Khóa luận tốt nghiệp tiếng anh: A study on giving feedback on speaking english for the 10th grade students at tay thuy anh upper secondary school in thai binh

The purpose of the study is to investigate the current situation of teachers’ giving feedback and its impacts on students’ learning in speaking lessons.. Therefore, it is essential for t

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my special thanks to M.A Tran Thi Van, my supervisor, who has given me great help with this graduation paper Without her experienced guidance, valuable suggestions and dutiful supervision, my research would be far from finished

I would also like to express my thankfulness to teachers and students at Tay Thuy Anh upper-secondary school for their help in completing my survey questionnaires as well as their willingness to share their ideas on the accomplishment of the study

I take this opportunity to thank the teachers in Department of Foreign Languages, Taybac University for their help and care for me during the time I

do this study

I am also indebted to all my friends who have kindly given me assistance and encouragement, without whom, the study would have no such great motivation

Last but not least, the support extended to me by members of my family has been immeasurable I would like to express my sincere thanks to them for their support and encouragement throughout my study

Son La, 30 th April, 2015

Le Thi Kim Thoa

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school with 100 tenth grade students and 8 teachers The purpose of the study is to investigate the current situation of teachers’ giving feedback and its impacts on students’ learning in speaking lessons

Data for the research was collected from observation sheets, questionnaires, and interviews Findings from these instruments reveal that teachers at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school are highly aware of the importance of giving feedback on students’ speaking Their direct feedback is mostly very useful and motivates students to talk at class The limitation of the study and some suggestions for further study are then drawn up

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Teachers’ background and their teaching conditions 24

Table 2: Teachers’ attitude towards speaking skill 25

Table3: Reasons for giving no feedback in teaching speaking English skill 26

Table 4: Teachers’ frequency of using some types of feedback 30

Table 5: Teachers’ opinions of types of feedback 31

Table 6: Teachers’ difficulties when giving feedback 31

Table 7: Reasons for giving no feedback in speaking skill 34

Table 8: Students’ opinions about appropriate time for teachers giving feedback in speaking skill 37

Table 9: The students’ preference for the types of feedback by the teachers 39

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Status of giving feedback in speaking English lessons 25

Chart 2: Teachers’ purposes in giving feedback for teaching speaking skill 27

Chart 3: The appropriate time for teachers giving feedback in speaking lesson 28 Chart 4: The aspects for teachers’ feedback 29

Chart 5: Year of learning English 32

Chart 6: Students’ opinions of learning speaking skill 33

Chart 7: Status of giving feedback in speaking skill 34

Chart 8: Students’ opinions of teachers’ feedback 35

Chart 9: The effects of teachers’ feedback towards students’ learning 36

Chart 10: The aspects of teachers’ feedback 37

Chart 11: Students’ frequency of receiving feedback 38

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

LIST OF TABLES……….iii

LIST OF CHARTS……….……iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… … v

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Purposes of the study 2 1.3 Scope of the study 2

1.4 Research questions 2

1.5 Methods of the study 3

1.6 Overview of the study 3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Theoretical background of speaking 4

2.1.1 Definition of speaking 4

2.1.2 Position of speaking skill in English Language Teaching 5

2.2 Theoretical background of teaching speaking 6

2.2.1 Definition of teaching speaking 6

2.2.2 The principles for teaching speaking 7

2.2.3 The importance of the teaching speaking 8

2.2.4 The relationship between teaching speaking and different skills 9

2.2.4.1 The relationship between speaking and listening 10

2.2.4.2 The relationship between speaking and reading 10

2.2.4.3 The relationship between speaking and writing 11

2.3 Theoretical background of feedback 12

2.3.1 Definition of giving feedback 12

2.3.2 Types of feedback 13

2.3.3 The impacts of giving feedback on speaking English 13

2.3.3.1 The advantages of giving feedback 13

2.3.3.2 The disadvantages of giving feedback 15

2.3.4 The teacher and students’ roles in giving and receiving feedback in speaking skills 15

2.3.4.1 The teacher’s roles 15

2.3.4.2 The students’ role 16

2.4 Summary 17

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 The setting of the study 18

3.1.1 The participants 18

3.1.2 The teaching context 18

3.1.2.1 Textbook 18

3.1.2.2 Students and their background 18

3.1.2.3 Teachers and teaching conditions 19

3.2 Research instruments 20

3.2.1 Survey questionnaires 20

3.2.1.1 The questionnaire for the teachers 20

3.2.1.2 The questionnaire for the students 21

3.2.2 Class observation 21

3.2.3 Interview 21

3.2.3.1 Students’ interview 22

3.2.3.2 Teachers’ interview 22

3.3 Procedure 22

3.4 Summary 22

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS 24

4.1 Introduction 24

4.2 Data analysis 24

4.2.1 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire 24

4.2.1.1 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire for the teachers 24

