Written corrective feedback efl high school teachers perceptions and practices

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI THUY KIEU WRITTEN CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK: EFL HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Hien BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY KIỀU PHẢN HỒI SỬA LỖI BÀI VIẾT: NHẬN THỨC VÀ THỰC HÀNH CỦA GIÁO VIÊN CẤP THPT Ngành: Lý Luận và Phương Pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Người hướng dẫn: PGS TS Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this master thesis and that I have not used any sources other than those listed in the bibliography and identified as references I further declare that I have not submitted this thesis for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution Quy Nhon, 2023 Nguyễn Thị Thúy Kiều ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and support of numerous people who devoted themselves to helping me, placed belief in me, and motivated me to pursue the ultimate goal I would like to take this chance to express my sincere gratitude to all those involved My most profound appreciation goes to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, for her time, effort, and understanding in helping me succeed during my academic work Her vast wisdom and wealth of experience have inspired me throughout my studies I feel fortunate to have had her support my work In addition, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to the professors, lecturers, and instructors of Quy Nhon University for their thoughtful and patient support in imparting priceless knowledge and accompanying me with the steps fundamental to finishing my degree program My sincere gratitude also goes out to the high school English teachers in central regions and central highland provinces for their helpful contribution and collaboration in this study I am also grateful to the school administrators and my colleagues at Tran Hung Dao High School, Mang Yang, Gia Lai for their sympathy and support during my study time Last but not least, I am gratefully indebted to my family and friends who have accompanied me on this journey Their unwavering support and encouragement throughout my course truly gave me strength and served as a fantastic source of inspiration iii ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate two key issues: (1) teachers’ perceptions of their WCF practices and (2) their actual practices in a Vietnamese EFL context The data was collected from multiple sources including a questionnaire with 65 English high school teachers in central and central highland provinces in Vietnam, interviews with 10 of those who had completed the questionnaire before, and 937 WCF points detected from 150 students’ writing texts with teacher WCF The findings of the study revealed that (1) the teachers’ perceptions regarding WCF provision were overwhelmingly favourable They believed that WCF was essential for high school students’ EFL writing development and served multiple purposes In terms of their self-reported practices of WCF, the teachers preferred selective over comprehensive WCF; they also favoured both direct and indirect feedback strategies, primarily focused on language forms when provided the students’ writing with correction feedback (2) As regards the teachers’ actual practices of WCF in their writing classrooms, they predominantly employed a comprehensive approach, and direct feedback strategy to give correction feedback mainly on language forms to the student’s writing errors (3) A degree of congruence and incongruence between teachers’ perceptions and practices of WCF in certain areas were also discussed This misalignment calls for professional training in teaching writing in general and addressing WCF in particular to ensure the effectiveness of WCF strategies employed by teachers The results of this study also imply that the teachers and their students should cooperate to reach the ultimate goals of WCF Key terms: EFL teachers, error correction, teacher perceptions, teacher practices, Written Corrective Feedback iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Rationale 1 1.2 Aim and Objectives 5 1.3 Research Questions 5 1.4 Scope of the Study 5 1.5 Significance of the Study 6 1.6 Organization of the Study .6 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 