luận văn thạc sỹ tiếng anh STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHERS’ CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK IN WRITING AT YEN THUAN SECONDARY SCHOOL IN TUYEN QUANG

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF PROJECT REPORT I certify my authority of the Study Project Report submitted entitled Students’ Attitudes towards Teachers’ Corrective Feedback in Writing At Yen Thuan secondary school – Ham Yen Tuyen Quang in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my superior Do Xuan Khoi, M.A. for the support, guidance and valuable critical feedback. His help, stimulating suggestion and encouragement helped me a lot right from the beginning to the end of this study. I would like acknowledge my sincere thanks to the headmaster, the teachers of English Group and the students at Yen Thuan secondary school Ham Yen Tuyen Quang who helped me a lot and showed great willingness to take part in my survey. My special thanks also go to my lecturers, my friends, my classmates for valuable comments and criticism, their interest and encouragement. Last but not least, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my wife, my parents and my children for their love, care, tolerance and encouragement. ABSTRACT Many language educators and researchers (e.g., Nunan; 1987; Horwitz, 1988; Schulz, 2001) claim that matching the expectations of teachers and students is important for successful language learning. Accordingly, it is beneficial for teachers to discover their students’ perceptions toward the feedback they received. This study investigates the students’ attitudes towards teachers’ corrective feedback at Yen Thuan secondary school Ham Yen Tuyen Quang. The participants included 4 teachers of English and 100 students from Grade 7 to 8. The data were collected from survey questionnaires for students, the direct interview with four teachers and teachers’ commentary on the students’ written work. The results show that there is a slight mismatch between teachers’ beliefs and students’ preferences for teacher corrective feedback regarding feedback types and forms, various features of writing, and error correction techniques. Also, it is important for teachers to be aware of the impact of their feedback practices on students’ expectations and attitudes. On this basis, the study recommends a number of directions for teachers to help them improve their feedback practices more effectively. TABLE OF CONTENTS Certification…………………………………………………………………...i Acknowledgements………………………………………………...………....ii Abstract………………………………………………………………….…...iii PART ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale of the study 1 1.2. Aims of the study. 3 1.3. Research questions 3 1.4. Scope of the study 4 1.5. Significance of the research 4 1.6. Methods of the study 4 1.7. Design of the study 5 Summary PART TWO. DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1. Theoretical backgrounds of feedback 1.1.1. Definitions of feedback 6 1.1.2. The importance of feedback in L2 writing 8 1.1.2. Types of feedback to students’ writing. 9 1.1.2.1. Selfediting 9 1.1.2.2. Peer feedback 10 1.1.2.3. Teacher’s feedback 11 1.2. The focus of teacher feedback 13 1.2.1. Types of teacher feedback 13 1.2.1.1. Marginal versus end feedback 13 1.2.1.2. Positive versus negative feedback 14 1.2.1.3. Text – specific versus general feedback 14 1.2.1.4. Feedback focus on form versus on content 15 1.2.2. Forms of teacher feedback 16 1.2.3. Major issues in giving teacher’s feedback 17 2.1. Context of the study 19 2.1.1. The setting of the study 19 2.1.2. The writing program 2.1.2.1. Overview of the textbooks 20 2.1.2.2. The teaching of writing skill. 21 2.2. The study 2.2.1. Methodology 22 2.2.2. Data analysis 24 2.2.3. Findings and discussion 37 Summary CHAPTER THREE: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS .........43 Summary PART THREE. CONCLUSIONS 45 3.1. Summary 45 3.2. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies. 45 References Appendices PART ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale of the study Today English is considered one of the most important factors to the trend of globalization in all fields of life over the world. Thus, English as Second Language has been taught in many countries and the demand to use English fluently as well as to acquire four basic skills is becoming essential among all students. As a result, methodology has been studied for years to find out the most effective ways of teaching and learning English. In Vietnam, secondary school students have to acquire four skills of English as reading, speaking, listening and writing when they study English. Among them, writing is considered the most difficult skill. Clearly, Vietnamese students are often much anxious about writing and afraid of making errors in writing classrooms . Nevertheless, they need to be encouraged to see it as a means of learning, rather than demonstrating learning. In order to do this, students need to be provided with opportunities to respond to constructive feedback on their work. A review of the literature on writing reveals three major areas of feedback as revision: peer feedback, selfediting and teachers’ comments as feedback. Because of the importance of feedback, there have been a lot of studies that focus on all aspects relating to feedback. As clear, concise feedback matched to standards will promote students’ achievement, feedback plays a very important role in the teaching of any language. Through feedback, the writer learns where he or she has misled and confused the reader by not supplying enough information, illogical organization, lack of development ideas, or something simple like inappropriate wordchoice or tense. In other words, the writers have opportunities to identify their errors and correct them to make better writing. Also, the use of teacher feedback in writing classrooms has been generally supported in the literature review as a potentially valuable aid for its social cognitive, affective and methodological benefits ( Merlin, (1986), Radecki and Swales (1988), Hedge (2000), Ferris and Roberts (2001)). They all believe that teacher feedback is very important and has a great influence on the success of teaching and learning writing. As a teacher of English at Yen Thuan secondary school, the researcher is constantly searching for ways to help his students become more confident and effective writers. During writing lessons, she finds that her students often make a lot of errors that increase students’ anxiety in writing lesson. With a view of language learning as a creative construction process, she shares an agreement with Hedge (2000) in the view that error is an inevitable and positive part of that process (p.15). Hedge also claimed that “learners progress faster with meaningful language practice in a rich linguistic environment and with an informed policy of error correction on the part of the teacher” (p.15). This means teacherresponse is an essential step in the writing process as he stated “getting feedback from the teacher and from other students in the class enables learners to test hypotheses and refine their developing knowledge of the language system” (p.13). That is why the researcher focuses on teacher corrective feedback, which she considers a complex troublesome, but important issue in writing classrooms. To have a quick view on this aspect, an observation on the writing lessons of four teachers of English in the researcher’s school was conducted within a month. The result showed that all the four teachers applied mostly teacher corrective feedback to respond to the students’ writings. She wondered if the teachers’ present feedback matched with students’ preferences and how students reacted to the feedback they received.

