Suggestions for ESL teachers to write feedback in ESL learners’ writing

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TỈNH VĨNH PHÚC TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG CHUYÊN VĨNH PHÚC BÁO CÁO CHUYÊN ĐỀ Suggestions for ESL Teachers to Write Feedback in ESL Learners’ Writing Môn Tổ môn Người thực Điện thoại Email : Tiếng Anh : Ngoại Ngữ : Nguyễn Thị Thanh Nhân : 0912.468.689 : nhancvp@vinhphuc.edu.vn Vĩnh Yên, tháng 5, năm 2015 TABLE OF CONTENT Content Page Chapter I Introduction Background Rationale Research questions Scope of the study Chapter II Literature review Definition of feedback and correctives Corrective feedback in second language acquisition Teachers’ written corrective feedback Corrective feedback in writing: some related issues 4.1 Accuracy and fluency in writing 4.2 Teacher response to students’ writing 4.2.1 Form and content 4.2.2 Direct feedback and indirect feedback 4.2.3 Timing of feedback and correctives 4.3 Corrective feedback in writing: Teachers’ beliefs and practices 4.4 Corrective feedback: students’ preferences 6 7 8 Chapter III Methodology The selection of subjects Data collection instruments Data collection procedure 9 Chapter Findings and Discussion Chapter Recommendation and Conclusion 10 12 Appendices Reference 14 17 2 3 Chapter I Introduction Background Vinh Phuc Gifted High School where I work as a full-time teacher is well-known for its education quality with about 900 students who are selected into 30 classes majoring in 10 subjects – Mathematics, Informatics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography, Literature, English and French All of the students who come from different parts of the province have to take part in the high school entrance exam and a special exam for selecting gifted students which are held in July every year So Vinh Phuc Gifted High School is home to develop the talented In Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject and nowadays all people are aware of its importance in the modern life At Vinh Phuc Gifted High School, English is taken under much consideration Beside the major subjects, all of our students are required to study well in three main subjects- Maths, Literature and English , hence, it is undeniable that our students’ attitude toward English as well as their English proficiency is rather good and they are really interested in learning English In conclusion, Vinh Phuc Gifted High School is a good environment to learn and teach English I am in charge of teaching grade 10A8- a gifted class of English There are 33 students in my class and their attitude toward English as well as their English proficiency is rather good Because of being a gifted class of English, my students have to master four basic skills of English at advanced level Among four skills, writing seems to be the most difficult but important Hence, helping students enhance their writing skills is one of the teachers’ responsibilities This can be done in numerous ways, but feedback is considered crucial for stimulating and consolidating learning and its significance has been recognized by those who work in the field of second language learning especially in second language writing For this importance, I am really interested in investigating the effective ways of giving feedback in second language learning (ESL) learners’ writing Rationale Feedback plays a very crucial role in motivating further learning as it informs learners about the degree of their learning or their needs for improvement Brown (1994) considers feedback as one of the key to successful learning process Many researchers such as Chiu (2008), Zhang (2008), Min (2006) or Paulus (1990) have proved that feedback which is employed in both forms of verbal and written commentary constitutes an important aspect of fostering the improvement of writing Obviously, feedback is an essential component of any English language writing course According to Saito (1994) students prefer teacher written feedback to alternative forms such as oral and peer feedback Mostly students from cultures that see a teacher as the only source of authority value teacher revision more highly than other methods because they have confidence in the teacher’s knowledge and skill in English Teacher written feedback or handwritten commentary is a primary method to respond to students’ essays to assist students’ writing development; teacher written comments on the students’ drafts indicate problems and make suggestions for improvement of future papers Through feedback teachers can help students compare their own performance with the ideal and to diagnose their own strengths and weaknesses Therefore, it is high time for me to a research on “Suggestions for ESL Teachers to Write Feedback in ESL Learners’ Writing.” with the hope that my students can improve their writing skill via my feedback and the findings of the research might be used by other teachers in giving feedback to students’ writing Research questions Searching effective ways of giving feedback in ESL learners’ writing, I really want to find the answers for the two questions below What are my students’ preferences when receiving feedback? What are effective ways of giving feedback in ELS learners’ writing? Scope of the study It is the fact that, feedback in writing is such a huge topic that it attracts much consideration from many ESL researchers From a purely practical demand, this study is conducted to investigate the needs of students in teacher written feedback and provide some suggestions for ESL teachers to give feedback effectively Chapter II Literature review In this part, all the aspects concerning the hypotheses inspiring the research will be discussed The review is drawn from previous studies done by famous applied linguists