8 2.1 Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices 8 2.1.1 Concepts of Perceptions 8 2.1.2 Importance of Studying Perceptions and Practices 9 2.1.3 Relationship Between Teachers’ Perceptions and Their Practices in Classrooms 10 2.2 Written Corrective Feedback in L2 Writing .11 2.2.1 Definitions of Written Corrective Feedback 11 2.2.2 Purposes of Written Corrective Feedback .13 2.2.3 Types of Written Corrective Feedback and Teachers’ Preferences 14 2.2.3.1 Types of Written Corrective Feedback 15 2.2.3.2 Teachers’ preferences for Written Corrective Feedback types 18 2.2.4 Strategies for Providing Written Corrective Feedback .21 2.2.4.1 Direct Written Corrective Feedback 22 v 2.2.4.2 Indirect Written Corrective Feedback 23 2.2.4.3 Metalinguistic Written Corrective Feedback .25 2.2.4.4 Focused Versus Unfocused CF 27 2.2.4.5 Electronic Feedback 28 2.2.4.6 Reformulation 28 2.3 Previous Studies on Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices Regarding Written Corrective Feedback 29 2.4 Chapter Summary 32 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 33 3.1 Research Design .33 3.2 Research Setting and Participants 34 3.3 Research Instruments 37 3.3.1 Questionnaire .37 3.3.2 Semi-structured Interviews 38 3.3.3 Students’ Writing Samples 39 3.4 Data Collection .40 3.5 Data Analysis 43 3.6 Research Reliability and Validity 45 3.7 Ethical Considerations 48 3.8 Chapter Summary 48 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .49 4.1 Findings 49 4.1.1 Teachers’ Perceptions of Written Corrective Feedback 50 4.1.1.1 Teachers’ Perceptions of the Main Purpose of WCF Provision 50 4.1.1.2 Teachers’ Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Their WCF Practices on Their Students’ Writing .52 4.1.1.3 Teachers’ Perceptions of WCF Strategy Practices 54 4.1.1.4 Teachers’ Perceptions of WCF Techniques 60 4.1.2 Teachers’ Practices of Written Corrective Feedback 67 4.1.2.1 Types of Written Corrective Feedback 67 vi 4.1.2.2 Strategies for Providing Written Corrective Feedback .75 4.2 Discussion 81 4.2.1 Teachers’ Perceptions of Written Corrective Feedback 81 4.2.2 Teachers’ Practices of Written Corrective Feedback 86 4.2.3 Teachers’ Perceptions and Their Actual Classroom Practices Regarding Written Corrective Feedback .91 4.2.3.1 WCF Efficacy and Responsibility 91 4.2.3.2 Using Marking Codes .92 4.2.3.3 The Amount of WCF .93 4.2.3.4 The Focus of WCF 95 4.2.3.5 The Strategies for WCF 95 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 98 5.1 Summary of the Findings 98 5.2 Pedagogical Implications for the Teaching and Learning Process 101 5.3 Limitations of the Study 102 5.4 Recommendations for Further Research 103 REFERENCES 105 APPENDICES AP-1 APPENDIX A1 QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION) AP-1 APPENDIX A2 QUESTIONNAIRE (VIETNAMESE VERSION) AP-5 APPENDIX B1 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (ENGLISH VERSION) AP- 10 APPENDIX B2 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (VIETNAMESE VERSION) AP-11 APPENDIX C1 TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (ENGLISH VERSION) AP-13 APPENDIX C2 TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (VIETNAMESE VERSION) AP-19 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CF Corrective Feedback EFL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language L2 Second Language SLA Second Language Acquisition WCF Written Corrective Feedback viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Elements in Writing 18 Table 2.2 Strategies for Providing CF 21 Table 3.1 Demographic Information of Participants 35 Table 3.2 Description of Examining Students’ Writing Texts 44 Table 3.3 Reliability Statistics of 9 Likert Scale Questions 46 Table 3.4 Item-total Statistics 46 Table 4.1 Teachers’ Perceptions of the Main Purpose of WCF 50 Table 4.2 Teachers’ Self-evaluation of the Effectiveness of Their WCF Practices on Their Students’ Writing 52 Table 4.3 Teachers’ Perceptions of Their WCF Strategies 54 Table 4.4 Teachers’ Description of Their Existing Feedback Practices 61 Table 4.5 Frequency of WCF Techniques Provided by Teachers 62 Table 4.6 Amount of WCF Provided by the Teachers on the Students’ Writing 70 Table 4.7 Focus of WCF Provided by EFL High School Teachers 74 Table 4.8 Strategies for WCF Provided by EFL High School Teachers 80