Giving feedback strategies for English literature presentations of students of Phuong Dong University

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY,HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE-STUDIES **************************************** ĐẶNG THỊ KIM DUNG GIVING FEEDBACK STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH LITERATURE PRESENTATIONS OF STUDENTS OF PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY (Chiến lược sử dụng hành động ngôn từ việc đưa thông tin phản hồi cho thuyết trình mơn Văn Học Anh sinh viên trường Đại Học Phương Đông) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Linguistics Code: 602215 Hanoi-2010 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY,HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE-STUDIES **************************************** ĐẶNG THỊ KIM DUNG GIVING FEEDBACK STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH LITERATURE PRESENTATIONS OF STUDENTS OF PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY (Chiến lược sử dụng hành động ngôn từ việc đưa thông tin phản hồi cho thuyết trình mơn Văn Học Anh sinh viên trường Đại Học Phương Đông) M.A Thesis – Program I Linguistics Code: 602215 SUPERVISOR: Assoc.Prof Nguyễn Xuân Thơm, PhD Hanoi-2010 iv TABLE OF CONTENT Declaration Acknowledgements Abstract PART I: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale for the study .1 Objectives of the study .2 Research questions Methods Scope of the study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT .5 Chapter 1: Literature review .5 1.1 Teaching English Literature .5 1.1.1 Definition of English literature 1.1.2 Why teaching English Literature? 1.1.3 Motivating students in English literature lessons…………………… 1.2 Teacher feedback .8 1.2.1 Definition of feedback 1.2.2 Types of feedback .9 1.2.3 The importance of feedback to students’ improvement .11 1.3 Speech act theory .12 1.3.1 General concepts .12 1.3.2 Speech Act classifications by Austin and Searle 14 1.3.3 Some prominent speech acts used in giving feedback 15 1.3.3.1 The speech act of suggesting 15 1.3.3.2 The speech act of complaining 16 1.3.3.3 The speech act of criticizing………………………… .17 Chapter 2: The study 19 Situational analysis .19 2.1.1 Setting .19 2.2.2 The English literature course in Phuong Dong University 20 v 2.2.2.1 Teaching materials 21 2.2.2.2 Objectives of the course .21 2.2.2.3 Oral presentations by students 22 2.2.2.4 Requirements and assessments 22 2.2 The study 23 2.2.1 Methodology .23 2.2.1.1 Subjects 23 2.2.1.2 Instrumentations 23 2.2.2 Data collection 24 2.2.3 Data analysis 25 2.2.3.1 Data analysis of the questionnaire done by teachers 25 2.2.3.2 Data analysis of the questionnaire done by students 30 2.3 Findings 36 2.3.1 Research question 36 2.3.2 Research question 37 2.3.3 Research question 38 2.3.4 Research question 39 Chapter – Recommendations .41 3.1 Teachers should balance their use of different types of feedback 41 3.2 Teachers should be more specific in giving feedback 41 3.3 Teachers should provide extra suggestions or guidance 41 PART III: CONCLUSION …………………………………………………… ….42 References Appendices PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the study English literature is as diverse as the varieties and dialects of English spoken around the world To learners of English as a foreign language, English literature, though difficult, brings information about the cultural life of the country This subject can also facilitate oral discussions and exchanges of opinion among students, which can a great deal to help students improve their language competence To teachers of English, Literature is a very versatile subject and it has long been considered one of the most difficult subjects to teach There is no right or wrong way to teach Literature And the job of the teacher is, generally believed, not to teach the students but to lead them The author of this study has involved in the English teaching career for over years since 2004, among which the last years are spent mostly for studying and teaching English literature for English majors of Phuong Dong University There is one thing that most teachers agree when teaching this subject: students will learn best when they freely and creatively read and prepare for an oral presentation on English literature themselves before the lessons are actually taught and explained by teachers However, the skill of students in designing and performing presentations is limited They are restrained by the lack of social and cultural knowledge, poor analyzing and organizing skill….Thus, teacher feedback is vital to help students avoid mistakes and enhance achievements Despite the importance and necessity of teacher feedback, there has been rare research on this issue, even if it is the subject of any study; most of them deal with the matter of corrective feedback and written feedback in writing lessons Work on oral feedback and especially on immediate oral feedback is quite small in number In addition, the studies which have been done lack consensus and focus on how and what kind of feedback should teachers use, needless to mention the use of speech acts in feedback giving for literature oral presentation It appears that what teachers response to students’ oral presentation are based on his or her personal judgments and experience, not on any specific theoretical foundations These reasons above have urged the author, who has been involving in teaching English literature for English majors of Phuong Dong University for years, to investigate this important but somewhat neglected area In the mean time, the author also hope to offer teachers, who are involving in