Definition of feedback and correctives Feedback is information given back to individuals about the adequacy of their actions Feedback is a reaction to a stimulus by the others Feedback also serves a regulatory function in that it prompts individuals to keep on tracks towards a specified goal and Cole & Chan (1994) indicated that the aim of feedback should be to make individuals think about giving better responses Correctives are extended from feedback According to Cole & Chan (1994), correctives include augmented feedback given to students as well as instructional procedures intended to rectify errors and inadequacies in learning They also include prompts, hints, suggestion regarding strategy use, reminders about methods, further demonstrations and explanations to abandon inefficient strategies Therefore, correctives are often necessary in classes Corrective feedback in second language acquisition There are various terms used in identifying errors and providing corrective feedback in the SLA literature Among them, Long’s points (1996) is the most comprehensive In Long’s view, the environmental input can be thought of in terms of two categories that are provided to the learners about the target language (TL): positive evidence and negative evidence Long defines positive evidence as providing the learners with models of what is grammatical and acceptable in the TL; and negative evidence as providing the learners with direct and indirect information about what is unacceptable This information may be: Explicit (e.g., grammatical explanation or overt correction) or implicit (e.g., failure to understand, incidental error correction in a response, such as a confirmation check, which reformulates the learners’ utterance without interrupting the flow of the conversation- in which case, the negative feedback simultaneously provides additional positive evidence- and perhaps also the absence of the items in the input (p.413) Teachers’ written corrective feedback There are many feedback modes in writing corrective feedback including peer feedback, self-monitoring, computer-mediated feedback, teachers’ written corrective feedback and teacher-student conferencing Due to the limitation of the study, only teachers’ written corrective feedback is concerned According to Li (2009), many teachers have a notion that it is necessary for them to write substantial comments on writing papers to provide reader reaction to students’ effort, to help them improve as writers and to justify the grade given One important point of using written feedback is that it serves as the motivation factor in the ESL writing process Ellis (1994) reminds that students’ motivation is closely linked to language acquisition In order to motivate students, the writing teachers can include comments of praise and encouragements in their written feedback which can help students clarify meaning in their rewriting Additionally, the teachers’ use of referential or open questions may result in more meaning negotiation and more complex learner output However, Hyland (2006) also pointed out some challenges that teachers can encounter while writing feedback in students’ writing Early research on native English speakers (L1) suggested that much written feedback was of poor quality and was frequently misunderstood by students Written response was considered vague, inconsistent and authoritarian, overly concerned with error and often functioning to appropriate, or take over, students’ texts by being too directive Li (2009) declared that in Chinese EFL writing context, there is usually no variety in teacher feedback technique Teachers find it time-consuming and laborintensive when marking and correcting students’ writings; therefore, they often ignore reviewing students’ writing word by word and correcting every single problem of students That is the reason why students seldom reflect on the mistakes they have made and the teachers’ great efforts are not fully valued Literature on how to make this conventional feedback mode benefit students better will be discussed further in subsequent parts of this thesis Corrective feedback in writing: some related issues 4.1 Accuracy/ fluency in writing Accuracy/ fluency in writing is controversial issue in ESL/ EFL teaching field River (1968) recognized that sheer accuracy was unreasonable, but without it, academic writing would suffer markedly However, Zamel (1982), stressed on the need of writing in second and foreign language classrooms as a process of discovery, emphasis on errors and rhetorical forms can inhibit this process For the ESL teachers, it is really confusing and there is something of dilemma Hence, it is suggested to adopt a balanced approach, allowing students to produce their own ideas in written form with guidance from the teacher in order to produce correct form (Brumfit, 1984, cited in Humphired, 1996) He also notes that it is possible to create conditions for group revision and improvement of written work, so the accuracy is turned into something of a conscious but relatively spontaneous exercise, for talking about accuracy may be fluency talk 4.2 Teacher response to students’ writing 4.2.1 Form and content The second language research on composition has focused much on both how teachers correct form and content In an experimental research study, Fathman and Whalley (1990), students in various classes were randomly divided into four groups Each group received a different kind of teacher feedback on their compositions (no feedback, grammar feedback only, content feedback only, both grammar and content feedback) The results from this study reveal that grammar and content feedback, whether given alone or simultaneously, affects rewriting positively The identification of the location of errors by the