4.2.1.1.1 Teachers’ background and their teaching conditions 24

4.2.1.1.2 Teachers’ attitude towards teaching speaking skill 25

4.2.1.1.3 Status of giving feedback in speaking English lessons 25

4.2.1.1.4 Reasons for giving no feedback in teaching speaking English skill 26

4.2.1.1.5 Teachers’ purposes in giving feedback for teaching speaking skill 27

4.2.1.1.6 The appropriate time for teachers giving feedback in speaking lesson 28

4.2.1.1.7 The aspects for teachers giving feedback 29

4.2.1.1.8 Teachers’ frequency of using some types of feedback 30

4.2.1.1.9 Teachers’ opinions about types of feedback 31

4.2.1.1.10 Teachers’ difficulties when giving feedback 31

4.2.1.2 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire for the students 32

4.2.1.2.1 The background information of students 32

4.2.1.2.2 Students’ opinions of learning speaking skill 33

4.2.1.2.3 Status of giving feedback in speaking skill 34

4.2.1.2.4 Reasons for giving no feedback in speaking skill 34

4.2.1.2.5 Students’ opinions of teachers’ feedback 35

4.2.1.2.6 The effects of teachers’ feedback towards students’ learning 36

4.2.1.2.7 Students’ opinions about appropriate time for teachers giving feedback

in speaking skill 37

4.2.1.2.8 The aspects of teachers’ feedback 37

4.2.1.2.9 Students’ frequency of receiving feedback 38

4.2.1.2.10 The students’ preference for the types of feedback by the teachers 39 4.2.2 Data analysis of the class observation 39

4.2.3 Data analysis of the interview 40

4.2.3.1 Data analysis of the interview for students 40

4.2.3.2 Data analysis of the interview for teachers 41

4.2.4 Summary 42

CHAPTER V: MAJOR FINDINGS AND SOME SUGGESTIONS 43

5.1 Major findings 43

5.2 Some suggestions 44

CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION 46 REFERENCES I APPENDIX V

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

It is undoubted that nowadays English has become an international language that takes an important role in the social life of the world It helps to narrow the gap between people and people, country and country, continent and continent Moreover, it is the golden key to open human treasure of knowledge particularly in science and technology Therefore, teaching and learning English have been received a great amount of focus from every country all over the world

In Vietnam, learning English has become necessary to everybody This demand in language learning has brought about a great amount of positive changes in language teaching Language teachers have looked for and tried different methods and techniques in teaching and learning in order to find the effective ones The effectiveness of a teaching method or technique is reflected

in the learners’ language competence that is their abilities to perform the four skills Among which speaking skill appears to be the most important one for both teachers and students, Barry Sesnan (1997) Moreover, there is the fact that the question of teaching speaking effectively and attractively has been the concern of many teachers of English Therefore, it is essential for the teachers to find out effective teaching approaches to make the lesson more interesting so that she can attract students’ attention and help improve their speaking proficiency as well

In practice, however, many learners feel frustrated as they find that speaking in a foreign language is a complex matter It is because speaking involves many factors The ability to speak fluently presupposes not only knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and language “on the spot” (Harmer, 2001) In learning speaking skill, the students often find some problems The common problem is that their native language causes them difficult to use the foreign language Other reason is because of motivation lack to practice the second language in daily conversation They are

also too shy and afraid to take part in the conversation The researcher realizes that although teachers now no longer play a dominant role in class, their guidance, and supports have always been of beneficial help to students Especially teachers' feedback provision in response to students' performance is significantly important Additionally, while good feedback can have an impact

on students’ motivation and autonomy, bad feedback, on the other hand, can become a demotivating factor to their learning process Therefore, the suitable kind of feedback and the way feedback should be given to the students so that it fosters their learning and improves their speaking skills is quite frustrating – the problem that most teachers encounter in their speaking classes

All the above-mentioned reasons and factors have inspired the writer to

conduct a research titled: “A study on giving feedback on speaking English for the 10 th grade students at Tay Thuy Anh upper-secondary school in Thai Binh.”

1.2 Purposes of the study

The main purposes of this study are:

To identify the fact of giving feedback by teachers at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school in English speaking skills

To find out the impacts of teachers’ feedback on students in English speaking lessons to suggest on how to give feedback effectively

1.3 Scope of the study

In fact, feedback can be largely used in teaching and learning English for students at all grades However, in this study the research only intends to focus

on giving feedback on speaking English for 10th grade students at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school in Thai Binh Therefore, the findings and suggestions may be just useful for speaking skills in similar teaching conditions

1.4 Research questions

1 How do the teachers give feedback to the 10th form students in English speaking skills?

2 What are the impacts of teachers’ feedback on students in English speaking lessons?

1.5 Methods of the study

In order to collect sufficient data for analysis, the following methods were employed Theoretically, the researcher spent time reading books and materials available on teaching and learning speaking to get knowledge of the subject

