Giving feedback strategies for english literature presentations of students of phuong dong university Đặng Thị Kim Dung Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: Linguistics; Mã Số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn: Assoc.Prof. Nguyễn Xuân Thơm, PhD Năm bảo vệ: 2010 Abstract: This study focuses on the strategies used by teachers in giving feedback for oral English Literature of English majors of Phuong Dong University, especially; it highlights the use and impacts of speech acts in teacher feedback. In order to answer the four research questions raised at the beginning of the study, a survey questionnaire done on 120 students and another done on 12 teachers, who have involved in teaching English Literature at Phuong Dong University for years, have been conducted. The results of the survey questionnaire and the face- to-face interviews with 10 students reveal that both teachers and students agree that teacher feedback has great impacts on the improvement of students in designing and performing oral presentations. The study also points out teachers’ habits in using feedback types and their favorite patterns of speech act being used when giving feedback. In the mean time, the survey and face-to-face interviews with students show their opinion on the feedback they receive and their assessment of their own enhancement. On this basis, the study offers some recommendations and suggestions for teachers to make their feedback really useful and effective to students. Keywords: Văn học Anh; Tiếng Anh; Thuyết trình; Hành động ngôn từ. Content: iv TABLE OF CONTENT Declaration Acknowledgements Abstract PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale for the study 1 2. Objectives of the study 2 3. Research questions 2 4. Methods 2 5. Scope of the study 3 6. Design of the study 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5 Chapter 1: Literature review 5 1.1 Teaching English Literature 5 1.1.1 Definition of English literature 5 1.1.2 Why teaching English Literature? 6 1.1.3 Motivating students in English literature lessons…………………… 7 1.2 Teacher feedback 8 1.2.1 Definition of feedback 8 1.2.2 Types of feedback 9 1.2.3 The importance of feedback to students’ improvement 11 1.3 Speech act theory 12 1.3.1 General concepts 12 1.3.2 Speech Act classifications by Austin and Searle 14 1.3.3 Some prominent speech acts used in giving feedback 15 1.3.3.1 The speech act of suggesting 15 1.3.3.2 The speech act of complaining 16 1.3.3.3 The speech act of criticizing………………………… 17 Chapter 2: The study 19 2. 1. Situational analysis 19 2.1.1. Setting 19 2.2.2. The English literature course in Phuong Dong University 20 v 2.2.2.1 Teaching materials 21 2.2.2.2 Objectives of the course 21 2.2.2.3 Oral presentations by students 22 2.2.2.4 Requirements and assessments 22 2.2. The study 23 2.2.1. Methodology 23 2.2.1.1. Subjects 23 2.2.1.2. Instrumentations 23 2.2.2. Data collection 24 2.2.3 Data analysis 25 2.2.3.1 Data analysis of the questionnaire done by teachers 25 2.2.3.2 Data analysis of the questionnaire done by students 30 2.3. Findings 36 2.3.1. Research question 1 36 2.3.2. Research question 2 37 2.3.3. Research question 3 38 2.3.4. Research question 4 39 Chapter 3 – Recommendations 41 3.1. Teachers should balance their use of different types of feedback 41 3.2 Teachers should be more specific in giving feedback 41 3.3 Teachers should provide extra suggestions or guidance 41 PART III: CONCLUSION …………………………………………………… ….42 References Appendices 1 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study English literature is as diverse as the varieties and dialects of English spoken around the world. To learners of English as a foreign language, English literature, though difficult, brings information about the cultural life of the country. This subject can also facilitate oral discussions and exchanges of opinion among students, which can do a great deal to help students improve their language competence. To teachers of English, Literature is a very versatile subject and it has long been considered one of the most difficult subjects to teach. There is no right or wrong way to teach Literature. And the job of the teacher is, generally believed, not to teach the students but to lead them. The author of this study has involved in the English teaching career for over 6 years since 2004, among which the last 4 years are spent mostly for studying and teaching English literature for English majors of Phuong Dong University. There is one thing that most teachers agree when teaching this subject: students will learn best when they freely and creatively read and prepare for an oral presentation on English literature themselves before the lessons are actually taught and explained by teachers. However, the skill of students in designing and performing presentations is limited. They are restrained by the lack of social and cultural knowledge, poor analyzing and organizing skill….Thus, teacher feedback is vital to help students avoid mistakes and enhance achievements. Despite the importance and necessity of teacher feedback, there has been rare research on this issue, even if it is the subject of any study; most of them deal with the matter of corrective feedback and written feedback in writing lessons. Work on oral feedback and especially on immediate oral feedback is quite small in number. In addition, the studies which have been done lack consensus and focus on how and what kind of feedback should teachers use, needless to mention the use of speech acts in feedback giving for literature oral presentation. It appears that what teachers response to students’ oral presentation are based on his or her personal judgments and experience, not on any specific theoretical foundations. 