teaching English literature for English majors of Phuong Dong University , ways to response to students’ oral presentation, especially ways in which speech acts can be used in feedback giving It is also hoped that this study will show the impacts of teacher feedback on students’ achievement Objectives of the study The study aims at investigating the use of speech acts by teachers in giving feedback for English Literature presentations of Phuong Dong University fourth year language students It is directed to achieve these four purposes: (i) To study the techniques used by teachers when giving feedback for literature oral presentations of fourth year English students in Phuong Dong University: their responding practices, feedback focus, language uses and especially the application of speech acts in feedback giving (ii) To investigate students’ attitude and opinion on the way they are responded after having finished their presentations (iii) To judge students’ enhancement after receiving feedback from teachers (iv) To offer some recommendations and suggestions for teachers to improve their practice so that their feedback will be effective and useful to students Research questions In order to achieve the goals above, there are four research questions and sub questions raised in the study: (i) What are the strategies used by teachers when giving feedback for English Literature presentations? (ii) What types of speech acts teachers use when giving feedback? (iii) What are the students’ opinions on the feedback they receive from their teachers? (iv) How students assess their enhancement? Methods There are three sources of collecting the data: (i) A survey questionnaire done on 120 fourth year students of groups in English Division, Department of Foreign Languages, , Phuong Dong University to get their opinion on the feedback they received and their judgment on their enhancement The questionnaire also aims at getting students’ recommendations and suggestions to make teacher feedback more effective and useful (ii) A survey questionnaire done on 12 teachers who are currently involving in teaching English literature and Country studies of Phuong Dong University to explore the ways they give feedback for students’ oral presentations This questionnaire also aims at finding teachers’ difficulties in giving feedback, their use of speech acts in giving feedback, as well as their recommendations to overcome their difficulties (iii) An interview with 10 students selected randomly from the survey population to get further information on the matter being studied Scope of the study The study is conducted within the following scope: (i) Feedback is a broad issue and cannot be thoroughly discussed within the framework of this study Therefore, only one aspect of feedback is focused on: teacher oral feedback for oral presentations (ii) Mentioning strategies used by teachers when giving feedback, there are lots of things to be discussed However, this study is restricted to the use of speech acts, especially the acts of complaining, suggesting, praising, questioning…in giving feedback by teachers only (iii) The subjects of this study are constrained to final year English majors of Phuong Dong University Even though feedback is vital for every student, this study does not aim at students of English in general but at final year English majors of Phuong Dong University, who are studying English as their second language (iv) In Phuong Dong University, there are only two subjects that often require oral presentations from students: English Literature and country studies This study focuses on teachers’ techniques to give feedback for English Literature oral presentations as typical examples for oral presentations in general Design of the study This study consisted of three parts, namely: introduction, development and conclusion The introduction focuses on the rationale, objectives, research questions as well as the scope and design of the study The development includes three chapters: Chapter presents the theoretical background of the study This includes reviews on the works done by linguistics, researchers…on feedback, speech acts and English literature teaching Chapter introduces more details about the setting, methods, data analysis and most importantly, the findings of the study Chapter attempts to give some recommendations to teachers, students and further study The conclusion aims at summarizing the main points of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter attempts to provide the theoretical background within which the study is conducted It includes three parts Part reviews the key notions and aspects of speech act theory Part and will survey teacher feedback and teaching English Literature respectively 1.1 Teaching English Literature 1.1.1 Definition of English literature As it was stated by Ronald Carter, a Professor of Modern English Language in The University of Nottingham, the teaching of literature in foreign language classes is an activity whose justification was ―assumed to be obvious‖ Before the eighties, there was surprisingly little about the teaching of English literature This was partly due to the fact that in some places where literature continued to be taught for the old reasons, there was no need for justification, and in other places, it did not come to any significant degree at all However, during the eighties, the situation changed rapidly Literature in general and English Literature in particular underwent thorough consideration, which provoked numerous articles and studies The question is what is English Literature? Even though English Literature has been defined in a