Moreover, in order to find out the effective ways to give feedback on speaking English lesson, two questionnaires were conducted One was designed for teachers and the other was for students

The research also interviewed students and teachers about giving feedback

in speaking lessons to get information from participants

Observation was another method of the study The research observed the way teachers gave feedback and the impacts to students in speaking skill

1.6 Overview of the study

The study consists of six chapters:

Chapter I (Introduction) states the rationale, purpose of the study, the

research question, the methods, and the scope of the study

Chapter II (Literature review) presents the literature review of the study

including theoretical background of speaking, teaching speaking and giving feedback

Chapter III (Methodology) describes the research method in this study,

consists information of the setting, the participant, data collection instrument and procedure

Chapter IV (Data analysis) analyses data collected from the survey

questionnaires, the class observations and the interviews

Chapter V (Major findings and some suggested techniques) gives major

findings and some suggestions for giving feedback in order to stimulate 10thform students at Tay Thuy Anh upper-secondary school to speak English

Chapter VI (Conclusion) includes summary and limitations of the study

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the literature review of the study It will be devoted

to focus on the basic issues of speaking and giving feedback

2.1 Theoretical background of speaking

2.1.1 Definition of speaking

Speaking is crucially important for the whole learning process Lerris (2003) stated that speaking makes you a more fluent language user, speaking is a chance to notice the gaps between what you want to say and what you can say, it

is a chance to test hypotheses about language The term “speaking” catches much attention of linguistic Therefore, many definitions have been offered to this term so far

In Oxford Advanced Dictionary (1995), the definition of speaking “is to express or communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc, by or as talking and it involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological (articulator) and physical (acoustic) stages”

Together with Brown (1994), Burns and Joyce (1997), shared the same point of view that “speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” Chaney (1998:119) defined speaking “is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts”

Based on Byrne (2001), “speaking can be understood as the ability to express oneself opinions” Hedge (2000) said that “speaking is oral expression, the use of the sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation” While another expert, Huebner (1960:5) believed “Language is essentially speech, and speech

is basically communication by sounds” And according to him, speaking is a skill used by someone in daily life communication whether at school or outside The skill is acquired by much repetition; it primarily a neuromuscular and not an intellectual process It consists of competence in sending and receiving messages

From the above definitions, it can be inferred that speaking is expressing ideas, opinions, or feelings to other by using words or sounds of articulation in order to inform, to persuade, and to entertain that can be learnt by using some teaching and learning methodologies

2.1.2 Position of speaking skill in English Language Teaching

Different linguists and methodologists have recognized the essential role

of speaking skill in English Language Teaching for various reasons

In the first place, it is the speaking skill which helps the learners have communication which, as for Richard A (1991), is the proper aim of language teaching Once the learner communicates well, he can get information from others about anything he would like to know For example, a Vietnamese student in Australia can use his speaking activity to ask native student about the institution, and thus can have all the information concerned Also, as Larson (1996) believes, effective communication can bring people a more productive, satisfactory, and meaningful life In other words, being able to communicate successfully in a foreign language helps people to take it easy and be confident

to express themselves Therefore, conflicts threats and nervousness can be avoided and a better relationship will come to them

Secondly, according to Brown, G and G Yule (1992), speaking skills play

an ever important role in conveying transactional intentions That is, to make clear what it is that they want to say

Above all as Littlewood, W (1991) states, and communicative use is the goal as well as a means of learning which helps the learners reach it Therefore, speaking skill enforces and brings about the successful acquisition of reading, listening, and writing, in the other words, the learning of English as a whole It cannot be denied that although the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are put in connection of language teaching and learning, it is the speaking skill that is the most highly of all Factually, learning any of the other three skills and coming across any difficulties, it is the speaking skill that does not solve the problem by asking the teacher or the other for help Moreover,

additional information concerning the three other skills can only be attained with

an adequate speaking ability

In conclusion, speaking skill helps a special and very important positioning English Language Teaching as effective speaking activity ability It

is not only helps a learner to acquire the language better but to communicate successfully to improve his academic knowledge as well A learner of English can master the language in the true meaning only when he can actually use the language as a means of communication After all, what would make sense if after years of learning English, a person cannot speak English fluently to slowly? Speaking ability is the signal that reveals if a person really knows the language or not

2.2 Theoretical background of teaching speaking

2.2.1 Definition of teaching speaking

Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teacher have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues However, today’s world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students’ communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance

According to Nunan (2003), teaching speaking is to:

 Produce the English speech sounds and sounds patterns

 Use a word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language

 Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter

 Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

 Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments

 Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which are called fluency

As mentioned above, teaching speaking is an important work that needs all educators takes many interests to get the best results for effective teaching In addition, the qualification of learning is also improved better

