) Error correction in the L2 writing classroom: what students think? TESL Canada Journal, 22 (2) From http://www.teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl/article/view/84 Macdonca, C O., & Johnson, K E (1994) Peer review negotiations: revision activities in ESL writing instruction TESOL Quarterly, 28/4 Nelson, G (1996) Chinese students’ perceptions of EFL peer response group interaction Journal of Second Language Writing, 5/1 Noora, A (2006) Iranian non-English majors' language learning preferences: the role of language institutes From http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/site_map.php Nunan, D., & Lamb, C (1996) The self-directed teacher Managing the learning process Cambridge Language Education Paul, R (2005) Using peer feedback in the ESL writing class ELT Journal, 59/1 Richards, J C., Platt J., & Platt H (1992) Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics Longman Vygotsky, L S (1978) Mind and society: the development of higher psychological processes Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Wang, P (2010) Dealing with English majors’ written errors in Chinese universities ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol 1, No 3, pp 194-205, From www.academypublisher.com/ojs/index.php/jltr/article/viewFile/ /1797 14 Witbeck, M C (1976) Peer correction procedures for intermediate and advanced ESL composition lessons TESOL Quarterly, 10(3) 15 Appendices Appendix 1: ENGLISH QUESTIONNAIRE FOR LEARNERS QUESTIONNAIRE FOR ELEMENTARY LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AT VUS AN DUONG VUONG CENTER This questionnaire is a part of my M.A research project The study aims to identify preelementary learners’ attitudes towards peer correction in English writing at VUS An Duong Vuong Center Please read the instructions carefully and tick () your answers There are 22 questions in this questionnaire It should take you about 10 minutes to complete Your answers and data will be used only for the purpose of the study Confidentiality is highly reserved I would highly appreciate for your cooperation Part 1: Personal information Q1: What is your gender? A Male  B Female  Q2: How old are you? A 12 – 14  B 15 – 17  Part 2: Learners’ attitudes towards writing in English With these questions, please read the questions carefully and tick () your answers Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly disagree Q3: I like writing in English Q4: I try to write in English as much as possible Q5: I am nervous when I have to write in English Q6: I am afraid of writing in English because agree 16 I can make mistakes easily Q7: I am afraid of writing in English because my English teacher will give me bad scores for my mistakes Part 3: Learners’ attitudes towards types of correction in writing in English With these questions, please read the questions carefully and tick () your answers Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly disagree agree Q8: I think making mistakes in writing is natural Q9: I think my mistakes should be corrected Q10: I think I can correct all of my mistakes myself Q11: I think my teacher’s correction is important Q12: I would prefer my teacher to correct: 1) all of my mistakes 2) some of my mistakes 3) none of my mistakes Q13: I think I can correct my friends’ mistakes easily Part 4: Learners’ attitudes towards peer correction in writing in English With these questions, please read the questions carefully and tick () your answers Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly disagree agree 17 Q14: I want to correct my friends’ mistakes in writing Q15: I want my writing to be corrected by my friends Q16: I appreciate my friends’ correction in my writing Q17: I think it is better if my friends correct my mistakes rather than my teacher Q18: I think I can give good comments for my friends’ writing Q19: I think I can learn from my friends’ mistakes Q20: I think I can improve my writing after correcting my friends’ writing With these questions, please read the questions carefully and tick () your answers You can choose MORE THAN ONE answer Q21: When I correct my friends’ writing, I feel: a excited b interested c confident d unsure e bored f worried g scared        Q22: When my friends correct my writing, I feel: a excited b interested c confident    18 d unsure e bored f worried g scared     This is the end of the questionnaire Thank you for your cooperation 19 Appendix 2: VIETNAMESE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR LEARNERS B NG KH O SÁT DÀNH CHO H C VIÊN TI NG ANH TRÌNH Đ T I TRUNG TÂM ANH NG SƠ C P VUS AN DƯƠNG VƯƠNG Bảng khảo sát phần nghiên cứu chương trình học Cao học chuyên ngành Giảng dạy tiếng Anh Mục đích nghiên cứu thái độ học viên việc sửa lỗi sai bạn lớp thực viết học viên Học viên đọc kĩ câu hỏi đánh dấu  vào câu trả lời Bảng khảo sát có 22 câu hỏi Học viên nên sử dụng 10 phút để hoàn tất bảng khảo sát Câu trả lời thông tin học viên sử dụng cho mục đích nghiên cứu Tính bảo mật tuyệt đối giữ kín Sự hợp tác học viên trân trọng người làm nghiên cứu Phần 1: Thông tin cá nhân C1: Giới tính bạn gì? A Nam  B Nữ  C2: Độ tuổi bạn gì? A 12 – 14  B 15 – 17  Phần 2: Thái đ h c viên việc vi t ti ng Anh Với câu hỏi sau đây, học viên đọc kĩ câu hỏi đánh dấu  vào ô phù hợp Hồn Khơng Trung Đồng ý Hồn tồn đồng ý lập khơng đồng ý C3: Tơi thích viết tiếng Anh C4: Tôi cố gắng viết tiếng Anh nhiều C5: Tơi cảm thấy lo lắng viết tiếng Anh C6: Tôi cảm thấy sợ viết tiếng Anh toàn đồng ý 20 tơi có nhiều lỗi sai C7: Tôi cảm thấy sợ viết tiếng Anh giáo viên tơi cho điểm thấp Phần 3: Thái đ h c viên v hình thức s a ch a l i sai việc vi t ti ng Anh Với câu hỏi sau đây, học viên đọc kĩ câu hỏi đánh dấu  vào ô phù hợp Hồn Khơng Trung Đồng ý Hồn tồn đồng ý lập khơng đồng ý C8: Tơi nghĩ việc có lỗi sai viết tiếng Anh tự nhiên C9: Tôi nghĩ lỗi sai nên sửa chữa C10: Tôi nghĩ tự sửa chữa lỗi sai C11: Tôi nghĩ việc giáo viên sửa chữa lỗi sai quan trọng C12: Tôi muốn giáo viên: 4) sửa chữa tất lỗi sai 5) sửa chữa vài lỗi sai 6) không sửa lỗi sai C13: Tôi nghĩ tơi dễ dàng nhận lỗi sai viết bạn bè toàn đồng ý 21 Phần 4: Thái đ h c viên với việc b n bè lớp s a ch a l i sai vi t ti ng Anh Với câu hỏi sau đây, học viên đọc kĩ câu hỏi đánh dấu  vào ô phù hợp Hồn Khơng Trung Đồng ý Hồn tồn đồng ý lập khơng tồn đồng ý đồng ý C14: Tôi muốn sửa chữa lỗi sai viết bạn bè C15: Tôi muốn viết sửa bạn bè lớp C16: Tôi đánh giá cao (xem trọng) việc bạn bè sửa lỗi sai cho C17: Tôi nghĩ việc bạn bè sửa lỗi sai tốt giáo viên sửa lỗi sai C18: Tơi nghĩ tơi cho nhận xét có ích cho viết bạn bè C19: Tơi nghĩ tơi học từ lỗi sai bạn bè C20: Tôi nghĩ tơi cải thiện viết sau sửa lỗi sai cho viết bạn bè Với câu hỏi sau đây, học viên đọc kĩ câu hỏi đánh dấu  vào ô phù hợp H c viên ch n NHI U HƠN M T (01) câu tr lời C21: Khi sửa chữa viết bạn bè, cảm thấy: a hào hứng b thú vị   22  c tự tin d không chắn e tẻ nhạt f    lo lắng  g sợ hãi C22: Khi bạn bè sửa chữa viết tôi, cảm thấy:  a hào hứng  b thú vị  c tự tin d không chắn e tẻ nhạt f lo lắng g sợ hãi     Kết thúc bảng khảo sát Cảm ơn hợp tác bạn  ... Learners’ Attitudes towards Peer Correction in English Writing at VUS Center 1.2 Aims of the study The study aims to investigate elementary learners’ attitudes towards a type of feedback – peer correction. .. learners’ attitudes towards peer correction in English writing at VUS Center? ” 1.4 Significance of the study There is considerable significance of this study in the English writing teaching activity at. .. technique of error correction in English writing – peer correction The questionnaire findings reveal that students have both positive and negative attitudes towards peer correction, depending on the