number of ways, there is a relative consensus among the definitions The web page Wikipedia defines English Literature as ― the literature written in the English language‖ This obviously means the writers of English Literature are not necessarily from England Joseph Conrad, for example, was polish-born and could not speak English very fluently until his twenties but was still considered to be one of the greatest novelists in English Ronald Carter and Michael N Long in their book Teaching Literature(1991), on the other hand, introduced a different way of using the term According to them, many teachers of literature preferred the term literature in English to the term English literature because the term English literature carried very specific associations of literature written by authors of English nationalities within the geographical confines of Great Britain They suggested that the term English Literature was narrow and exclusive They provided a definition of literature in English as: ―the considerable diversity of literature produced in the English language not only in the more obvious context of American literature, but also literature in the following contexts: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa…”( p.156) In this sense, Literature in English also includes a growing and important body of work produced in countries where English is an institutionalized second language or where it is a foreign language but carries important social and cultural functions within the society Such countries as Nigeria, Kenya, and India…can be cited as examples 1.1.2 Why teaching English Literature? Rodrigo Fernandez Carmona in his article How to Teach English Literature (2004) listed many interesting reasons for teaching literature in general and teaching English literature in particular The reasons can be summarized as follow:  English literature transmits information about cultural life of the country  Literature provide authentic language-literary works that have not been written specifically for language students  Literary offers a wide variety of language The literary text is one of the few contexts where different varieties of language can be used simultaneously  Literature is interesting as it can be interpreted in many different ways This will facilitate oral discussions and the exchange of opinion among students  English Literature can be a source of pleasure and stimulus towards the students’ personal development (http://www.hotenglishmagazine.com/archive/teaching/teach%206%20literature pdf) Obviously, these reasons show the importance and necessity of teaching English literature for students of English When learning this subject, not only can students widen their background cultural and social knowledge but they can also improve their language competence quickly and find another source of entertainment 41 Chapter – RECOMMENDATIONS In this chapter, the author of this study would like to make some recommendations and suggestions to the teachers of English Literature in Phuong Dong University in order to make their feedback more effective and useful 3.1 Teachers should balance their use of different types of feedback Many teachers were happy to use positive feedback They believed that in that way, they could help students save their faces and it serves as a means to encourage them Some teachers even used positive feedback frequently as a method to build and enhance the relationship between them and their students On the contrary, some other teachers preferred to use negative feedback frequently because they believed that students could only made progress next time if their teachers told them that what they had done was not good enough Obviously, these justifications were partly correct and partly incorrect Both types of feedback are important for the students as and teachers must balance their use of them English Literature is not only a difficult subject but also requires hard work and real efforts Students need negative feedback to know where they are and positive feedback to be motivated 3.2 Teachers should be more specific in giving feedback Sometimes, students get difficulties understanding teachers’ feedback If teachers make their feedback too general, students will be impossible to know what they should next time For example, if the teacher wants his/ her students to focus on analyzing characters than listing the characters and events, he/ she should directly tell them By this way, the students know exactly what they should next time to get good comments and grade from their teachers In another word, teachers need to be specific in their feedback and clarify what they expect from their students 3.3 Teachers should provide extra suggestions or guidance Students need specific feedback to know their weak points and, at the same time, they need suggestions and guidance to make progress next time For students with good English competence, this can be unnecessary but for those who are not very good at English, this is vital to help them 42 PART III: CONCLUSION The study has analyzed the strategies often applied in the feedback giving practice of teachers for English Literature oral presentations of final year students in Phuong Dong University, with the focus on speech act used in feedback giving The study has presented the theoretical background of the key issues being discussed in the study: teaching English literature, teacher feedback and speech act theory It shows that there are some certain reasons to teach English literature and how to best motivate students in class The study also introduces the key concepts and aspects relating to speech act theory and teacher