2.2.2 The principles for teaching speaking

In order to help students have “communicative competence” it is actually essential for teachers of English to be aware of the principles for teaching speaking

David Nunan (2005) gave some principles for teaching speaking to beginning learners:

 Provide something for learners to talk about

 Create opportunities for students to interact by using group-work or pair-work

 Manipulate physical arrangements to promote speaking practice

Ann Burn and Helen Joyce (1977) worked out the principles for teaching speaking that teachers of English should bear in mind:

 Being learners need to understand the cultural and social purpose of spoken interaction which may be broadly classified as transaction or interaction

 Speaking involves an understanding that spoken texts differ from written texts in their grammatical patterns and discourse strategies

 Speaking involves an understanding of the way in which context influences the choice of language made

 Speaking activities should focus on text in context, rather than on the sentence-level grammatical construction on isolation

 Learning and practicing vocabulary, grammatical structures, pronunciation should be related to contexts and lead to the use of the whole texts

 Being spoken discourse types of text can be analyzed with learner for their typical structural grammatical patterns

Their principles are actually very useful and sufficient for teachers of English in teaching speaking If teachers of English follow all these principles and know how to adapt them in speaking lesson, they will be successful in developing the students’ speaking activity

But many teachers of English find it very difficult to apply these principles at most Vietnamese high schools where both teachers and learners are mainly focusing on linguistic competence Therefore, in the process of acquiring English, students try their best to practice vocabulary, grammar and do exercises related to these patterns They seem to neglect the cultural differences as well as communication purposes So, the difficulties when teachers apply these principles are unavoidable In order to get students speak accurately and fluently, it is very necessary for teachers to create flexible speaking activities and know how to exploit the students’ capacity in each activity in order to obtain the goal of language teaching and learning

2.2.3 The importance of the teaching speaking

According to David Nunan (2005) said that language teaching was seen to

as helping learners develop “linguistic competence” – that is, helping students master the sounds, words, and grammar patterns of English The idea was that

by studying the bits and pieces of a language, students could eventually put them all together and communicate

In “Teaching English to Children” Brumfit (1991), Moon and Tongue say:

“It is not surprising to note that a child’s concentration span increases as he/ she grows older Children cannot concentrate on one thing for a long period and therefore the authors recommend that lesson should be divided into a series of activities lasting no longer than five or ten minutes This is because children are bombarded with new experiences and information Teachers should introduce a reasonable number of new language items and present and practice them in a number of different ways

Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking Rather than leading students to pure memorization, providing

a rich environment where meaningful communication takes place is desired

2.2.4 The relationship between teaching speaking and different skills

Odewale speaks in “The Gods Are Not To Blame” by Nigerian author, Ola Rotimi: “I refuse to listen alone Speaking openly, son, before all- a cooking – pot for the chameleon is a cooking – pot for lizard.”

We know that English has four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing All of them are important, and all of them should be taught Because examination usually tests reading and writing only, the spoken (or oral) and listening skills are often forgotten or are given very little teaching time This concentration on written skills may well produce students who can pass the examination, but it does not help them learn English which will be useful to them outside school, where the oral element will be important

The four skills are related to each other in two ways

Barry Sesnan’s picture 1997

In other words, when person X wants to communicate he can use writing

or speech His message can therefore either be heard or read person Y We can also say that writing and reading both use the written or printed media, whereas speaking and listening use the air as medium

Speech definitely came first both in our own lives and in the development

of the human race We must always remember this and give oral English the priority it deserves

Giving feedbacks

to students on speaking English

Giving feedbacks to students on speaking English

2.2.4.1 The relationship between speaking and listening

Most people define oral communication narrowly, focusing on speaking and listening skills separately Traditionally, when people describe speaking skills, they do so in a context of public speaking Recently, however, definitions

of speaking have been expanded to include school plays, dramatic recitals and group activities Even when the majority of the class has mastered basic listening and speaking skills, it is important to keep in mind that not every student learns effective verbal communication or skillful listening abilities at the same rate Those students, who are not “catching on” as quickly as the rest of the class, are not so much unskilled as they are undisciplined The skills that can make difference between minimal and effective communication can be taught, practiced and improved

Jared (2001) claimed “speech recognition as a person learning to take dictation in a language needs to learn the vocabulary and the pronunciation of the language Getting good at dictation takes a lot of practice hearing the language spoken it helps to know what people are likely to talk about, how they express themselves, and the common construction and idioms”

In conclusion, we shall consider elements of pronunciation that extend over entire utterances Also acts of speech are physical acts which often involve the whole body In addition to employing our voice, we also use eyes movement mimes and gestures As we speak with our vocal organs, we converse with our entire bodies