teachers seems to be an effective means of helping students correct their grammar errors Furthermore, grammar feedback by the teachers in the study had more effect than content feedback This might be due to the fact that the content feedback was not text specific and was more general than the grammar feedback that clearly shown specific grammar errors The results of this study also suggest that when grammar and content feedback are presented at the same time, the content of rewrites improves approximately as much as when the content feedback is only given Focus on grammar does not negatively affects the content of writing This would further affirm that students can improve their writing where content and form feedback is provided simultaneously 4.2.2 Direct feedback and indirect feedback Direct error feedback is provided when the correct form is written on students’ papers while indirect error feedback is provided if the teachers indicates the location of the error indirectly by underlining, highlighting or circling or indirectly by indicating in the margins that there is an error on that line but without providing correct form (Lee, 2005) Indirect feedback is regarded as coded error feedback if the indication is done by a symbol representing a specific kind of error such as “Sp” for spelling, “T’ for verb tense If the indication of the errors is done by the kind of error (spelling, verb tense), it is called uncoded error feedback In indirect feedback, the students are required both to identify the types of errors and to self correct the error meanwhile in direct feedback, what students have to is transcribe the teacher’s corrections into the paper (Ferris, 2003) and much research evidence indicates that indirect error feedback is more helpful on long-term writing development than direct error feedback 4.2.3 Timing of feedback and correctives According to Cole and Chan (1994), teachers should give feedback and correctives after students have made genuine attempts to complete assigned tasks It is vital for teachers to give frequent feedback and correctives during the early stages of learning a new subject matter Student will learn more quickly if regular feedback is available during the initial stages of learning If early errors in the process of acquiring new knowledge are uncorrected, they may interfere with subsequent learning Moreover, when students are allowed to practice errors, inappropriate ways of writing gradually consolidated and such persistent errors can be difficult to eradicate (Cole & Chan, 1994) 4.3 Corrective feedback in writing: Teachers’ beliefs and practices| In a case study with a view to investigate ESL teachers’ feedback practices, Diab (2005) explored that the teachers in his study seemed to focus on grammar issues including punctuation, spelling and clarity Beside grammar and sentence-level feedback, the teachers in his study also paid attention to correct content-level issues such as structure, organization, development, logic and consistency, attention to audience, and focus on thesis statement For such positive findings, he believed that feedback to content is essential in responding to students’ writing In Saito’s 1994 survey, she provides more details on teachers’ practices of giving feedback by observing the classes and collecting students’ compositions in three ESL writing classes In the first class, the teacher focused on facilitating rhetorical development throughout particular stages of students’ writing: planning, writing and revising The feedback she gave to the students was thinking prompts For grammatical and other surface errors she just circled or underlined them, no correction was made In the second class, the teacher paid attention to content and organization of compositions She provided both oral and written feedback to individuals while they were writing and the final drafts were usually done at home In the third class, the teacher advised students to free writing basing on brainstorming ideas, then they were instructed to edit the first draft While students were doing this, the teacher went around the class and gave feedback to individual student After that students were asked to produce the final draft It is clear that teachers seemed to focus on content of students’ writing than the form 4.4 Corrective feedback: students’ preferences According to Radecki & Swales (1988, cited in Hyland 2006), surveys of students’ feedback preferences widely indicate that ESL students greatly value teacher written feedback and consistently rate it more highly than alternative forms such as peer and oral correction Meanwhile, in Odalejo’s 2003 survey, the majority of learners in his study agreed that errors of organization of ideas, vocabulary and grammar should be best corrected by the teacher whereas spelling and punctuation mistakes should be taken care of by students themselves In terms of what aspects in students’ writing should be treated with feedback most surveys show that students want teacher feedback to highlight their grammatical errors, some indicate that they also want teachers to give them feedback on the content and ideas in their writing (Hedgcock & Lefkowitz, 1994) However, in Odalejo’s experiment (2003), errors related to organization of ideas should receive highest attention for correction Grammar treatment rank next in the order of preferences with more than 96% of the learners indicating that this error type deserve high attention or some attention In Leki’s (2006) research on students’ opinions about the value of written feedback, most students reported that they found feedback very useful but many also said that they would have liked even more, especially feedback helping them to identify problems and giving them information about academic and