Feedback on ESL writing: Teachers’ Practices and Students’ Preferences = Hoạt động thực tế của giảng viên và mong muốn của sinh viên đối với phản hồi trên bài viết tiếng Anh. M.A Thesis Linguistics: 60 14 01 11

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ****************** LÊ THỊ THU HÀ FEEDBACK ON ESL WRITING: TEACHERS’ PRACTICES AND STUDENTS’ PREFERENCES HOẠT ĐỘNG THỰC TẾ CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN VÀ MONG MUỐN CỦA SINH VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI PHẢN HỒI TRÊN BÀI VIẾT TIẾNG ANH M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ****************** LÊ THỊ THU HÀ FEEDBACK ON ESL WRITING: TEACHERS’ PRACTICES AND STUDENTS’ PREFERENCES HOẠT ĐỘNG THỰC TẾ CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN VÀ MONG MUỐN CỦA SINH VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI PHẢN HỒI TRÊN BÀI VIẾT TIẾNG ANH M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr To Thi Thu Huong HANOI - 2013 DECLARATION I confirm that this is my own research, and that it has not been published or submitted for any other degrees Student's signature Lê Thị Thu Hà i ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr To Thi Thu Huong, for her invaluable support, useful guidance and comments I am truly grateful to her advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage I would also express my gratitude to all the teachers of English at College of Technologies and Economics in Trade for their constant support as well as suggestions for this paper Especially, I am grateful to the students in the three classes which I am in charge for their actively taking part in completing the writing tasks and answering the survey questionnaires Without their help, this study could not have been completed Finally, my special thanks go to my family and my friends who have been beside me and have encouraged me a lot to fulfill my study ii ABSTRACT This case study was conducted at College of Technologies and Economics in Trade to investigate teachers’ practices and students’ strategies for handling the feedback they received as well as students’ preferences for four different types of feedback Fifty seven students in three ESL classes were asked to fill out the questionnaires and three writing teachers were asked to participate in the interviews In addition, students’ paragraphs with teacher feedback were analyzed to see how teacher gave the feedback and how students responded to the feedback they received The results show that teachers used written feedback frequently, but in different ways; and students’ strategies for handling feedback varied depending on the types of feedback each teacher gave on their papers Besides, the study revealed that students preferred teacher feedback (teacher correction, teacher correction with comments, error identification) to non-teacher feedback such as self-feedback, peerfeedback or computer- directed feedback The findings of the study suggests that writing teachers should consider the fit between their practice and students’ preferences to choose the most suitable ways of feedback giving to help students improve their writing iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The number of each type of teacher feedback on students’ first drafts .23 Table 2: Student strategies for handling feedback 28 Table 3: Student’s preferences for each types of feedback .31 Table 4: Attitudes of students in class A to different types of feedback 32 Table 5: Attitudes of students in class B to different types of feedback 34 Table 6: Attitudes of students in class C to different types of feedback 36 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Paragraph sample of the student in class A with teacher feedback 24 Figure 2: Paragraph sample of the student in class B with teacher feedback 25 Figure 3: Paragraph sample of the student in class C with teacher feedback 27 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: Student questionnaire I Appendix 2: Interview questions IV iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEGEMENTS i DECLARATION i ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES Error! 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Bookmark not defined Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION .1 The rationale of the study Purposes of the study and research questions 3 Scope of the study Significance of the study .4 Research methods .4 Organization of the study Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Definitions of feedback Roles of feedback in teaching ESL/EFL writing Types of feedback 3.1 Teacher feedback 3.1.1 Student-teacher conferencing 3.1.2 Teacher written feedback 10 3.2 Peer feedback 12 3.3 Self-feedback .13 3.4 Computer- assisted feedback .13 i Teachers’ beliefs and practices of giving feedback on ESL writing 14 Students’ reactions and preferences for feedback .15 Chapter 3: THE STUDY 18 The current situation of teaching and learning English writing at CTET 18 Methodology 20 2.1 The participants 20 2.2 Methods and Instrumentation 20 2.2.1 Students’ compositions .20 2.2.2 Questionnaire and interview .21 2.3 Data collection procedure 21 2.4 Data analysis procedure 22 Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .23 Teachers’ practices of giving feedback on ESL writing 23 Students’ reactions to the received teacher feedback 28 Students’ preferences for different types of feedback on ESL writing .31 Implications for teaching and learning 38 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION .41 Summary 41 Limitations of the study .41 Suggestions for further studies 42 REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES I ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The rationale of the study Among the most important skills students of English as a second language (ESL) or a foreign language (EFL) need to develop is writing For many years, as many historical accounts have shown, writing won little interest from the learners’ side compared to other skills, especially speaking Learning to speak has been deemed a primary concern; learning to write has always been a secondary matter, a means of practicing, sustaining and reinforcing other skills However, foreign language proficiency demands a balance in mastery between different language skills Thus, ESL/EFL students have come to realize the importance of writing as an independent medium of communication which they need for a wide range of purposes in different contexts both inside and outside the classroom The ESL learners at College of Technologies and Economics in Trade, who follow a three year course in English with Business English as major, by no means; an exception The course program offers the learners not only knowledge about business in English but also chances to improve their four English skills Among the four macro skills, writing has recently been interested by both teachers and students Over the first semester of the first years, the students are introduced to some basic concepts in Grammar (parts of speech and word function), Syntax (phrases, clauses, and sentences), and Mechanics (capitalization and punctuation) It is until the second semester that students are introduced to basic writing, ranging from writing informal letters/email to business letter, then writing paragraphs and essays for the third and the forth semester They are taught different forms of letters/email and techniques for paragraph and essay writing including writing topic sentence, introduction, developmental paragraphs and conclusion Besides, they are provided with insights into different patterns of essay development such as cause/effect, comparison/contrast or argumentation The third year is by far an opportunity for them to practice writing essays with different patterns of development Teaching English writing is not an easy task for ESL teachers as it involves various processes which require teachers to devote a lot of time to helping students write better Planning what to teach within a particular curriculum is only a part of the task Besides, they have to consider the different approaches that gleaned from theories and researches on teaching writing in ESL contexts Teachers also spend a great deal of time in the post-writing process grading students’ compositions in detail Especially, it is the teachers’ jobs to select the approach that best fits the learners’ needs and create a motivating environment, and facilitate the learning-towrite activity The teacher can so by widening the area of interaction between him and his students The best means for teacher-student interaction may be insightful feedback which helps both improving students’ writing production and motivating them to be independent writers Therefore, most teachers believe that feedback is an important aspect of teaching of writing However, providing effective feedback is one of the many challenges that any writing teacher faces In ESL classroom, feedback practices can be even more challenging Teachers and students agree that teacher written feedback is a crucial part of the writing process (Cohen& Cavalcanti, 1990) Teachers want to give feedback that will encourage and challenge students to be better writers, but not always know how the feedback that they are giving is perceived by students, or how effective it is Since reading students work and giving feedback is very timeconsuming process, teachers may feel frustrated when the feedback they offer is not followed by the students Even when the teachers’ system for giving feedback is clear and consistent, sometimes teachers not know whether students understand their practices Therefore, the study examines teachers’ practices of feedback and compared these with students’ preferences and reaction to feedback to see how the teachers’ practice matches students’ needs and to find the best approach to improve students’ writing skill Besides, through the study, some implications will be Implications for teaching and learning Based on the findings of the study, the following suggestions are provided with a hope to improve teaching and learning writing with the use of feedback Firstly, teachers should be aware of the importance of providing feedback for the development of L2 learners’ thinking and writing As teachers’ answers in the interview, all teachers considered giving feedback on students’ writing as a part of their duty to achieve the course objectives Therefore, they mostly did those jobs