2.2.4.2 The relationship between speaking and reading

The fact is that spoken language and reading have a lot in common If the printed words can be efficiently recognized, comprehension of connected text depends heavily on the readers’ oral- language abilities, particularly with regard

to understanding the meanings of words that have been identified and the syntactic and semantic relationships among them Indeed, many early research reports called attention to the differences between good and poor readers in their comprehension and production of structural relations within spoken sentences

Moreover, beginning readers need to learn phonological awareness: awareness

of the sound system; and graphological awareness: knowledge of the letters and

an understanding that letters and letter combinations stand for sounds and words

If people are only doing oral skills, it might not include much attention to the elements of the sounds of the language- the bits and pieces- even if they do some work on pronunciation

2.2.4.3 The relationship between speaking and writing

Speaking and writing have a close relationship within language; they are very similar because both disciplines require the language learners to create language However, it is fundamental premise that putting pen to paper forces you to iron out the grammatical and spelling mistakes which may have gone unnoticed when speaking We know that while writing our students can ask others to check it for them before it reaches its final destination But this process

of checking will also make our learners’ speaking improve because they will be able to visualize the words as they are saying them and see where these words would go if they were writing them down

Considerable research has been done on the relationship between speaking and writing development in the first language acquisition from different perspectives, Kantor and Rubin (1981); Cambourne (1981); Gere (1981); Labor (1963) argued “competence in the spoken language appears to be a necessary base for competence in writing and predicted it would be relatively difficult for the students with low proficiency in speaking to master written conventions Kroll (1981) stated there was a developmental trend on speaking and writing, which progressed through different phrases of development These studies have provided valuable information for the first language instructors to facilitate their student language acquisition

Many beginners shy away from creating language, preferring instead to concentrate on listening and reading, those aspects which are centered on understanding other people’s language But writing and speaking help everyone

to get better at the language and understanding how it works Not until you have

put the kills into practice in writing and speaking yourself can you truly appreciate how language works

In short, the four areas are important, they are connected, and one leads to another Just think in our daily life, we read a newspaper, we talk on the phone,

we listen to a song and we write a mail When we talk about a second language

is the same We can be more or less skillful in any of them, but all of the areas are important

All in all, four language skills of teaching and learning a foreign language are closely interrelated The relationship among language skills motivates students greatly in their learning

2.3 Theoretical background of feedback

2.3.1 Definition of giving feedback

In Cambridge International Dictionary of English (2000), feedback is defined as information or statements of opinion about something, such as a new product, that provide an idea of whether it is successful or liked

In Ramapsasad’s opinion (1983) “feedback is information about the gap between the actual level and the reference level of a system parameter which is used to alter the gap in some way”

According to Grant Wiggins (1998) “feedback is not about praise or blame, approval or disapproval That’s what evaluation is – placing value Feedback is value-neutral It describes what you did and did not do”

W Fred Miser (1998) stated that “feedback is an objective description of

a student’s performance intended to guide future performance Unlike evaluation, which judges performance, feedback is the process of helping our students assess their performance, identify areas where they are right on target and provide them tips on what they can do in the future to improve in areas that need correcting”

Robyn R Jackson (2009) assumes that feedback shows where we are in relationship to the objectives and what we need to do to get there Its intent is to help students get better at learning

In the context of teaching and learning language, there have been various studies to look at the roles of feedback In short, feedback should be used for more than correction, also be a motivating factor Feedback provision can be among peers or between teachers and students; however, in this study, the research just focus on the notion of teaching-learning between the teacher and students

accuracy Evaluative feedback aims to provide a judgment on the students'

performance Gattullo (2000) suggests that evaluate feedback is dominant in second and foreign language classroom In giving evaluative feedback, teachers use words and phrases to indicate the extent to which students' performance is

good or not Finally, strategic feedback usually aims to offer students advice on

what to do to improve their performance In other word, the teachers try to suggest ways of helping students to overcome their mistakes

2.3.3 The impacts of giving feedback on speaking English

2.3.3.1 The advantages of giving feedback

Feedback is an essential part of effective learning It helps students understand the subject being studied and gives them clear guidance on how to improve their learning

Bellon et al state “academic feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than any other teaching behavior…this relationship is consistent regardless of grade, socioeconomic status, race, or school setting” Feedback can improve a student’s confidence, self- awareness and enthusiasm for learning Providing students engage with feedback, it should enhance learning and improve assessment performance

Feedback on performance is so important that Gibbs and Simpson (2004) said that feedback to the students on their assignments was the single most powerful influence on student achievement In fact, an item about the importance and quality of feedback shows up on almost all students evaluations

of teaching

New HSC Assessment and Reporting Bulletin No 4: Establishing sound assessment practices – providing meaningful feedback has been issued to all schools in Term 4, 2000 The following comments are based on that issue:

Providing students with meaningful information prior to an assessment task gives them every opportunity to present their best possible response to a given task Teachers are their prime source of support Students rely on their teachers to give them feedback about the things they are doing well and how they might improve in other areas

The school assessment program provides a major source of information

on how successfully students are performing in their courses The information is valuable for both the student and the teacher

Feedback can provide students with information about strengths and weaknesses of responses, the outcomes achieved and students’ performance in relation to standards and to other students:

 For students, effective feedback on responses to assessment tasks should include:

- what was expected from the task

- meaningful information about the quality of work

- clear statements about how to improve

- correction of misunderstandings

- Reinforcement of what has been done well

 For teachers, effective feedback enables them to evaluate:

- teaching and learning programs

- teaching strategies

- assessment strategies

- assessment task design

- Marking guidelines

2.3.3.2 The disadvantages of giving feedback

When studying the giving feedback for teaching speaking, many advantages are discussed Everything, however, has two sides Gibbs and Simpson (2004) give some problems when teachers give feedback such as time, controlling class…

 Controlling class

As mentioned in the first part of this chapter, oral one has to give and receive information when they carry out a real communication While teachers give feedback for the students who have been spoken in front of the class, the noise made by other students is unavoidable In fact, the noise certainly will not bother students themselves when they are too busy practicing speaking so it is considered “good noise” But the noise makes students lose concentrating on teacher’s feedback Therefore, it may be necessary for teachers to think of ways

of keeping the noise level down at times In order to help students receive effective feedback, teacher should control class well when giving feedback

2.3.4 The teacher and students’ roles in giving and receiving feedback in speaking skills

2.3.4.1 The teacher’s roles

People have in general many different roles Everybody plays a part in society According to Brno (2006) experience the personality of a teacher and his/ her approach is very important A teacher’s role is very significant and

should be in a high level A teacher is often the first person who gives children new information about a foreign language According to many practical methodological books, a teacher can change various roles, because individual stages of the lesson require different approaches to learners Sometimes only the teacher’s personality can decide if the children’s attitude towards learning foreign language is positive or negative

Moreover, when giving feedback teacher should consider carefully the selection of feedback In the first place, appropriateness is necessary It means that giving feedback must suitable with students’ English level Secondly, giving feedback should concern about the mood of students; only then they have potential to bring motivation in the language classroom Thirdly, honest feedback is very important for students to encourage them to speak English

2.3.4.2 The students’ role

The younger learner is very significant and all work should be aimed towards him “Younger learners respond to language according to what it does

or what they can do with it, rather than treating it as an intellectual game in abstract system This has both advantages and disadvantages: on the one hand they respond to the meaning underlying the language used and do not worry about individual words or sentences, on the other hand, they do not make the analytical links that older learners do Younger learners have the advantage of being great mimics, are often unselfconscious, and are usually prepared to enjoy the activities the teacher has prepared for them”, Younger Learners, S Philips (1997)

Especially, when students receive feedback from their teacher, literary quality is not the only the criterion for the selection of feedback Quite often

“bad” writing proves more useful or stimulating than “good” Feedback is not necessarily presented as model of good writing Students are not required to approve of them, but simple to work with them to improve their speaking skill

2.4 Summary

The chapter so far has presented the relevant literature, which has helped

to form the theoretical and conceptual framework for the study It concerns different aspects related to speaking skill and feedback In which the definition and importance of speaking skill and teaching speaking as well as the relationship of the teaching speaking with the different skills and between speaking skill and other skills have been mentioned Also, the definitions, types, the important role of teachers’ feedback for teaching and learning English speaking skill are stated

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

This chapter consists of two parts The first part focuses on the situation

of the study, which shows the description of aims, the subject, the speaking materials and the conditions of the study The second part of the chapter focuses

on the methodology used for doing this research It describes the speaking lessons in which the data are collected and the data collection instruments, which consist of observation, questionnaires and interview

3.1 The setting of the study

3.1.1 The participants

The participants in my study are the teachers and the students who are teaching and learning in 10th form at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school in Thai Binh

The teachers are in 8 numbers All of them have spent from 3 to over 10 years teaching English Some of them have been highly experienced teachers of Thai Binh town

Besides, 10 – grade students are also very important participants The total number of students is 100 from 2 classes (10A3, 10A5); they belong to two kinds of classes: Advanced class and Basic class Thus, they have different levels and different abilities

3.1.2 The teaching context

3.1.2.1 Textbook

All of the students have used the new textbooks in 2006, which consists of

16 units There are five lessons in each unit: Reading, speaking, listening, writing, and language focus Generally, the topics in this textbook are very familiar to real life and interesting to most of students

The speaking lessons are designed after reading lessons with a wide range

of different tasks

3.1.2.2 Students and their background

The majority under the study are 10th form students at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school in Thai Binh They are male and female aged 15 or 16

Most of them have been learning English for more than 5 years After several years of learning English, students learn how to use it in communication, but they are too shy and afraid to take part in the conversation This influences the method of teaching and learning English speaking skill a lot

