Noticeable feedback from students and some suggestions for teaching english 2 using market leader

Microsoft Word 188 Do Van Trien doc Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 2019 ISBN 978 604 82 2981 8 676 NOTICEABLE FEEDBACK FROM STUDENTS AND SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH 2 USING MARK[.]

Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 2019 ISBN: 978-604-82-2981-8 NOTICEABLE FEEDBACK FROM STUDENTS AND SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH USING MARKET LEADER Do Van Trien1, Tran Thi Chi1 Thuyloi University, email: triendv@tlu.edu.vn 1.2 The rationale of the study INTRODUCTION 1.1 Learners’ feedback Feedback is an important factor in the business of teaching and learning Feedback has significant impact on all the stakeholders in obtaining their goals in a course As Yorke states, “the act of assessing has an effect on the assessor as well as the students Assessors learn about the extent to which they [students] have developed expertise and can tailor their teaching accordingly” (2003, p.482) From that view, feedback provides teachers with useful guidelines for delivering and shaping their instruction It helps teacher to develop themselves, perfect their teaching and build better learning environment This view is also supported by Black and Wiliam (1998) when they believe that feedback can be used to modify the learning and teaching activities in which stakeholders are involved Feedback gives teachers a tool to have an insight into their teaching, make appropriate adjustments, and have a better understanding about their students Thus, feedback can reflect what a test cannot This is pointed out by Ripley (2000): “While test scores can reveal when kids are not learning, they can’t reveal why” From the discussion, thanks to feedback, teachers are able to see the course from the side of learners; they are able to make better assessment about the effectiveness, and then they will be able to make necessary changes to the rest of the course or to another one in the future As the discussion above, students’ feedback has a crucial impact on the work of teaching and learning Therefore, teachers are advised to collect their students’ feedback after every course This work has more significance to the course of English because this is the first time that such course is applied in the curriculum Thus, this kind of information is valuable in evaluating the course It is also beneficial to other teachers when they are assigned to teach this course METHODOLODY In this study, the authors adopted a quantitative approach using the questionnaire surveys conducted with 40 students from groups in combination with some instruments of qualitative research including observations, notes and experiences The survey was carried out at the end of the course The students were given the questionnaire with 19 questions in Vietnamese including multiple choice and open-ended ones For some questions, students can select more than one answer The questionnaire focuses on getting students’ feedback on the textbook, learning, difficulties, problems and expectations Students were given much time to study the questions and complete the questionnaire Students were well informed about the purpose of the survey with thorough instruction on answering the questions From the results of data analysis, this paper focuses on noticeable feedback 676 Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 2019 ISBN: 978-604-82-2981-8 d) Giving feedback to homework RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Results a) The most difficult part in a unit To answer the question: “In a unit, which part you find the most difficult?” 30 students chose listening, 14 students chose vocabulary As a matter of fact, listening is one of the most difficult parts in the text book, and many questions in the listening tasks are quite difficult for the students at low level Besides, there are usually a number of business words, terms and phrases, so this is a real challenge to the students b) The vocabulary in a unit Question 4:“What you think about the vocabulary in each unit?” 14 chose B (many new words and terms), 12 chose C (a moderate number of new words and terms), and students chose C (a few) As the students are put in the same class without a placement test, a class can include students of different level of English However, more students have to struggle with new words than those who not c) Case study and favourite part The 6th question asked “How you assess the Case study after every unit?” 24 chose A (very interesting and useful), 12 chose B (normal) and chose C (boring) This is a special part where students are required to use English for real situations This gives students chances to practice their English especially speaking and writing These practical activities are likely to inspire the students These are the answers to the question “Which part would you like to practice most?” (Students can choose more than one answer) 28 chose listening, 20 chose “useful language”, 16 chose speaking, 12 chose vocabulary, chose writing This is a matter of personal joy and expectation However, their favourites have some connection with their need for the knowledge and skills that they want to have more improvement Question 14 asked, “What you think about correcting homework?” 14 chose “very necessary”, 20 chose “necessary” In general, students expect to get feedback for their homework The fact is that most learners want to get teachers’ comments on their work, and want to get the explanations for their mistakes as well as things that they not understand e) Pronunciation and presentation skills To answer the question: “Do you want the teacher to spend more time helping with your pronunciation?” 32 chose “yes” and chose “no” Pronunciation is a real problem with the majority of students at TLU because they usually mispronounce many words Pronunciation is an important part of learning and using vocabulary Therefore, when students have challenges with the vocabulary, they also have difficulty in pronunciation Question 16: “Do you see it necessary for the teacher to spend some time teaching the basic presentation skills?” 30 chose “yes” and 10 chose “no” In the curriculum, students have no course for presenting in English, so most of them not have good presentation skills f) Expectations for the course This is an open question: “What changes would you like to have for the course?” Here are the typical answers: 18 expected more time for listening; 12 expected more practice for vocabulary; 10 wanted to have more instruction for pronunciation; had expectation for writing skills; wanted to have more focus on speaking and presentation; wanted more time for end-of-course revision This revision question helps to verify the students’ answers to other specific questions The data has homogeneity with other relevant questions 3.2 Discussion From the findings of the study together with the observations, notes and experiences gained from courses, we would like to give out suggestions for a more effective English course using Market Leader 677 Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 2019 ISBN: 978-604-82-2981-8 a) Vocabulary and listening To meet many students’ demand for more practice on vocabulary, teachers can give them extra activities A good supplementary book like “check your English vocabulary for business and administration” (Rawdon Wyatt), can be used To save time, teachers can assign students homework then give them feedback in the revision units For listening, teachers should spend more time on this activity as the majority of students want more practice in a unit It is a good idea to redesign some listening tasks to make them easier and more interesting; use other resources such as listening-bank for the students to practice in class and at home b) Giving feedback to homework This gets special expectation from the students, so teachers need to have serious consideration The first suggestion is that teachers should spend time correcting difficult exercises in the Practice File Another suggestion is applying peer review and peer discussion in checking homework c) Useful language and case study For “useful language”, teachers should give out different situations for students to role-play in order to make it more interesting and to make students be more flexible To teach “case study” effectively, teachers ought to give students careful instruction for them to have preparation at home, and practice in class in the next lesson d) Pronunciation and speaking For pronunciation, teachers should give more instruction on difficult sounds, words and intonations during the course In addition, teachers should require students to have more practice at home, record their pronunciation and send it to teachers For speaking and presentation, the first suggestion is to have more pair work and small group work The second one is to get students to have many mini-presentations during the course Another idea is to ask students to video their presentations at home and send them to teachers Furthermore, the resource bank for speaking can be used during the class e) Writing More peer-review should be applied in checking students’ writing Also, teachers should arrange time to correct typical mistakes in writing Besides, the resource bank for writing can be useful f) End-of-course revision English for economics students is more challenging than other GE courses at TLU Because of this reason, students should have more time for end-of-term revision to revise learnt units and have more confidence on the test day CONCLUSION It is always useful to share the teaching experiences among teachers especially when a new course with a new textbook is applied in the curriculum This sharing helps teachers to enhance their work of teaching The authors hope that this paper will make some significant contribution to the success of the future courses REFERENCES [1] Black, P and Wiliam, D (1998) Assessment and classroom learning Assessment in Education (1), 7-74 [2] Ripley, A (2012) Why Kids Should Grade Teachers The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archi ve/2012/10/why-kids-should-gradeteachers/309088/ [3] Yorke, M (2003) Formative assessment in higher education: Moves towards theory and the enhancement of pedagogic practice Higher Education, 45(4), 477-501 678 ... gained from courses, we would like to give out suggestions for a more effective English course using Market Leader 677 Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 20 19 ISBN: 978-604- 82- 2981-8... interesting and useful), 12 chose B (normal) and chose C (boring) This is a special part where students are required to use English for real situations This gives students chances to practice their English. .. necessary for the teacher to spend some time teaching the basic presentation skills?” 30 chose “yes” and 10 chose “no” In the curriculum, students have no course for presenting in English, so