Students' attitudes towards teachers' corrective feedback in writing at the Boarding High school for Ethnic Minority students in Tuyen Quang = Thái độ của học s

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BAN THI KIM THANH STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHERS’ CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK IN WRITING AT THE BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL FOR ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS IN TUYEN QUANG THÁI ĐỘ CỦA HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI PHẢN HỒI THÔNG TIN CHỮA LỖI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRONG MÔN VIẾT Ở TRƯỜNG THPT DÂN TỘC NỘI TRÚ TUYÊN QUANG MA MINOR THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE 601401 HA NOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BAN THI KIM THANH STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHERS’ CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK IN WRITING AT THE BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL FOR ETHNIC MINORITYSTUDENTS IN TUYEN QUANG THÁI ĐỘ CỦA HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI PHẢN HỒI THÔNG TIN CHỮA LỖI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRONG MÔN VIẾT Ở TRƯỜNG THPT DÂN TỘC NỘI TRÚ TUYÊN QUANG MA MINOR THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY SUPERVISOR: HOANG THI HONG HAI, MA HA NOI - 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Certification………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements……………………………………………… ……… ii Abstract………………………………………………………………….… iii PART ONE - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Aims of the study 10 1.3 Research questions 10 1.4 Scope of the study 10 1.5 Significance of the research 11 1.6 Methods of the study 11 1.7 Design of the study 11 Summary PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical backgrounds of feedback 1.1.1 Definitions of feedback 13 1.1.2 The importance of feedback in L2 writing 14 Types of feedback to students‟ writing 15 1.1.2 1.1.2.1 Self-editing 16 1.1.2.2 Peer feedback 16 1.1.2.3 Teacher‟s feedback 18 1.2 The focus of teacher feedback 19 1.2.1 Types of teacher feedback 19 1.2.1.1 Marginal versus end feedback 20 1.2.1.2 Positive versus negative feedback 20 1.2.1.3 Text – specific versus general feedback 21 1.2.1.4 Feedback focus on form versus on content 21 1.2.2 Forms of teacher feedback 22 1.2.3 Major issues in giving teacher‟s feedback 23 2.1 Context of the study 25 2.1.1 The setting of the study 25 2.1.2 The writing program 2.1.2.1 Overview of the textbooks 26 2.1.2.2 The teaching of writing skill 27 2.2 The study 2.2.1 Methodology 28 2.2.2 Data analysis 30 2.2.3 Findings and discussion 43 Summary CHAPTER THREE: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS 43 Summary PART THREE CONCLUSIONS 50 3.1 Summary 50 3.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 51 References Appendices PART ONE - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Today English is considered one of the most important factors to the trend of globalization in all fields of life over the world Thus, English as Second Language has been taught in many countries and the demand to use English fluently as well as to acquire four basic skills is becoming essential among all students As a result, methodology has been studied for years to find out the most effective ways of teaching and learning English In Vietnam, high school students have to acquire four skills of English as reading, speaking, listening and writing when they study English Among them, writing is considered the most difficult skill Clearly, Vietnamese students are often much anxious about writing and afraid of making errors in writing classrooms Nevertheless, they need to be encouraged to see it as a Comment [P1]: Check the clarity in meaning means of learning, rather than demonstrating learning In order to this, students need to be provided with opportunities to respond to constructive feedback on their work A review of the literature on writing reveals three major areas of feedback as revision: peer feedback, self-editing and teachers‟ comments as feedback Because of the importance of feedback, there have been a lot of Comment [P2]: A comma between these two words? studies that focus on all aspects relating to feedback As clear, concise feedback matched to standards will promote students‟ achievement, feedback plays a very important role in the teaching of any language Through feedback, the writer learns where he or she has misled and confused the reader by not supplying enough information, illogical organization, lack of development ideas, or something simple like inappropriate word-choice or tense In other words, the writers have opportunities to identify their errors and correct them to make better writing Also, the use of teacher feedback in writing classrooms has been generally supported in the literature review as a Comment [P3]: students'??? potentially valuable aid for its social cognitive, affective and methodological benefits ( Merlin, (1986), Radecki and Swales (1988), Hedge (2000), Ferris and Roberts (2001)) They all believe that teacher feedback is very important and has a great influence on the success of teaching and learning writing As a teacher of English at the Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students in Tuyen Quang, the researcher is constantly searching for ways to help her students become more confident and effective writers During writing lessons, she finds that her students often make a lot of errors that increase students‟ anxiety in writing lesson With a view of language learning as a creative construction process, she shares an agreement with Hedge (2000) in the view that error is an inevitable and positive part of that process (p.15) Hedge also claimed that “learners progress faster with meaningful language practice in a rich linguistic environment and with an informed policy of error correction on the part of the teacher” (p.15) This means teacher-response is an essential step in the writing process as he stated Comment [P4]: teacher-respone “getting feedback from the teacher and from other students in the class enables learners to test hypotheses and refine their developing knowledge of the language system” (p.13) That is why the researcher focuses on teacher corrective feedback, which she considers a complex troublesome, but important issue in writing classrooms To have a quick view on this aspect, an observation on the writing lessons of four teachers of English in the researcher‟s school was conducted within a month The result showed that all the four teachers applied mostly teacher corrective feedback to respond to the students‟ writings She wondered if the teachers‟ present feedback matched with students‟ preferences and how students reacted to the feedback they received