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHERS’ CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK IN WRITING AT YEN THUAN SECONDARY SCHOOL IN TUYEN QUANG THÁI ĐỘ CỦA HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI PHẢN HỒI THÔNG TIN CHỮA LỖI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRONG MÔN VIẾT Ở TRƯỜNG THCS YÊN THUẬN - HÀM YÊN - TUYÊN QUANG MA MINOR THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE 0780110 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF PROJECT REPORT I certify my authority of the Study Project Report submitted entitled Students’ Attitudes towards Teachers’ Corrective Feedback in Writing At Yen Thuan secondary school – Ham Yen - Tuyen Quang in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my superior Do Xuan Khoi, M.A for the support, guidance and valuable critical feedback His help, stimulating suggestion and encouragement helped me a lot right from the beginning to the end of this study I would like acknowledge my sincere thanks to the headmaster, the teachers of English Group and the students at Yen Thuan secondary school Ham Yen - Tuyen Quang who helped me a lot and showed great willingness to take part in my survey My special thanks also go to my lecturers, my friends, my classmates for valuable comments and criticism, their interest and encouragement Last but not least, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my wife, my parents and my children for their love, care, tolerance and encouragement ABSTRACT Many language educators and researchers (e.g., Nunan; 1987; Horwitz, 1988; Schulz, 2001) claim that matching the expectations of teachers and students is important for successful language learning Accordingly, it is beneficial for teachers to discover their students’ perceptions toward the feedback they received This study investigates the students’ attitudes towards teachers’ corrective feedback at Yen Thuan secondary school Ham YenTuyen Quang The participants included teachers of English and 100 students from Grade to The data were collected from survey questionnaires for students, the direct interview with four teachers and teachers’ commentary on the students’ written work The results show that there is a slight mismatch between teachers’ beliefs and students’ preferences for teacher corrective feedback regarding feedback types and forms, various features of writing, and error correction techniques Also, it is important for teachers to be aware of the impact of their feedback practices on students’ expectations and attitudes On this basis, the study recommends a number of directions for teachers to help them improve their feedback practices more effectively TABLE OF CONTENTS Certification……………………………………………………………… … i Acknowledgements……………………………………………… ……… ii Abstract………………………………………………………………… … iii PART ONE - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study .1 1.2 Aims of the study .3 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the research 1.6 Methods of the study 1.7 .Design of the study Summary PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical backgrounds of feedback 1.1.1 .Definitions of feedback 1.1.2 The importance of feedback in L2 writing 1.1.2 Types of feedback to students’ writing 1.1.2.1 .Self-editing 1.1.2.2 Peer feedback 10 1.1.2.3 Teacher’s feedback 11 1.2 The focus of teacher feedback 13 1.2.1 Types of teacher feedback 13 1.2.1.1 Marginal versus end feedback 13 1.2.1.2 Positive versus negative feedback 14 1.2.1.3 Text – specific versus general feedback 14 1.2.1.4 Feedback focus on form versus on content 15 1.2.2 Forms of teacher feedback 16 1.2.3 Major issues in giving teacher’s feedback 17 2.1 .Context of the study 19 2.1.1 .The setting of the study 19 2.1.2 The writing program 2.1.2.1 .Overview of the textbooks 20 2.1.2.2 The teaching of writing skill 21 2.2 The study 2.2.1 .Methodology 22 2.2.2 .Data analysis 24 2.2.3 Findings and discussion 37 Summary CHAPTER THREE: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS 43 Summary PART THREE CONCLUSIONS 45 3.1 Summary 45 3.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 45 References Appendices 10 PART ONE - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Today English is considered one of the most important factors to the trend of globalization in all fields of life over the world Thus, English as Second Language has been taught in many countries and the demand to use English fluently as well as to acquire four basic skills is becoming essential among all students As a result, methodology has been studied for years to find out the most effective ways of teaching and learning English In Vietnam, secondary school students have to acquire four skills of English as reading, speaking, listening and writing when they study English Among them, writing is considered the most difficult skill Clearly, Vietnamese students are often much anxious about writing and afraid of making errors in writing classrooms Nevertheless, they need to be encouraged to see it as a means of learning, rather than demonstrating learning In order to this, students need to be provided with opportunities to respond to constructive feedback on their work A review of the literature on writing reveals three major areas of feedback as revision: peer feedback, self-editing and teachers’ comments as feedback Because of the importance of feedback, there have been a lot of studies that focus on all aspects relating to feedback As clear, concise feedback matched to standards will promote students’ achievement, feedback plays a very important role in the teaching of any language Through feedback, the writer learns where he or she has misled and confused the reader by not supplying enough information, illogical organization, lack of development ideas, or something simple like inappropriate word-choice or tense In other words, the writers have opportunities to identify their errors and correct them to make better writing Also, the use of teacher feedback in ... their students’ perceptions toward the feedback they received This study investigates the students’ attitudes towards teachers’ corrective feedback at Yen Thuan secondary school Ham YenTuyen Quang. .. Report submitted entitled Students’ Attitudes towards Teachers’ Corrective Feedback in Writing At Yen Thuan secondary school – Ham Yen - Tuyen Quang in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree... good feedback not only stimulates students for revision but also motivates them to maintain their interest in writing In addition, provision of comments helps individualize writing instructions in