Practice of peer written feedback in paragraph writing skills among third-year students of Hanam College of Education (HCE)

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* PRACTICE OF PEER WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN PARAGRAPH WRITING SKILLS AMONG THIRD- YEAR STUDENTS OF HANAM COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (HCE) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI, 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* PRACTICE OF PEER WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN PARAGRAPH WRITING SKILLS AMONG THIRD- YEAR STUDENTS OF HANAM COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (HCE) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 N HANOI, 2016 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I confirm that this is my own research, and that has not been published or submitted for any other degrees Student’s signature Phạm Thị Hồng i ABSTRACT The main aim of this minor thesis is to examine the way in which the thirdyear students of HCE give feedback to their peer’s written paragraphs, the difficulties students might encounter when responding to their peer’s writing, to find out whether the method is effective In order to get adequate information for the study, document analysis of students’ peer written feedback and survey method were applied The participants involved in the study were 20 third- year students from classes of HCE The data analyzing suggests that the students gave feedback on all areas of the paragraph especially on grammar and vocabulary And, the study results also reveal that peer feedback is effective to the students’ learning of writing Although the peer written feedback to students’ writing brings the certain effectiveness, a large number of HCE still have difficulties in indicating the mistakes in their peer’s writing and in giving suggestion to overcome those mistakes ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On completing this thesis, I own profound indebtedness to so many people, without whose contribution and spiritual support I could not have accomplished it First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, for his scholarly instruction critical comments, great encouragement and valuable materials, without which the thesis would not have been completed I would like to send my heart-felt gratitude to the teachers at the Foreign Language Department of Hanam College of Education (HCE) who have supported me by giving useful advice and providing me with their useful teaching materials My sincere thanks also go to the third-year students of HCE for their patience and willingness to my survey questionnaire Moreover, I would like to send my gratitude to my family and my friends for encouraging me and supporting me during the time of the thesis Without them, I would not have been able to complete this thesis iii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES Table 1: Students’ giving feedback on grammar Table 2: Examples of students’ giving feedback on grammar Table 3: Students’ giving feedback on vocabulary Table 4: Examples of students’ giving feedback on vocabulary Table 5: Students’ difficulties in indicating the mistakes in their peers’ writings Table 6: Students’ difficulties in providing suggestion the mistakes in the peers’ writings Table 7: Students’ improvement in the paragraph organization after receiving peer written feedback Table 8: Students’ improvement in grammar after receiving peer written feedback Table 9: Students’ improvement in vocabulary after receiving written feedback iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The percentage of students who gave feedback on paragraph organization Figure 2: The percentage of students who provided suggestions for the grammatical mistakes Figure 3: The percentage of students who provided suggestions for the vocabulary mistakes Figure 4: The percentage of students who gave general written comments v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES iv LIST OF FIGURES v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale of the study I Aims and objectives of the study III Scope of the study III Significance of the study III Research methodology IV Organization of the thesis V PART B: DEVELOPMENT Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1 Theoretical background Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1.1 Definition Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1.2 Types of feedback to students’ writing Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2 Literature review Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3 Different views of peer written feedback in the teaching and learning of writing Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.1 Arguments in favor of students’ peer written feedback in the teaching and learning of writing Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.2 Argument against peer written feedback in teaching and learning of writing Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4 Different types of peer feedback in writing Error! Bookmark not defined vi 1.4.1 Oral comments Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4.2 Using the checklists Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4.3 Written comments Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOG Y Error! Bookmark not defined 2.1 Research questions Error! Bookmark not defined 2.2 Research methods Error! Bookmark not defined 2.2.1 The participants Error! Bookmark not defined 2.2.2 Instrumentation Error! Bookmark not defined 2.2.3 Data collection procedure Error! Bookmark not defined 2.2.4 Data analysis method Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1 Student’s practice of giving peer written feedback .Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1.1 Feedback on paragraph organization Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1.2 Feedback on grammar Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1.3 Feedback on vocabulary Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1.4 General comments feedback Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1.5 Students’ using the checklist when giving feedback Error! Bookmark not defined 3.2 Students’ difficulties when giving written feedback to their peers’ writings Error! Bookmark not defined 3.2.1 Students’ difficulties in indicating the mistakes in their peers’ writings Error! Bookmark not defined 3.3 Improvement of students’ writing after receiving peer written feedback Error! Bookmark not defined 3.3.1 Students’ improvement in paragraph organization after receiving peer written feedback Error! Bookmark not defined 3.3.2 Students’ improvement in grammar after receiving peer written feedback Error! Bookmark not defined vii 3.3.3 Students’ improvement in vocabulary after receiving peer written feedback Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Error! Bookmark not defined 4.1 Findings Error! Bookmark not defined 4.3 Implications for teaching and learning of writing using peer written feedback Error! Bookmark not defined 4.3.1 Implications for teaching of writing using peer written feedback Error! Bookmark not defined 4.3.2 Implication for learning of writing using peer written feedback Error! Bookmark not defined PART C: CONCLUSION Error! Bookmark not defined Concluding remarks Error! Bookmark not defined Limitation of the study Error! Bookmark not defined REFERENCES VI APPENDICES Error! Bookmark not defined viii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study English is an international language and considered to be one of the key factors which any country needs on the way of developing Students after graduating are the labor force of each country Therefore, the demand to use English frequently is very necessary to all students in general and students in Hanam College of Education (HCE) in particular Among the four skills, writing seems to be the most difficult As an English teacher, I deeply feel the responsibilities to help students improve their skills, especially writing skill There are many ways which can be applied to improve the students’ writing skills, and peer feedback is one of them According to Hyland (1990), providing effective written feedback is one of the most important tasks for English writing teachers Ferris (1995) shares the same belief: teacher feedback has been indicated to be desirable for the development of student writing Bitchener, Young & Cameron (2005) debate that written feedback should be provided as it is often neglected and misunderstood by students Other linguists such as Dochy, Segers, & Sluijsmans (1999) strongly hold it that students peer feedback has many pros over cons and peer learning and assessment help students develop communication skills, the ability to collaborate, critical thinking, and habits of life-long learning In the peer feedback method, students write the first draft and exchange it with their peers Then, they read each other’s papers and give feedback, usually based on the checklist from the teacher The checklist focuses on some areas of the writing such as organization, grammar and vocabulary, etc The selection of the areas to be included in each specific feedback method depends on the characteristics of the students The use of peer feedback, especially peer written feedback in writing classrooms has been generally supported in the literature as a valuable aid by many researchers There are some main reasons why a lot of teachers have chosen to use I peer written feedback in the writing classroom First, peer feedback has great influence on the success of teaching and learning In this method, students exchange their papers to their peers It means that there are more opportunities for collaboration, consideration and reflection than oral negotiation and debate This is very necessary to the progress of teaching and learning English Second, peer feedback is essential to the teaching and learning writing because peer readers can provide useful feedback so that peer writers can revision effectively on the basis of the comments from peer readers Last, it is found that when students become critical readers of others’ writings, they will be more critical readers and revisers of the own writings However, using peer written feedback is not easy because students’ level of English proficiency is not always the same and this method also takes a lot of time from teachers and students Recently, every school and university in Vietnam has tried to apply the latest methodology in teaching language skills in general and in teaching writing skill in particular in order to make language teaching and learning as effective as possible HCE is not an exception HCE was founded 50 years ago However, the faculty of foreign languages has just been founded for only years Working in such a young faculty, the English teachers of the college have to cope with a lot of challenges To overcome these, the teachers have tried their best to study and apply the latest and most effective method to their teaching the four skills in general and the writing skill in particular Many methods have been applied to teach the writing skills One of them is the peer written feedback This method has been applied for the thirdyear students for one year This research was done to investigate how students give feedback in paragraph writing skill among the third-year students of HCE; to examine the difficulties students might encounter when giving feedback; and to find out whether the method is effective From these, the author could have a clear idea about the application of this method in teaching English and decide whether to use this method in teaching the writing skills in the future or not II The text book named “Academic Writing” (By Liz and Roar, Third edition) is used to teach writing paragraph at HCE This textbook consists of 14 lessons with specific forms of paragraph At the end of each lesson, students are usually asked to write a paragraph based on the specific form of paragraph (compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem and solution, narrative, etc.) to revise what they have learnt A huge amount of feedback from the teacher is