disciplinary expectations They also wanted their feedback to have a dual content/ language focus Hence, there must be a need for more investigations to address question on how L2 instructors / teachers can work to meet students’ need Chapter III Methodology 3.1 The selection of subjects To answer the questions of the research which aims at obtaining information on what students’ preferences are when receiving written feedback from the teachers and then find some suggestions for teachers to give feedback in teaching writing in second language classes 33 students, mostly females, 18 years old in grade 12A8, Vinh Phuc Gifted High School are chosen Their English proficiency is rated as intermediate with some ranked at upper-intermediate The secondary structure approach was also chosen while doing this research paper articles relating to the research questions of teacher written feedback on ESL learners’ writing skill were selected for analysis Three of them was retrieved from Journal of Second Language Writing and two from Modern Language Journal, one was taken from Journal of Higher Education and the other from TESL Canada Journal, which are respectively published in by professional disciplinary associations The other internet- based full articles in PDF or WORD format were carefully chosen, basing on website’s reliability as well as the high number of citations The rest came from books written by worldwide well- known authors in my research field such as Brookhart, Ferris, D.R,Hyland, I believe strongly that the selection of all the above writings was significantly contributed toward examining the research paper 3.2 Data collection instruments For the purpose of obtaining needed information, questionnaires are employed (see Appendix) The questionnaires include questions The first questions aims at finding students’ preferences in receiving writing feedback, the second question investigates at which stage of writing students prefer getting corrective feedback 3.3 Data collection procedure The questionnaires was conducted on Friday morning, th, September, 2013 on class 12A8, Vinh Phuc Gifted High School with 33 students in total As I am also in charge of being the form teacher of the class, all of my students are eager to engage into my research Chapter Results and Discussion In this part, I present the interpretation of quantitative data and detailed consideration of survey results from chosen articles in relation to relevant published work as well as my personal calculation and estimations The aim of this part is to provide closer look at individual points of view on different aspects related to corrective feedback as a way of finding out some effective ways for teachers to write feedback in students’ writing in order to improve students’ writing skill Question 1: In your opinion, should your writing be corrected? N o Strongly disagreed Disagreed Agreed Teachers should correct and comment your writing in written feedback Teachers should pay attention to the organization of your writing when giving written feedback 36% Teachers should pay attention to the content of your writing when giving written feedback 33,4% Teachers should pay attention to vocabulary of your writing when giving written feedback 51,5% Teachers should pay attention to grammar of your writing when giving written feedback 100% Teachers should pay attention to the punctuation and spelling of your writing when giving written feedback 33,4% Teachers should point out students’ errors directly 54,5% 45,5% Teachers should point out students’ errors indirectly 45,5% 54,5% When giving feedback, teacher should provide advice and include explanations, and employed openended questions Strongly agreed 100% 64% 66,6% 48,5% 66,6% 100% 10 10 When giving feedback, teachers should comment positively and praise on students’ writing 3,3 9,9 42,4 44,4 Overall the analysis of all the answers showed that teacher written feedback plays a great role in ESL writing (100%) The ESL learners seemed to believe that their teachers are able to help them to improve their ESL writing At the same time, they find teacher written feedback helpful in general for their writing are able to give some input in enhancing their writing They believe that learning to write essays using this combined method is beneficial because they can get different opinions from different people All the students perceived some form of improvement in their writing with the combination approach The students seemed convinced that they could improve their writing with assistance from both their teachers In ESL/EFL writing classes, all of the students agreed that grammatical correction feedback represents one of the most crucial aspects of improving learners’ writing (100%) The findings showed that marginal comments, requests for clarification, and comments on grammatical issues led to the most effective revisions ESL students attach a great deal of importance to writing accuracy and are eager to obtain the teacher’s comments on their errors They expect teachers to comment on their written errors and are frustrated if this does not happen and grammar feedback has been viewed as helpful by ESL students Although most students require teacher feedback to highlight their grammatical errors, some (66,6 %) reveal that they also want teachers to give them feedback on the content and ideas in their writing The students also indicated that they preferred comments that provided advice, included explanations, and employed open-ended questions Therefore, when giving feedback on student errors, writing teachers should also give students comments on their content and provide several tips on how to improve their writing As Chi (1999) points out, students appreciate comments that reflect the teacher’s involvement and engage them in an exchange about their writing Direct feedback is a technique of correcting students’ error by giving an explicit written correction On the other hand, indirect feedback is when the teacher indicates that an error has been made by means of an underline, circle, code, etc Both methods can improve student’s writing, and a number of students (54,5%) think that indirect feedback is generally more appropriate and effective than direct feedback In addition, when students feel that indirect feedback is useful in encouraging them to reflect on aspects of their writing and to develop improvements (Miceli, 2006) Indirect feedback can be done by a code representing a specific kind of error When giving indirect feedback, teachers underline errors and use codes to indicate the type of error such as SP (spelling error), P (fault in punctuation), and VT (wrong verb tense) 11 This method gives students the opportunity to fix errors themselves However, teachers should familiarize their students with the codes, so that they will not be surprised when they see teacher written comments However, direct feedback can be more beneficial to students in some contexts, especially when revising syntax and vocabulary (Miceli, 2006) According to Ferris (2002), direct feedback is appropriate, however, (1) for beginner students; (2) when errors are ‘untreatable’, i.e., errors not amenable to self-correction such as sentence structure and word choice and (3) when teachers want to draw students’ attention to other error patterns which require student correction However, when giving direct feedback, teachers should also give them clear explanations about grammatical errors so that they can deepen their English knowledge Also, a combination of direct and indirect feedback can be used for students in large mixed ability classes For the motivation and praise from teacher on students’ writing, the number of students (86,8%) agreed about this surmounted the number of students who were against It is the fact that, many researchers also indicated that the role of teachers in providing effective feedback for ESL learners is essential Writing teachers should not simply respond to grammar and content but should include comments of praise and encouragement in their written feedback Question If your teacher asks you to revise your writing, when you prefer your teacher to provide corrective feedback? Among 33 responses to this question, 29 students (87,8%) wanted to receive feedback from their teacher in every draft It is clear that students see the surpassing benefits of intermediate feedback over delayed feedback However, according to Cole and Chan (1989), one principle regarding the timing of feedback is that it is vital for teachers to give frequent feedback and corrective during the early stages of learning a new subject matter Students will learn more quickly if regular feedback is available during the initial stages of learning If early errors in the process of acquiring new knowledge are uncorrected, they may interfere with subsequent learning Furthermore, when students are allowed to practice errors, inappropriate ways of writing gradually consolidated and such persistent errors can be difficult to eradicate Chapter Recommendations and Conclusion Recommendations 12 This study contributes to research in highlighting students’ positive thinking of the important role of teacher written feedback in developing students’ writing skills An important implication for ESL writing is that although teacher feedback is considered more effective by many students, feedback methods with appropriately applied to students may well serve as an important supporting role in helping learners in their writing A combination of both types of feedback methods is thus crucial in the effort to improve students’ writing in the ESL classroom On the other hand, teachers should be aware of the importance of providing effective feedback for the development of ESL learners’ thinking and writing Feedback can encourage and advance student learning if it focuses on ‘growth rather than grading’ (Sadler, 1983: 60) To make use of its full potential, students must be able to self-manage learning and lecturers have a role in encouraging and motivating this ability within students (Nicol and MacFarlane-Dick, 2006) Thus, teachers may present themselves as helpful facilitators offering support and guidance Lastly, to give effective feedback to students to improve their written accuracy, classroom realities and the preferences of students must be considered In ESL writing classes, students need teachers to check about the mistakes they made When teachers give feedback, they should show students examples of how they can apply to improve their writing and give them the opportunity to talk in class to express their ideas and to discuss any challenging analytical issues In addition, written feedback must be done politely Remember mitigated commentary can be used as a tool to increase student motivation, engagement, and interest The researchers suggested that teachers have to come up with an effective method of feedback that takes into account the shortcomings of common methods of feedback, the positive aspects of them and the desires of students The goals of a particular writing course are one of the main factors that need to be considered when determining how to provide feedback Feedback that is a mismatch with assignment or course goals may be one of the factors contributing to students not knowing how to properly respond to it Among these are consideration of course and assignment goals, the stage of the writing process and the form of the feedback Aside from the aforementioned effectiveness of marking errors for student selfcorrection, other methods of feedback on grammar can be productive in improving students' writing skills To lessen student confusion, teachers should consistently use a standard set of symbols or markings to indicate place and type of error and train the students in what kinds of corrections to make based on each symbol Lists of proofreading symbols can easily be found in most writing textbooks, or teachers can create their own Furthermore, teachers should familarize students with the system so they will not be surprised when new symbols occur Many of the same kinds of improvements that can be made for feedback on form can also be made for feedback on content The failure of written comments dealing with 13 content comes from a combination of using inconsistent, unclear comments along with not training students in how to properly use the feedback to improve Teachers should consistently use a standard set of clear and direct comments and questions to indicate place and type of content feedback These types of comments and questions should focus students' attention on the content of the composition and the process they followed instead of merely pointing out areas that the teacher found interesting or lacking As Leki (1990) points out, these kinds of questions and comments can be used to create a dialog between the student and the teacher in order to give both a clearer understanding of how the assignment was and should be conceived and executed Furthermore, teachers should, as with grammar, familiarize students with the types of comments that will be used and train students in how to make use of the comments Without training in how to use the comments to better their writing, students are likely to either ignore the comments, misunderstand them, or fail to use them constructively (Cohen, & Cavalcanti, 1990; Kroll, 2001) The comments that the teachers use and training that they give students can be further developed in individual conferences Aside from using conferences to determine if students understand and are making use of feedback, teachers can also use them to explain their comments to the students Conferences are an excellent time for teachers and students to ask direct questions to each other and uncover any misunderstandings by either party One way to this would be to present students with pre-conference sheets that allow them to prepare questions for the teacher beforehand Likewise, the teacher should also prepare a list of comments and questions before the conference For the motivation and praise from teacher on students’ writing, many researchers also indicated that the role of teachers in providing effective feedback for ESL learners is essential According to Barkaoui (2007), teachers need to: a) motivate students, b) model effective revision strategies, c) raise students’ awareness about the importance of (re)seeing their texts from the reader’s perspective, d) encourage students to reflect on and self-assess their own writing, and e) use appropriate writing tasks and activities for teaching and assessment Feedback can serve as guidance for eventual writing development as far as students are concerned (Hyland, 2003) So, teachers should offer self–correction opportunity for their students by providing indirect feedback on student’s grammatical errors Writing teachers should not simply respond to grammar and content but should include comments of praise and encouragement in their written feedback Mitigation has been found to improve the confidence of students and lead them to be responsible for their writing (Weaver, 2006) To support effective written feedback, teachers should keep in mind that positive feedback is considered ‘positive reinforcement’ whereas negative feedback is considered ‘punishment’ (Brookhart, 2010: 11) Thus, teachers should be polite and mitigate their written feedback 14 As students see the surpassing benefits of intermediate feedback over delayed feedback, teachers should give feedback and correctives after students have made genuine attempts to complete assigned tasks It is vital for teachers to give frequent feedback and correctives during the early stages of learning a new subject matter Student will learn more quickly if regular feedback is available during the initial stages of learning Conclusion and suggestions for further study One general conclusion can be drawn from the findings of the study is that teacher written feedback actually affects the success of teaching writing still The matter is that if teachers are to intervene positively in language learning, they must take into consideration how best they can meet their learners’ needs Within the limitation scope of the study, this paper is never expected to cover all the needed information I hope that I can contribute to the study of corrective feedback in writing especially in Vietnam context and readers of this study can find it useful in their future work and study or at least see it as a reference worth looking at Due to the limitation of this study, it is a suggestion someone trial the different ways of giving feedback and investigate the improvement in students’ writing skill Appendix Students’ Preferences for Corrective Feedback in Writing 15 Question 1: In your opinion, should your writing be corrected? Read the following statements, then put a tick on your appropriate choice No Strongly disagreed Teachers should correct and comment your writing in written feedback Teachers should pay attention to the organization of your writing when giving written feedback Teachers should pay attention to the content of your writing when giving written feedback Teachers should pay attention to vocabulary of your writing when giving written feedback Teachers should pay attention to grammar of your writing when giving written feedback Teachers should pay