feedback The main achievement of the study is to conduct a survey and investigate the use of feedback and the application of speech act in feedback giving by teachers The study also explores students’ attitude and opinion on the feedback they receive Even though, the study has been done with great efforts, mistakes and limitations are unavoidable Hopefully, it will receive suggestions and advices from readers to be more satisfactory completed 43 REFERENCES http://www.hotenglishmagazine.com/archive/teaching/teach%206%20literature pdf http://annedavies.com/images/PDFs/FeedBackFeedForward.pdf http://jabba.edb.utexas.edu/depts/se/projects/mainstep/ms/fb2-introductionwhatis.htm Ronald Carter and Michael N Long (1991) Teaching literature , Longman Michael Toolan (1998) Language in literature, Oxford University press Richard Gill (2006) English literature, Palgrave Macmillan Penny Ur (1996) A course in language teaching, Cambridge University press Susan M.brookhart (2008) How to give effective feedback to your students, Association for supervision and curriculum development Kent Bach (1998) Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge 10 Jacob L Mey (1993) Pragmatic: An Introduction, Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated 11 Bach and Harnish (1979) Linguistic communication and speech acts, Cambridge University press 12 John Hattie, Helen Timperley (2007) The Power of Feedback, review of educational research 13 Tunstall, P & Gipps, C.(1996) Teacher feedback to young children in formative assessment: A Typology British Educational Research Journal 44 14 Moss, Hugh (2002) The correction of students’ oral errors, British Council (Portugal) 15 Al-Fahdi, M.H (2006) English language teachers’ use of oral feedback Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www moe go v o m/Porta l/sitebuilder/sit es/EPS/En glish/ /Ch7 pdf 16 Schmidt and Richards (1980) Speech acts and second language learning, applied linguistics, Proquest information and learning company 17 Haverkate (1984) The syntax, semantics and pragmatics of Spanish mood, Benjamin Publishing Company 18 Brown and Levinson (1987) Politeness theory, Cambridge University Press 19 Tanck (2002), Speech acts of refusals and complains from http://libback.uqu.edu.sa/hipres/magz/3200015-9.pdf 20 Olshtain, E.& Weinbach, L (1987) Complaints—A study of speech act behavior among native and non-native speakers of Hebrew Amsterdam: Benjamins 21.Rob Nolasco & Lois Arthur (1988) Large classes, Macmillan Publisher 22 Thuy Minh, Nguyen (2007) learing to give and respond to peer-feedback in the L2: the case of EFL criticisms and responses to criticisms, Lincom Europa 23 Tracy, et all (1987) explored the characteristics of good and bad criticism and found out five characteristics to distinguish between good and bed criticisms 24 Quang Phu, Truong (2005) A course in English Literature, Youth Press 45 25 Xuan Thom,Nguyen (2001) History of American and English literature, Vietnam National University Press 26 Teachers of English, Foreign Language Department, VNU-CLF (2001) English Literarure, Vietnam National University Press 27 Levinson, S.C (1983) Principles of pragmatics, Longman 28 Searle, J.R (1969) Speech acts: an essay in the philosophy of language, Cambridge Universiy Press 29 Searle, J.R (1975) Indirect speech acts, New York Academic press 30 Searle, J.R (1975) A classification of illocutionary acts, Language in society 31 Searle, J.R (1979) Expression and meaning: studies in the theory of speech aacts Cambridge University Press 32 Jo McDonough & Steven McDonough (1997) Research methods for English language teachers, Arnold 33 Evelyn Hatch (1992) Discourse and language education, Cambridge University Press I Appendix 1: PRESENTATION CHECKLIST Name: ………………………………… Class: ………………………………… Topic: ………………………………… Date: ………………………………… Poor Appropriate Introduction and Avg Excellent 10 12 16 20 Pronunciation /Fluency 10 Delivery method/ Preparation 10 Eye contact 10 Posture, gesture and 12 16 20 12 16 20 conclusion Clear thesis and Supporting details movement Q&A Comment:………………………………………………………………………… …………… ………………………………………………………………………… … …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Total score:……… The checklist that teachers use to assess students’ presentations II Appendix 2: LITERATURE TEST Time allowance: 60’ A Choose the correct answers In the works of ………………, he reveals the unhappy life and the revolt against the set social order A Oscar Wilde B G Bernard C W S Maugham D J Galsworthy Shaw The second edition of ………………of W Wordsworth became an official document announcing the arrival of the Romantic Movement A An evening B walk The Lyrical C The descriptive D The Daffodils Ballard Sketches The works of this author had a readable and direct quality A W Wordsworth B J Galsworthy C W S Maugham D G Bernard Shaw This author won the 1932 Nobel Prize for his distinguished art of narration A G Bernard B W S Maugham C J Galsworthy D W Wordsworth Shaw ………………was a qualified doctor but he devoted his life to literature A J Galsworthy B Oscar Wilde C W Wordsworth D W S Maugham In the view of……………, art cannot flourish under capitalism A W Wordsworth B J Galsworthy C Oscar Wilde D W S Maugham At the beginning of his career, the novels of…………were rejected A G Bernard B Oscar Wilde C W Wordsworth D J Galsworthy Shaw …………… became known for his description of the British upper middle class and for his social irony A Oscar Wilde B J Galsworthy C G Bernard D W S Maugham Shaw ………… takes many details from W S Maugham’s life III A Of human B The Moon and C bondage Sixpence Liza of D The trembling Lambeth of the leaf 10 …………… concerns with many