with their own belief and perception However, to give effective feedback to students to improve their writing, classroom realities and the preferences of students must be considered Teachers are advised to pay careful attention to students’ attitudes toward feedback and find out whether there are any differences in opinion between the teachers and the students They also need to ensure that students see clearly the purposes of their feedback, the strategies that students should use for handling this feedback, and the benefits that students would potentially derive; so that the students can manage and make use of the feedback they received Secondly, what the teachers should is to develop wide range of ways of giving feedback As discussed above, all three teachers spent most of their time giving written feedback on students’ writing, and non-teacher feedback was rarely used in three classes However, marking mechanical errors is not enough since it can be frustrating Thus, when teachers give feedback, they should show students examples of how they can apply to improve their writing and give them opportunity to express their ideas and to discuss any challenging issues Teachers also should creatively develop various ways incorporating student-teacher interaction as well as peer interaction in the process of giving feedback Besides, teacher should offer students self-correction opportunity for their students by providing indirect feedback on students’ errors or instruct them to use computer applications to edit their writings Formal accuracy of student writing will be improved significantly if they are required to correct their errors than if they are not However, it is important 38 to teach students how to make best use of each type of feedback and how to work with the feedback they received Thirdly, as seen teachers’ practice and students’ preferences, teachers seemed to give students detailed error correction and identification but common comments, so most students did not highly appreciate receiving comments from their teacher feedback because the comments were not specific enough to help them improve their writing Therefore, teacher should avoid giving vague comments such as “Good” or “Try more” if they want students to make use of their comments to improve their writing It is suggested that the vague comments should be replaced with text-specific comments involving not only grammar or language in use but content and organization Next, the role of feedback is not only let students know how well they have performed but also to increase motivation Teacher feedback can also be considered as a powerful tool to motivate students in the writing process if done well Therefore, writing teachers should not simply respond to grammar and language in use but should include comments of praises and encouragement in students’ feedback Mitigation has been found to improve the confidence of students and lead them to be responsible for their writing Positive feedback is considered “positive reinforcement” whereas negative feedback is considered “punishment” (Brookhart, 2010) Thus, teachers should be polite and mitigate their comments while giving feedback Last but not least, it is recommended that students should be taught strategies to deal with feedback they received It is found that the students participating in the study seldom made use of dictionaries and grammar books to deal with the feedback they did not understand and rarely asked for the explanation of teachers or the help of their partners to handle the mistakes they made Teaching strategies will let students know that there are other ways to learn from feedback and that they are 39 responsible for their own learning to a certain extent It can also promote student autonomous learning 40 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION Summary This study aimed to investigate the real activities of the teachers and students in dealing with feedback, and the preferences of students to four different types of feedback It was conducted with the participation of teachers and students at College of Technologies and Economics in Trade The first part of the study showed that in general, all writing teachers frequently gave students written feedback on their papers but few instructions to apply other types of feedback such as self-feedback, peer feedback or computer-directed feedback Besides, each teacher gave feedback in different ways It is also the reason why the second part showed that students in each class handled the feedback they received in various ways, mostly depending on the types of feedback their teachers gave them The third part of the study revealed the types of feedback which students favored The majority of students in the present study said that they found teacher feedback most useful This corresponds with the results in previous studies reviewed (Saito, 1994; Lee, 2008) However, few students may realize the importance of peer or self correction of their writing Computer-directed feedback seemed to be a new terms to students, but when being asked about it, many students had positive attitudes toward this type of feedback These findings of the study suggests teachers some pedagogical implications which they can employ to improve their teaching Limitations of the study Although great effort has been made by the researcher while carrying out the study, due to the time constraints, the author of the study only examined the teachers’ practices through analyzing students’ paragraphs and the interview with the teachers, but did not spend time observing writing classes to see the real teaching and learning context This might lead the fact that the results drawn from the study are not yet totally satisfying 41 Suggestions for further studies As implied from the findings of the study, various types of feedback should be applied in teaching and learning writing Thus, further action research or experimental research could be done to see the effectiveness of each type in real context 42 REFERENCES Ann R (1983) Techniques in teaching writing Oxford University Press Ashwell, T (2000) Patterns of teacher response to student writing in a multipledraft composition classroom: Is content feedback followed by form feedback the best method? 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Zamel (1985) Responding student writing TESOL Quarterly, 19(1), 79-101 Zhang S (1995) Reexamining the affective advantage of peer feedback in the ESL writing class Journal of Second Language Writing, 4(3), 209-222 47 APPENDIX STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE FEEDBACK ON ESL WRITING: TEACHERS’ PRACTICE AND STUDENTS’ PREFERENCES I am Le Thi Thu Ha, an MA student at Post-graduate department, ULIS, VNU I am conducting my graduation thesis on second-year students’ reactions and preferences for feedback on ESL writing This survey questionnaire aimed to investigate your views concerning this issue Please give your answer sincerely; otherwise the investigation would not be successful All information you provide will be confidential and used solely for research purposes Thank you very much for your cooperation! Student’s name (optional): Group: I Feedback There are different ways to provide feedback on student writing Please circle one choice that best describes the usefulness of each type of feedback and please write down reasons No Totally Useless useless Types of feedback Neither Quite Very useless useful useful nor useful Teacher feedback (Teacher evaluate student’s writing) Comment: _ I a Teacher-student conference (Teacher discuss the 5 5 Error identification (Teacher indicates the place 5 5 writing of students) Comment: _ b Teacher correction (Teacher corrects all the grammatical errors) Comment: _ c Teacher commentary (Teacher gives feedback by making comments, no error correction) Comment: _ d Teacher correction with comments Comment: _ e where the error occurs by underlying or circling it, not correcting) Comment: _ Peer feedback (Students evaluate each other’s work in pairs) Comment: _ Self- feedback (Students evaluate their own work by the checklist) Comment: _ Computer-directed feedback (Computer software evaluate students’ writing) Comment: _ II II Student’s strategies for handling feedback What you usually when you get back your paper with teacher’s feedback on your writing? Circle the choice for each strategy and write down your other opinions No Strategies for handling feedback Frequently Sometimes Rarely Read the mark/grade Read the comments 3 Correct all the errors Ask the teacher for clarification, explanation 3 or help Consult dictionaries, grammar books, or writing textbooks Work with a partner to help each other improve the composition Rewriting a Only incorporating feedback received b Revising and expanding Do nothing Other opinions (please specify): ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………  THANK YOU VERY MUCH  III APPENDIX TEACHER INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FEEDBACK ON ESL WRITING: TEACHERS’ PRACTICE AND STUDENTS’ PREFERENCES I am Le Thi Thu Ha, an MA student at Post-graduate department, ULIS, VNU I am conducting my graduation thesis on teachers’ practices for feedback on ESL writing This survey questionnaire aimed to investigate your views concerning this issue Please give your answer sincerely; otherwise the investigation would not be successful All information you provide will be confidential and used solely for research purposes Thank you very much for your cooperation! Teacher’s name: ……………………………………… Teaching class: ………………………………………… Teaching experience: …………………years Question 1: Do you give students guidance to use feedback on ESL writing? A Usually B Sometimes C Never Question 2: Do you give feedback on students’ ESL writing? A Usually B Sometimes C Never Question 3: Do you help students revise their writing after receiving feedback? A Usually B Sometimes IV C Never Question 4: What kinds of feedback you often use in your writing classes? Please give reasons for your choice No Types of teacher feedback Usually Sometimes Never Teacher-student conference 3 3 Comment: _ Teacher correction Comment: _ Commentary Comment: _ Teacher correction with comments Comment: _ Error identification Comment: _ Question 5: Do you have any difficulties when giving feedback? ………………………………………………………………………………… Question 6: What types of feedback you think students prefer? …………………………………………………………………………………  THANK YOU VERY MUCH  V