attention to the punctuation and spelling of your writing when giving written feedback Teachers should point out students’ errors directly Teachers should point out students’ errors indirectly When giving feedback, teacher should provide advice and include explanations, and employed openended questions Disagreed Agreed Strongly agreed Note: 16 Direct error feedback is provided when the correct form is written on students’ papers Indirect error feedback is provided if the teachers indicate the location of the error indirectly by underlining, highlighting or circling or indirectly by indicating in the margins that there is an error on that line but without providing correct form (Lee, 2005) Question If your teacher asks you to revise your writing, when you prefer your teacher to provide corrective feedback? Circle the one you find it most appropriate A On the first draft B On the second draft C On the final draft D On every draft 17 References Barkaoui, K (2007) Revision in Second Language Writing: What Teachers Need to Know TESL Canada Journal, 25(1): 81-92 Brookhart, S M (2010) How to Give Effective Feeback to Your Students Instructional Supervision & Evaluation: The Teaching Process, pp 10-18 Chandler, J (2003) The Efficacy of Various Error Feedback for Improvement in the Accuracy and Fluency of L2 Student Writing.Journal of Second Language Writing 12: 267-296 Chi, F (1999) The Writer, the Teacher, and the Text: Examples from Taiwanese EFL College Students Paper Presented at the World Congress of Applied Linguistics Retrieved March 10, 2011, ERIC database Cohen, A D and Cavalcanti, M (1990) Feedback on Compositions: Teacher and Student Verbal Reports In B Krou (Ed.), Second Language Writing, pp 155-177 New York: Cambridge University Press Ferris, D R (2006) Does Error Feedback Help Student Writers? New Evidence on the Short- and Long-term Effects of Written Error Correction In Hyland, K., & Hyland, F (Eds.), 81-104 Ferris, D R and Roberts, B (2001) Error Feedback in L2 Writing Classes: How explicit does it need to be? 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Preferences for Corrective Feedback in Writing 15 Question 1: In your opinion, should your writing be corrected? Read the following statements, then put a tick on your appropriate choice No Strongly disagreed 1 Teachers should correct and comment your writing in written feedback 2 Teachers should pay attention to the organization of your writing when giving written feedback 3 Teachers should pay attention to. .. indirect feedback is generally more appropriate and effective than direct feedback In addition, when students feel that indirect feedback is useful in encouraging them to reflect on aspects of their writing and to develop improvements (Miceli, 2006) Indirect feedback can be done by a code representing a specific kind of error When giving indirect feedback, teachers underline errors and use codes to indicate... positive thinking of the important role of teacher written feedback in developing students’ writing skills An important implication for ESL writing is that although teacher feedback is considered more effective by many students, feedback methods with appropriately applied to students may well serve as an important supporting role in helping learners in their writing A combination of both types of feedback. .. crucial in the effort to improve students’ writing in the ESL classroom On the other hand, teachers should be aware of the importance of providing effective feedback for the development of ESL learners’ thinking and writing Feedback can encourage and advance student learning if it focuses on ‘growth rather than grading’ (Sadler, 1983: 60) To make use of its full potential, students must be able to self-manage... giving feedback, teachers should comment positively and praise on students’ writing 3,3 9,9 42,4 44,4 Overall the analysis of all the answers showed that teacher written feedback plays a great role in ESL writing (100%) The ESL learners seemed to believe that their teachers are able to help them to improve their ESL writing At the same time, they find teacher written feedback helpful in general for. .. general for their writing are able to give some input in enhancing their writing They believe that learning to write essays using this combined method is beneficial because they can get different opinions from different people All the students perceived some form of improvement in their writing with the combination approach The students seemed convinced that they could improve their writing with assistance... the surpassing benefits of intermediate feedback over delayed feedback However, according to Cole and Chan (1989), one principle regarding the timing of feedback is that it is vital for teachers to give frequent feedback and corrective during the early stages of learning a new subject matter Students will learn more quickly if regular feedback is available during the initial stages of learning If early... same kinds of improvements that can be made for feedback on form can also be made for feedback on content The failure of written comments dealing with 13 content comes from a combination of using inconsistent, unclear comments along with not training students in how to properly use the feedback to improve Teachers should consistently use a standard set of clear and direct comments and questions to indicate... the teachers use and training that they give students can be further developed in individual conferences Aside from using conferences to determine if students understand and are making use of feedback, teachers can also use them to explain their comments to the students Conferences are an excellent time for teachers and students to ask direct questions to each other and uncover any misunderstandings