2 These reasons above have urged the author, who has been involving in teaching English literature for English majors of Phuong Dong University for 4 years, to investigate this important but somewhat neglected area. In the mean time, the author also hope to offer teachers, who are involving in teaching English literature for English majors of Phuong Dong University , ways to response to students’ oral presentation, especially ways in which speech acts can be used in feedback giving. It is also hoped that this study will show the impacts of teacher feedback on students’ achievement. 2. Objectives of the study The study aims at investigating the use of speech acts by teachers in giving feedback for English Literature presentations of Phuong Dong University fourth year language students. It is directed to achieve these four purposes: (i) To study the techniques used by teachers when giving feedback for literature oral presentations of fourth year English students in Phuong Dong University: their responding practices, feedback focus, language uses and especially the application of speech acts in feedback giving. (ii) To investigate students’ attitude and opinion on the way they are responded after having finished their presentations (iii) To judge students’ enhancement after receiving feedback from teachers (iv) To offer some recommendations and suggestions for teachers to improve their practice so that their feedback will be effective and useful to students 3. Research questions In order to achieve the goals above, there are four research questions and sub questions raised in the study: (i) What are the strategies used by teachers when giving feedback for English Literature presentations? (ii) What types of speech acts do teachers use when giving feedback? (iii) What are the students’ opinions on the feedback they receive from their teachers? (iv) How do students assess their enhancement? 4. Methods There are three sources of collecting the data: (i) A survey questionnaire done on 120 fourth year students of 4 groups in English Division, Department of Foreign Languages, , Phuong Dong University to get their opinion 3 on the feedback they received and their judgment on their enhancement. The questionnaire also aims at getting students’ recommendations and suggestions to make teacher feedback more effective and useful. (ii) A survey questionnaire done on 12 teachers who are currently involving in teaching English literature and Country studies of Phuong Dong University to explore the ways they give feedback for students’ oral presentations. This questionnaire also aims at finding teachers’ difficulties in giving feedback, their use of speech acts in giving feedback, as well as their recommendations to overcome their difficulties. (iii) An interview with 10 students selected randomly from the survey population to get further information on the matter being studied. 5. Scope of the study The study is conducted within the following scope: (i) Feedback is a broad issue and cannot be thoroughly discussed within the framework of this study. Therefore, only one aspect of feedback is focused on: teacher oral feedback for oral presentations. (ii) Mentioning strategies used by teachers when giving feedback, there are lots of things to be discussed. However, this study is restricted to the use of speech acts, especially the acts of complaining, suggesting, praising, questioning…in giving feedback by teachers only. (iii) The subjects of this study are constrained to final year English majors of Phuong Dong University. Even though feedback is vital for every student, this study does not aim at students of English in general but at final year English majors of Phuong Dong University, who are studying English as their second language. (iv) In Phuong Dong University, there are only two subjects that often require oral presentations from students: English Literature and country studies. This study focuses on teachers’ techniques to give feedback for English Literature oral presentations as typical examples for oral presentations in general. 6. Design of the study This study consisted of three parts, namely: introduction, development and conclusion. The introduction focuses on the rationale, objectives, research questions as well as the scope and design of the study The development includes three chapters: 4 Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background of the study. This includes reviews on the works done by linguistics, researchers…on feedback, speech acts and English literature teaching. Chapter 2 introduces more details about the setting, methods, data analysis and most importantly, the findings of the study Chapter 3 attempts to give some recommendations to teachers, students and further study. The conclusion aims at summarizing the main points of the study. 43 REFERENCES 1. http://www.hotenglishmagazine.com/archive/teaching/teach%206%20literature. pdf 2. http://annedavies.com/images/PDFs/FeedBackFeedForward.pdf 3. http://jabba.edb.utexas.edu/depts/se/projects/mainstep/ms/fb2-introduction- whatis.htm 4. Ronald Carter and Michael N. Long (1991). Teaching literature , Longman. 5. Michael Toolan (1998). Language in literature, Oxford University press 6. Richard Gill (2006). English literature, Palgrave Macmillan. 7. Penny Ur (1996). A course in language teaching, Cambridge University press. 8. Susan M.brookhart (2008). How to give effective feedback to your students, Association for supervision and curriculum development. 9. Kent Bach (1998). 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Assoc.Prof. Nguyễn Xuân Thơm, PhD Năm bảo vệ: 2010 Abstract: This study focuses on the strategies used by teachers in giving feedback for oral English Literature of English majors of Phuong. Motivating students in English literature lessons…………………… 7 1.2 Teacher feedback 8 1.2.1 Definition of feedback 8 1.2.2 Types of feedback 9 1.2.3 The importance of feedback to students improvement