All above encouraged the researcher to conduct a survey to explore students‟ attitudes towards teacher corrective feedback and recommend Comment [P5]: Reacted to?? 10 teachers of English some suggested solutions to help their students gain more achievement in writing skill 1.2 Aims of the study This research is designed to explore students‟ attitudes toward their teachers‟ corrective feedback at The Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students in Tuyen Quang It is expected to achieve the three primary aims: (i) to investigate the teacher feedback-giving practice in writing classes: their responding methods, their feedback focus as well as the feedback types and forms (ii) to investigate the students‟ perceptions of the feedback they receive and their recommendations for improving it (iii) to find out students‟ preferences for teachers‟ corrective feedback as well as to propose some recommendations and suggestions for the teachers to improve their practice in order to respond to the students writing more effectively 1.3 Research questions In order to achieve the mentioned aims above, the following research questions will be included in the study: How the teachers respond to the students‟ writing? What are the students‟ opinions on the feedback they received? Comment [P6]: Not necessary to state here What are EFL students‟ preferences for teachers‟ corrective feedback Comment [P7]: ditto techniques? 1.4 Scope of the study Feedback in writing is such a broad topic that the researcher cannot discuss all the aspects related Therefore, within the framework of a minor 11 thesis, this study focuses only on the teacher corrective feedback in responding to the students‟ writing at the Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students in Tuyen Quang Significance of the research The research is carried out with the hope that the results of the study will provide significant insights into both what teachers have actually done as they respond and how the students react to these responses This may lead to suggestions for improving teacher feedback and helping the students to utilize it more successfully in their writing revision Methods of the study To realize the aims, the following methods for data collection were employed in the study Data were collected by means of survey questionnaires for 100 students at The Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students in Tuyen Quang The questionnaires included closed-ended questions, open-ended questions and Likert scales Other sources for data collection came from classroom observation, an interview between the researcher and four teachers, and collection of the teachers‟ written comments on the students‟ written work Four sources to data collection will hopefully provide fresh insights into teachers‟ feedback giving practice and the students‟ reactions towards the feedback they received On this basis, some measures will be applied to improve the teacher corrective feedback so that the teacher responds to the students‟ writing more properly Design of the study This study has three main parts: introduction, development, and conclusion Comment [P8]: a comma betwween development & and 12 The introduction briefly states the rationale of the study, the aims, research questions, scope, methods, the significance and the design of the study The development consists of three chapters: Chapter provides a review of literature on feedback in general and teacher feedback in particular Chapter contains the core part of the study including the context of the study, the methodology, the collection and analysis of the data for the research, the findings and implications Chapter mentions the author‟s recommendations and suggestions for improving teacher feedback in a way that help students‟ to have better writing The conclusion at the end gives a summary of the main issues that have been discussed so far in the study and suggestions for further research PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Comment [P9]: Check the format and the font size This chapter focuses on some of the most important issues in the theories of feedback in general and the teacher feedback in particular Two main features will be concerned, namely, theoretical background of feedback and the focus on teacher feedback Comment [P10]: Should be in italics 13 1.1 Theoretical backgrounds of feedback 1.1.1 Definitions of feedback As far from now, responding to student writing, including giving feedback, is one of the most controversial topics in second language instruction and theory As the importance of feedback, it is considered a fundamental element of a process approach to writing Therefore, there have been attempts to define the term “feedback” According to Ur (1996) “feedback is information that is given to the learner about his or her performance of a learning task, usually with the objective of improving this performance” (p.242) He also distinctly pointed out two main distinguishable components of feedback: assessment and correction This significant definition mentions feedback as an essential step in teaching with an obvious aim at helping students to have better achievement in learning Similarly, Keh (1989) defined feedback as “any output from reader to writer that provides information for revision” (p.18) In other words, it is the comments, questions, and suggestions a reader gives a writer to produce reader-based prose as opposed to writer prose As the writers receive all these, they will discover that good writing involves “an interaction between their ideas, the expressions of the ideas, and their reader‟s perceptions and reactions to the expression” (Chaudron, 1984 p.2) This definition can be seen as one of the most comprehensive as feedback is considered as an effective means of teacher‟s communication to the students about their writing in the final one Some researchers (Ferris, 2003; Leki, 1990) also shared an agreement when noting that feedback is most effective when it is delivered at intermediate stages of the writing process Dreham (1995) also had the same point of view in the case that feedback is interestingly likened to a two-bullock cart His definition is based ... focuses only on the teacher corrective feedback in responding to the students? ?? writing at the Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students in Tuyen Quang Significance of the research The research... achievement in writing skill 1.2 Aims of the study This research is designed to explore students? ?? attitudes toward their teachers‟ corrective feedback at The Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students. .. following methods for data collection were employed in the study Data were collected by means of survey questionnaires for 100 students at The Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students in Tuyen