required In order to ease the teachers’ burden in giving feedback to students’ writing and make this process meaningful to students’ learning, a new way of giving feedback, peer feedback was introduced Aims and objectives of the study This research aims at investigating students’ peer written feedback in paragraph writing skills among the third-year students of HCE to have a clear idea whether this method is suitable with the students and could be used in the further or not This aim of the research is specified by the following objectives The first is to examine the students’ current practice of giving peer written feedback; the difficulties students might encounter when giving feedback, and to find out whether the method is effective The second is to propose some implication for teaching and learning using peer written feedback and provide some suggestions for further study Scope of the study Apparently, there are many various techniques of feedback in writing such as teachers’ written feedback, self-correction, peer feedback and oral conferences Within the framework of a minor thesis, this study only focuses on one type of feedback, peer written feedback in writing paragraphs among the third- year students of HCE Significance of the study Theoretically, writing is the most prominent skills that language learners need to learn as an essential component of their academic practice and later on in their professional life, which partially explains why teaching writing has prompted a good deal of research that covers various aspects of its broad instructional contexts III Therefore, this study mentions a method- peer written feedback and tries to find out whether feedback is crucial to the teaching and learning of writing Peer feedback gives both the reader and the writer more opportunities for collaboration, consideration and reflection than oral negotiation and debate Practically, using peer written feedback also relieves the teachers’ heavy workload of marking the paper and makes this process meaningful to students’ learning And it also helps students improve their writing skills Obviously, when students read their peers’ writings, they not only help their peers recognize and correct mistakes but also become more critical writers Research methodology 5.1 Research questions With this aim in mind this study will be guided by the following research questions: How the third-year students of HCE give feedback to their peers’ written paragraphs? What difficulties might the students encounter when giving feedback to their peers’ written paragraphs? To what extent the students improve their writings after receiving feedback from their peers? 5.2 Research methodology In order to obtain adequate data to seek answers to the research questions, this study used two methods They were document analysis and questionnaire Document analysis helps the author find out the data to answer research question number and number 3, and questionnaire provides information to help the author answer research question number In the document analysis, 20 students’ first drafts with the peer written feedback were collected and analysed to find out how student gave feedback to their peers’ written paragraphs Then, the students’ first drafts were compared with their IV second drafts to see whether the peer written feedback helps students improve their writing or not The questionnaire was done on 20 students who had given feedback to find out the difficulties students might cope with when giving feedback to their peers’ writing Organization of the thesis The paper consists of main parts: Part A: Introduction- briefly states the rationale of the study, the aims, research questions, scope as well as the significance and organization of the study Part B: Development -This part consists of chapters Chapter 1: Theoretical background and literature review- discusses the literature related to students’ writing’s feedback, different views and ways of peer feedback in writing and the guiding principles for effective peer written feedback Chapter 2: Research methodology- describes the methodology which deals with the participants, instrumentation, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure Chapter 3: Data analysis - analyses the collected data Chapter 4: Findings and discussion- reports the final results and draws the implication for the teaching and learning of writing using peer written feedback Part C: Conclusions- summarizes the major findings of the study, acknowledges its limitation and provides suggestions for further study V REFERENCES Bartels, N (2004) Written peer response in L2 writing, Retrieved on April 26, 2008, from http://exchange.stage.gov/forum/vols/vol141/no1/p.34.htm Bitchener, J., Young, S., & Cameron, D (2005) “The effect of different types of corrective feedback on ESL student writing” Journal of Second Language Writing, 14, 191-205 Black et al ( 2004) Assessment for Learning: putting it into practice Buckingham: Open University Press Brown, H.D (1994) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, Englewood, New Jersey Prentice Hall Regents Byrne, D (1991) Teaching writing skills- Longman handbooks for language teacher Longman Casanave, C (2004) “Controversies in Second Language Writing: Dilemmas and Decisions in Research and Instruction” ELT Journal, 58, p.29-39 Charles, M (1990) “Responding to problems in written English using a student self-monitoring technique”, ELT Journal, 44, p 286-293 Chaudron, C (1988) “The effects of feedback on students’ composition revisions”, RELC Journal, 15, p.1-14 Cohen, A.D (1998) Strategies in learning and using a second language Longman 10 Cohen, A.D and Cavalacanti, M.C (1990) "Feedback on Compositions: Teacher and Student Verbal Reports", in B Kroll (ed.), Second Language Writing, Research Insights for the Classroom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 155– 177 11 Devenny, R (1989) “How ESL Teachers and Peers Evaluate and Respond to Students Writing”, RELC Journal, 20, p.77-88 12 Dheram, P.K (1995) “Feedback as a two-bulllock cart: a case study of teaching writing”, ELT