bitter truths of the society A Oscar Wilde B J Galsworthy C G Bernard D W S Maugham Shaw B Writing Task: Analyze the character Sartorious in the play Widowers’ Houses of G Bernard Shaw ( 200-300ws) You should start your writing here: ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… IV Appendix 3: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (For teachers) The survey questionnaire is conducted for my research into giving feedback strategies for English Literature presentations of students of Phuong Dong University Your cooperation in completing this questionnaire is of great help to me All the information provided by you is served for the study purpose, and you will not be identified in any discussion of the data * * * * * * There are two parts in the questionnaire, please put a tick in the box provided or write short answers in the space given A Personal information Your gender: Male  Female Your age:………………………… How long have you been teaching English? How long have you been teaching English literature? B You opinion on teachers’ feedback and teacher’s use of speech act in giving feedback for literature presentations of students What is your purpose of giving feedback to students’ English Literature presentations? (You can choose more than choice) a To help students operate better in their second presentation  b To explain the grade you give them  c To remind students that you are their teacher  d To tell them how English Literature is different from other subjects  e To improve the relationship between you and the students  How important you think your feedback is to your students? a Very important  b Important  V  c Unimportant What aspects of the presentation you focus on? a Presentation construction  b Manner  c Literary findings  d Language used  e Grammar  f All of them  How often you use the following types of feedback? Types of feedback Never sometimes Frequently a Positive b Negative c Delayed d Immediate What types of speech act you often use in giving feedback? (You can tick more than choice) a Advising  b Complaining  c Suggesting  d Questioning  e Praising  f All of them  What pattern of speech act combination you use? a Questioning-praising-complaining-suggesting  b Complaining-suggesting -questioning  c Questioning-suggesting-complaining  What speech act you like most when providing feedback for your students? (Choose only) VI a Advising  b Complaining  c Suggesting  d Questioning  e Praising  Do your take students’ varying language proficiency into consideration when designing feedback? Yes   No What are your difficulties in giving feedback? a It takes time  b The students often make the same mistake the second time  c The students are not interested  d English Literature is a difficult subject for students  d others …………………………………………………………………………… 10 Do you have any suggestion to help students operate better in their second English Literature presentation? ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… THE END Thank you very much for your help! Dang Thi Kim Dung, teacher in English Division Foreign Languages Department Phuong Dong University VII Appendix 4: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (For students) The survey questionnaire is conducted for my research into giving feedback strategies for English Literature presentations of students of Phuong Dong University Your cooperation in completing this questionnaire is of great help to me All the information provided by you is served for the study purpose, and you will not be identified in any discussion of the data * * * * * * There are two parts in the questionnaire, please put a tick in the box provided or write short answers in the space given (both Vietnamese and English are accepted) A Personal information Your gender Male Female Your age:…………… Where are you from? Town Countryside  Big city How long have you been learning English? You general academic results last year? B Your opinion on the feedback you receive? How important is teacher feedback to your English Literature presentation? a Very important  b Important  c Not important  What aspect of your presentation you want your teacher to focus on? a Presentation construction  b Grammar  c Literary findings  VIII d Manner  e All of them  How you feel when receiving feedback in the form of……………… Very happy Happy Not happy a Advising b Suggesting c Complaining d Questioning e Praising What pattern of feedback you like most? a Questioning-praising-complaining-suggesting  b Complaining-suggesting -questioning  c Questioning-suggesting-complaining  What kind of feedback you want to receive? a Negative  b Positive  c Delayed  d Immediate  e All of them  How helpful are the following types of feedback to your second presentation? Not helpful Helpful Very helpful a Complaining b Suggesting c Advising d Questioning e Praising In your second presentation, you pay more attention to the aspects of presentation that teachers give feedback? IX Yes  No  Do you satisfy with your teacher’s feedback? Yes  No  Do you operate better the second time? Yes  No  10 What you want your teacher to to help you operate better in your second presentation? ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… THE END Thank you very much for your help! Dang Thi Kim Dung, teacher in English Division Foreign Languages Department Phuong Dong University Thank you for evaluating AnyBizSoft PDF Merger! To remove this page, please register your program! Go to Purchase Now>> AnyBizSoft PDF Merger  Merge multiple PDF files into one  Select page range of PDF to merge  Select specific page(s) to merge  Extract page(s) from different PDF files and merge into one