Besides, Tay Thuy Anh high school lies on Thai Binh which is a rural area; therefore, there are also many difficulties in teaching and learning English, especially, speaking skill Moreover, the students have only one speaking lesson every week As a result, the students have difficulties in improving their speaking skill

From that, students will have low motivation or not be interested in learning It is important that the teacher should find effective methods and arouse students’ interest in the speaking lesson

3.1.2.3 Teachers and teaching conditions

Almost all teachers in the Tay Thuy Anh high school are aged from 25 to above 40 They have been teaching English from 3 to over 10 years Their class- size is forty or even fifty students and each teacher often has three or four such classes, meaning that they are responsible for the learning result of more than two hundred students Meanwhile, their main teaching material is poor

Besides, the language teaching method at most secondary schools is still influenced by some methods in the past like the grammar- teaching method with the training method at school, students have little time, to practice such as role- play, game, visual aids… are rarely or never used Too much time at class is spent on studying grammar, vocabulary, and doing exercises Therefore, though students can do exercises correctively, they often make mistakes when speaking

in front of the class

In process of doing this study, we asked the teachers of English at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school about classroom problems that they have been facing when teaching speaking activities Many teachers complained that there are some main problems during speaking activities:

- Students do not talk or say anything

- Students are too shy and afraid to take part in conversation

- When students work in pairs or groups they end up chatting in their own language

- Students do not know how to pronounce unfamiliar words

- Teachers use Vietnamese mostly during the language lesson

3.2 Research instruments

3.2.1 Survey questionnaires

Gilliam (2000) pointed out a lot of advantage of using questionnaire Firstly, it is easy and quick to get information from a large of respondents because of its low costs in time and money Secondly, the anonymity of the respondents may make them feel freer to respond Thirdly, the analysis of the answer to closed questions is relatively straightforward

The survey was conducted among 100 students at two different classes 10A3 and 10A5 (belong to both advanced class and basic class) and 8 teachers

of English at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school in Thai Binh To make sure that all the students understand the questionnaires in the survey, all the new and difficult terms should be made clear

3.2.1.1 The questionnaire for the teachers

The questionnaire (see appendix 1) including 16 questions was divided into 4 main parts

At first, the number of years and condition of the teachers would be collected through the answers to the first questions (question 1, 2) Next, their attitudes towards speaking skill would be found from the results of the questions

3 In the third part, teacher’s comment on speaking activities available in the textbook would be also found of the question 4 The final part of questionnaire (from question 5 to 16) consisted of 12 questions mainly about whether or not the teachers have ever given feedback in teaching speaking skill and the reasons why they have not given feedback If they have ever given feedback in teaching speaking skill, how often, how effective, what types…the feedback bring for students

3.2.1.2 The questionnaire for the students

The questionnaire (see appendix 2) consisted of 10 questions, which was divided into the following main points Firstly, the question 1 gave the students’ time of learning English to show what their English level in assumption was Secondly, the students’ opinion about speaking skill was shown at the questions

2 Finally, it consisted of 8 questions mainly about whether or not the students have ever been given feedback in learning speaking skill and the reason why they have not been given them, how to use, how often, how effective, what types… the teachers give them

3.2.2 Class observation

Nachmias (1996) emphasizes that the reason for using observation is the advantage of its directness that enables the research to study behaviors as it occurs in such a natural setting in class, and to collect data firsthand Besides, it

is easy for the investigator to observe enthusiasm or boredom and linguistic behavior like verbal communication or interaction among subjects

By observing, following and recording all activities the teachers and students performed in the real classroom setting, the researcher could check the reality of the data collected from two questionnaires The observation was carried out in two speaking periods at 2 classes (10A3, 10A5) For each lesson, she observed 45 minutes During the observation process, she paid attention to the students’ attitudes toward teachers’ activities, their involvement in these activities and their reactions to activities giving feedback applied in the lesson as well as their preference for these activities The researcher observed two speaking lessons of two units in two classes The two units are of Unit 12:

"Music” (see appendix 3) and Unit 13: “Film and Cinema” (see appendix 4) to collect data for this study

3.2.3 Interview

Individual interview were chosen as one of supplementary instruments of this study Its aims are gather further information and increase the reliability for the research Students were asked to answer one question and the teachers who

taught English at 10th grade were asked to answer three questions (see appendix 5)

3.3 Procedure

The questionnaires used in this study were not based on any single theory but designed by considering the need and importance of an instrument for serving the purpose of the researcher

The questionnaires were distributed to 8 teachers of English and 100 students coming from two different classes 10A3 and 10A5 (belonging to both advanced class and basic class) at Tay Thuy Anh upper secondary school in Thai Binh Subjects received oral instructions from their teachers (who had agreed with the researcher on how to administer the questionnaires) about how

to complete the questionnaires, and were encouraged to seek clarification of any items they did not understand The survey questionnaires took about thirty minutes to complete, consisting of five minutes’ initial explanation and five minutes’ collecting the survey questionnaires The questionnaires were estimated carefully with this amount of time in mind to ensure that they could be complete, and the process of finishing questionnaires was conducted comfortably

3.4 Summary

It should be confirmed that research method and procedure are important works in any research In this study, questionnaires are used as the main instruments because they were valuable complementary methods to gain the

objectives of this study The methodology of the study has been displayed as the guidelines for the researcher to follow during the implementation of the study

In the next chapter, the analysis of data and the major findings will be identified

in detail

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 Introduction

This part of the study is the treatment of all data collected from the survey questionnaires conducted on 100 students and 8 teachers of English at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school, from class observation( at 10A3 and 10A5), and from the interview with 8 teachers and 20 students (10 students at 10A3 and 10 students at 10A5)

4.2 Data analysis

4.2.1 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire

4.2.1.1 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire for the teachers

After analyzing the survey questionnaire, the most interesting and significant ones were selected to present here In the survey questionnaire for the teachers, the two first questions were used to find out:

4.2.1.1.1 Teachers’ background and their teaching conditions

Table 1: Teachers’ background and their teaching conditions

Looking at the table, it indicates that all of the teachers of English (100%)

at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school have been teaching English for 3 to

10 years This shows that they are all still young; therefore, some of them may not have enough good experience in teaching English These teachers themselves may face with difficulties in size of the class It shows from the results to question 2 that 100% of the teachers have to teach in the classes of

more 40 students In such large classes, it might be hard for the teachers to get students involved in learning tasks

4.2.1.1.2 Teachers’ attitude towards teaching speaking skill

Table 2: Teachers’ attitude towards speaking skill

4.2.1.1.3 Status of giving feedback in speaking English lessons

Chart 1: Status of giving feedback in speaking English lessons

88%

22%

ever never

When being asked if they have ever given feedback in process of the teaching speaking skill, 88% of them say: “EVER” and the rest choose

“NEVER” Those who choose “NEVER” must have had the reasons why they have not given feedback in teaching speaking English (As we can see in the table below)

4.2.1.1.4 Reasons for giving no feedback in teaching speaking English skill Table3: Reasons for giving no feedback in teaching speaking English skill

Firstly, all of the teachers have found feedback suitable to the students of the speaking English lesson It is the fact that they have enough confidence and experience to give feedback for students

Secondly, half of the teachers think that students do not want to listen teacher’s feedback Perhaps, teachers believe that students do not want to listen their complaining; therefore, they do not give feedback in speaking lesson

Thirdly, there are many ways to help students learn speaking well; for instance, situations, games, textbooks, videos, etc Therefore, giving feedback is unnecessary That is the thought of 50% of the teachers And the rest has not denied the use of giving feedback

Fourthly, all of the teachers agree with the reason why giving feedback may take much time for both students and teachers Maybe, it is a main reason why teacher do not give feedback in speaking lesson

Lastly, the table also presents that 50% of the teachers think that not very positive feedback may demotivate your students and the rest does not think so

In short, the teachers have their own reasons to give no feedback in teaching and learning speaking skill It is hoped that the teacher can make the best advantages and reduce the weakness of the feedback to get the most effective ways to teach speaking skill

Giving feedback in speaking lesson has own advantages and disadvantages The most important thing is that teachers should choose the appropriate feedback that is suitable for their students

Next, the question in B will help us to find out the purposes, attitude, types of teachers towards giving feedback as well as difficulties they meet when they giving feedback in teaching speaking skill

4.2.1.1.5 Teachers’ purposes in giving feedback for teaching speaking skill

Chart 2: Teachers’ purposes in giving feedback for teaching speaking skill

The chart 2 shows that teachers often take their purposes into consideration before giving feedback 67% of the teachers, in the study, are

c: to help students…

convinced that feedback is aim at increasing students’ motivation in speaking Helping teachers have opportunities to assess students easily is favored by 83% Especially, 100% of the teachers find out the purposes that giving feedback helps students know what they have got and have not got

In conclusion, the teachers all have realized that giving feedback brings the advantages for teaching and learning speaking skill As a result, giving feedback is an effective technique for teaching and learning speaking skill process

4.2.1.1.6 The appropriate time for teachers giving feedback in speaking lesson

Chart 3: The appropriate time for teachers giving feedback in speaking

lesson

According to the chart above, a great number of teachers (67%) give feedback in the post- speaking, while 33% of them often give feedback in the while- speaking In order to help teachers to find out all the advantages of giving feedback and to impart their knowledge and their experience to students, they need have a suitable time From that, students will acquire teacher’s knowledge and experience to improve their speaking skill

67%

33%

while- speaking post- speaking