Journal, 49 13 Dochy, Segers, & Sluijsmans, (1999) Studies in Higher Education,Routledge VI 14 Ferris, D (1995) “Can advanced ESL students become effective self-editors?” The CATESOL Journal, 8, p.41-61 15 Ferris, D.R (1997) "The Influence of Teacher Commentary on Student Revision", TESOL Quarterly, p 315–339 16 Ferris, D (2002) Treatment of error in second language student writing Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 17 Griffin, C.W (1982) “Theory of responding to students writing: The state of the art” College Composition and Communication, 33, 296-310 18 Harding, K & Taylor, L (2005) International Express- Intermediate Oxford University Press 19 Hansen, J.G & Liu, J (2005), “Guiding principles for effective peer response”, ELT Journal, 59, p 31-38 20 Harmer, J (1991) The practice of English Language Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press 21 Hyland, K (1990) “Providing productive feedback”, ELT Journal, 44, p.279285 22 Hyland, K (1998) “Boosting, hedging and the negotiation of academic knowledge”, ELT Journal, p 349- 382 23 Hyland, K; & Hyland, F., (2006) “Feedback on second language students' writing.” Language Teaching, 39, 2, p 83-101 24 Horowitz (1986) Feedback in seconsd language writing: Teacher and student attitudes and preferences Cambridge University Press 25 Keh, C.L (1990) “Feedback in the writing process: a model and methods for implementation”, ELT Journal, 44, p.294-303 26 Krashen, S.D (1984) Writing, Research, theory, and application Oxford University Press 27 Leki, L (1990) Coaching from the margins: Issues in oral and written responses Cambridge University press 28 Leki, I (1992) Understanding ESL Writers: A Guide for Teachers Heinemann VII 29 Liu & Hansen (2002) Peer Response in Second Language Writing Classrooms University of Michigan Press 30 Lundstrom, K & Baker, W (2009) “To give is better than to receive: The benefits of peer review to the reviewer's own writing” Journal of Second Language Writing, p 30-43 31 Mangeldorf (1992) “Peer reviews in ESL composition classroom” ELT Iournal, p 211- 219 32 McDonough (1997) “Learner-learner interaction during pair and small group activities in a Thai EFL context” System, p 207–224 33 d ç dJ (1994) Peer Review Negotiations: Revision Activities in ESL Writing Instruction TESOL Quarterly, p 745–769 34 Mittan, R (1989) The peer response process: Harnessing students’ communicative power Longman 35 Murphy, B (1994) “Correcting students’ writing”, Retrieved from the World Wide Web English Language Center, Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand 36 Murray, D (1978) A writer teaches writing: A practical method of teaching compositions Houghton Mifflin 37 Nelson, G & J Carson (2006) Cultural issues in peer response: Revisiting culture In K Hyland & F Hyland (eds.), 42-59 Cambridge University Press 38 Nunan, D (1989) Dressing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambridge University Press 39 Nunan, D (1992) Research Methods in Language Learning Cambridge University Press 40 yễ ị Lã (2008) “Students’ peer written feedback in writing skills among Intermediate students at Hanoi University of Industry” 41 Parks, A.F., Levernier, J.A & Hollowell, I.M (1986) Structuring Paragraphs: A Guide to Effective Writing St Martin’s Press VIII 42 Peterson, S.S (2010) “Improving Student Writing Using Feedback as a Teaching Tool”, What works? Research into Practice www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/whatWorks.html ị 42 (2008) “Peer written feedback in writing portfolios by third year students in the English Department in College of Foreign Language, Vietnam University, Hanoi.” 43 Raimes, A (1983) Techniques in teaching writing Oxford: Oxford University Press 44 Raimes, A (1992) Techniques in teaching writing Oxford University Press 45 Reid, J.M (1993) Teaching ESL writing Prentice Hall Regents 46 Robinson (2004) “Technology and New Directions in Professional Development: Applications of Digital Video, Peer Review, and Self-Reflection” Journal of Edication Technology system, p 55-66 47 Rollinson, P (2005) “Using peer feedback in the ESL writing class”, ELT Journal, 59, p.23-29 48 Seow, A (2002) The writing process and process writing In J.C Richard, & W.A Renandya (Eds), Methodology in Language Teaching – An Anthology of Current Practice Cambridge University Press 49 Shamoo and Resnik (2003) Responsible conduct of research Oxford University Press 50 Shepherd (2005) “Teachers’ and students’ belief about responding to ESL writing: A case study” TESL Canada Journal, p 83- 95 51 Shrum, J and Glisan, E W (2002) Teacher’s Handbook: contextualized language instruction Heinle and Heinle college foreign language publishing term 52 Taylor, B (1981) “Content and written form: A two-way street”, TESOL Quarterly, 16, p.5-13 53 ầ V ( 2007), “An investigation into the use of peer written feedback in the first year writing classes at the English Department in College of Foreign Language, Vietnam University, Hanoi IX 54 Truscott, J (1996) "The Case Against Grammar Correction in L2 Writing Classes", Language Learning, p327–369 55 Villamil, O S., & Guerrero (1996) “Peer revision in the L2 classroom: socialcognitive activities, mediating strategies, and aspects of social behaviour” ELT Journal, p.231-239 56 Yang et al (2006) A comparative study of peer and teacher feedback in a Chinese EFL class Journal of second language writing 57 Zamel, V (1995) “Responding to students writing”, TESOL Quarterly, 19, p.79-202 X ... defined 1.3 Different views of peer written feedback in the teaching and learning of writing Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.1 Arguments in favor of students peer written feedback in. .. of giving feedback, peer feedback was introduced Aims and objectives of the study This research aims at investigating students peer written feedback in paragraph writing skills among the third-year. .. Implications for teaching of writing using peer written feedback Error! Bookmark not defined 4.3.2 Implication for learning of writing using peer written feedback Error! Bookmark not defined PART C: