The types of feedback used by teachers of english at vietnam university of commerce and their effectiveness on improving oral presentation skills of the second year

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ HƢƠNG THE TYPES OF FEEDBACK USED BY TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AT VIETNAM UNIVERSITY OF COMMERCE AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS ON IMPROVING ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS OF THE SECOND YEAR ENGLISH – MAJOR STUDENTS (CÁC LOẠI PHẢN HỒI TỪ GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THƯƠNG MẠI VÀ ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA CHÚNG ĐẾN VIỆC HOÀN THIỆN KỸ NĂNG THUYẾT TRÌNH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi, 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ HƢƠNG THE TYPES OF FEEDBACK USED BY TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AT VIETNAM UNIVERSITY OF COMMERCE AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS ON IMPROVING ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS OF THE SECOND YEAR ENGLISH – MAJOR STUDENTS (CÁC LOẠI PHẢN HỒI TỪ GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THƯƠNG MẠI VÀ ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA CHÚNG ĐẾN VIỆC HOÀN THIỆN KỸ NĂNG THUYẾT TRÌNH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Nguyễn Hƣơng Giang, M.A Hanoi, 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Certification……………………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………… ii Abstract………………………………………………………………… ………………iii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.Rationale……………………………………………………………………… ………1 2.Aims of the study……………………………………………………………… …… 3.Scope of the study…………………………………………………… ……………… 4.Method of the study…………………………………………………………………… 5.Design of the study…………………………………………………………………… PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Oral presentation 1.1.1 Definitions and characteristics…………………………………… ……….………4 1.1.2 Oral presentation organization………………………………… ………….………5 1.1.3 Teaching oral presentation skills…………………………………………… ……6 1.2 Feedback 1.2.1 Definitions of feedback…………………………………………………………… 1.2.2 Types of teacher feedback on oral presentation………………………………… 10 1.3 Effects of teacher feedback on improving students’ oral presentation skills…….….12 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Situation analysis 2.1.1 Context of the study…………………………………………….…………… … 16 2.1.2 Subjects of the study…………………………………………….……… ……….17 2.2 Data collection instruments………………………………………………………….17 2.3 Data analysis…………………………………………………… …………………19 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 Findings 3.1.1 Teachers’ use of feedback on students’ oral presentation.………… … ……….20 iv 3.1.2 Effectiveness of teacher feedback on students’ oral presentation skills……… 23 3.2 Discussions 3.2.1 Students’ attitude toward oral presentation skills and teacher feedback……… 27 3.2.2 Teachers’ feedback and its effectiveness on improving students’ oral presentation skills…………………………………………………………….…………………… …29 3.2.2.1 Strategic feedback…………………………………….………………… …… 30 3.2.2.2 Corrective feedback………………………………….……………… ……… 30 3.2.2.3 Evaluative feedback………………………………….……………… ……… 31 PART C: CONCLUSION 1.Summary of the study…………………………………………………………… … 33 2.Recommendations…………………………… …………………………………… 34 Limitations and suggestions……………………… …………………………………35 REFERENCES………………………………………………….……………………… 37 APPENDIX 1…………………………………………………………………………… I APPENDIX 2…………………………………………………………………………….IV v PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale There is a considerable amount of research which confirms that presentation skills are essential skills that need to be taught to students because of their popularity in most working places Morley (2006) points out that oral presentation skills are essential for employability and true academic study as they lead students to enter into debate and sustained reasoning Oral presentation tasks enable students to fully participate in their learning, show their persuasiveness, their influence on whatever they want to in the future and help them develop competency in a vital area of their work Furthermore, Powell (2003) states that through the process of presenting, individuals not only become fully effective in organization, management and expression of ideas and arguments but also have many advantages when they write a report or an essay However, giving oral presentation is one of the most difficult skills for students because it not only requires them to produce the language most of the time, spontaneously or without enough time to construct the appropriate and correct utterances but also calls for all aspects of language to be involved Due to a lack of English exposure in non-English speaking countries, most Vietnamese learners not have sufficient opportunity to improve their oral proficiency in English Therefore, language teachers play important roles in helping students to improve their oral presentation skills Current tendencies in education, especially teaching foreign languages, are more student-centered than teacher-centered In student-centered pedagogy, the teacher moves from the traditional role as an authoritative expert to the new role of a facilitator in students’ learning This new trend requires teachers to create a supportive learning atmosphere, acquire interaction skills, develop cooperative learning skills and know how to apply technology in improving effectiveness of their teaching Furthermore, working with students on oral presentation is a challenging job for teachers since it not only requires teachers’ skill and knowledge about speech communication and public speaking but also calls for more time and effort in lesson planning and teaching strategies (King, 2002) Moreover, due to students’ lack of chances to communicate with English native speakers, teacher feedback to students’ speech is of great importance Orsmond et al (2005) suppose that students use feedback to enhance motivation and learning, to encourage reflection and clarify understanding In addition, 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 kind of feedback and the way feedback should be given to the students so that it fosters their learning and improves their oral presentation skills is quite frustrating – the problem that most teachers of English in Vietnam encounter in their speaking classes As a result, teaching oral presentation skills at Vietnam University of Commerce (VCU) causes certain difficulties for teachers With the hope of contributing to a more effective oral presentation teaching and learning in VCU, a minor study was carried out to find out how teacher feedback can help to improve oral presentation skills of the second year English – major students at this university Aims of the study This study examines the types of feedback which are mainly used by teachers of English at VCU when their second year English – major students give oral presentations; thenceforth, finds out how effectively each type of feedback contributes to enhancing students’ oral presentation skills as perceived by students With a view to achieving the aims of the study, the research questions will be addressed as follows: What types of feedback are mainly used by teachers of English at VCU when their second year English – major students make oral presentations? How those types of feedback contribute to the improvement of oral presentation skills of the second year English – major students as perceived by students? Scope of the study Due to the framework of this minor thesis, limited time and experience, the researcher cannot discuss all the aspects related to the broad topic of teacher feedback The research just focuses on finding the types of feedback teachers at VCU give to their English major students when they deliver their speech Moreover, the researcher hopes to provide significant insights into what teachers to respond to students’ oral presentation and effectiveness of some certain kinds of feedback in promoting students’ presenting skills which leads to some suggestions for improving teacher feedback and helping students to make the best use of teacher feedback to enhance their oral presentation skills Method of the study In order to realize the aims, this study employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods: A survey questionnaire was done on 126 second year English-major students at Vietnam University of Commerce to collect their opinions on the types of teachers’ feedback they received and the effectiveness of these types of feedback on improving students’ oral presentation skills Interviews were conducted with 10 students in order to explore further issues being investigated Design of the study This study has three parts: Part A – Introduction, Part B – Development including literature review, methodology, findings and discussions and Part C – Conclusion The introduction part presents the rationale, aims and scope of the study, method of the study and organization of the study The literature review chapter conceptualizes the framework of the study through the discussions of issues and ideas on theories of oral presentation and feedback The methodology chapter includes situation analysis, data collection instruments and data analysis The findings and discussions chapter indicates the results of the study, from which major findings and some discussions are revealed The conclusion part at the end gives a summary of the main issues that have been discussed so far in the study and suggestions for further research PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Oral presentation 1.1.1 Definition and characteristics An oral presentation, according to the learning centre of New South Wales University, is “a short talk on a set topic given to a tutorial or seminar group”, in which one or more students present views on a topic based on their readings or research From this view, we can see that oral presentation is the practice of showing or explaining the content of a topic to audience(s), so that it can come in nearly as many forms as there are in life situations Ohio Wesleyan University, in their “Guidelines for Oral Presentation” shares the opinion that oral presentations are “brief discussions of a focused topic delivered to a group of listeners in order to impart knowledge or to stimulate discussion” Mentioning characteristics of oral presentation, Clark supposes that both presentations and reports are “ways of communicating ideas and information to a group”, however, a presentation not only allows immediate and direct interaction between participants but also carries the speakers’ personality better than a report does As far as he is concerned, a good presentation has at least for elements Firstly, it has content which contains information people need, yet, it depends on the amount of information that the audience can absorb at certain time Next, an oral presentation has structure which requires a logical beginning, middle and end so that the audience can understand it During the process of wandering among different parts of the presentation, the presenter must keep to hold the floor and not to loose the audience Another important element is packaging, it means that the presentation must be well – prepared for the audience is at the mercy of the speaker Last but not least, a good presentation has human in it which makes it better to remember and differentiates it from a report To be more detailed, Comfort (as cited in Ha, Nguyen Thi Van, 2007:11) identifies the criteria which can be used to evaluate an effective oral presentation: Over all: what they should take into consideration to raise their presentation competence Additionally, most interviewees said that lack of confidence was one of the major problems that led to their oral presentation failures Hence, teachers need to be more encouraging and helpful, especially in their feedback This can be done simply by a nod of the head or a friendly smile while students are making presentations or by giving students more praise, compliments and encouragements than criticism when teachers make comments on students’ performance It is also suggested that when teaching presentations, teachers use a prepared observation feedback form which is divided into sections such as body language, sign posting, and audience rapport After students’ presentations, teachers are highly recommended to give feedback verbally and/or in writing This is due to the fact that students may forget their teachers’ comments right after their performance if they only hear it once Teachers’ feedback in the form of writing gives students chances of thinking twice about the mistakes when they go home It is also necessary for teachers to help students improve both linguistic and nonlinguistic skills as postures and body language such as eye contact, facial expressions are essential factors of making a persuasive and attractive presenter What is more, together with teacher feedback, teacher should make use of peer feedback When being given the chances to assess other students’ oral presentations, they take them more seriously and will learn from their friends’ experience Students merely watching each other presentations tend to get bored while taking part in peer evaluation activities, they gain a firm knowledge of the form and process of making an effective presentation Limitations and suggestions for further study Due to time constraint and lack of experience of the researcher, limitations are unavoidable Firstly, in this study, the researcher focused on the survey questionnaire and interview of the students, so the results from this research reflected the view of students to teacher feedback only If the researcher spent time to work with teachers, to get teacher feedback from teachers’ view as well as the teachers’ conception of feedback, the results 35 would be more objective Secondly, among 150 students who participated in the survey, 126 of them returned the questionnaire to the researcher If there were more respondents, the results of the study would be more worthwhile and reflect the situation more clearly Thirdly, there are a lot of theories for classification of teacher feedback and each type has certain characteristics However, the researcher focused on the theory of Gattullo and Harmer which divided teacher feedback into three types namely corrective feedback, evaluative feedback and strategic feedback; this also restricted the results of the research After doing this research, the writer is tempted to find out the effects of teacher feedback on improving writing skills of the students of English at VCU, especially the teacher feedback that can motivate revision of drafts in writing classes Therefore, in the future, if having chances, the researcher will take this into consideration 36 REFERENCES Al-Fahdi, H.M “English Language Teachers’ Use of Oral Feedback”, Dakhiliya Region: Oman retrieved from www.moe.gov.om/Portal/sitebuilder/sites/ /Ch7.pdf Ayoun, D (2001) “The Role of Negative and Positive Feedback in the Second Language Acquisition of the Passé Compose and Imparfait”, The Modern Language Journal, 85, 226-238 Book, C.L (1983) Providing Feedback on Student Speeches: The Research on Effective Oral and Written Feedback Strategies, ERIC Bound, D (1991) Implementing Student Self Assessment, HERDSA Green Guide, No.5, Second edition, Sydney, HERDSA Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Discourse Analysis, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press Busà, M.G (2010) “Sounding Natural: Improving Oral Presentation Skills”, Language Value, 2, 1, 51-67 Carter, J (1984) “Instructional Learner Feedback: A Literature Review with Implications for Software Development”, The Computing Teacher, 12, 2, 53-55 Clark, D retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadpres.html Dinham, S (2008) “Powerful Teacher Feedback”, Synergy, 6, 2, 35-38 10 Dweck, C.S (2000) Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development, Philadelphia, Psychology Press 11 Dwyer, J (2000) The Business Communication Handbook, New Jersey, Prentice Hall 12 Ferris, D (1999) “The Case for Grammar Correction in L2 Writing Classes: A Response to Truscott (1996)”, Journal of Second Language Writing, 1, 1-10 13 Gattulo, F (2000) Corrective Feedback and Teaching Style: Exploring a Relationship, In Al-Fahdi, H M “English Language Teachers’ Use of Oral Feedback”, Dakhiliya Region, Oman 14 Gigliotti, E (1995) “Let me Entertainer-teach you: Gaining Attention through the Use of Slide Shows”, The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 26, 31-34 37 15 nd (2 Gipps, C & Stobart, G (1993) Assessment: A Teachers Guide to the Issues Edition), London, UK: Hodder & Stoughton 16 Nguyen Thi Van Ha (2007) A study on oral presentation difficulties of second-year English majors of Phuong Dong University in the speaking lessons and solutions, University of Language and International Studies, Hanoi 17 Harmer, J (1991) The Practice of English Language Learning, London, Longman 18 Hattie, J & Timperley H (2007) “The Power of Feedback”, Review of educational research, 7, 81-112 19 Hulterstrom, T (2005) Oral Feedback: Students' Reactions and Opinions, Karlstads Universitet, Karlstad 20 Truong Thi Huong, (2011) Effects of teacher's feedback on freshmen’s motivation in speaking lessons: A survey at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, University of Language and International Studies, Hanoi 21 Hyland, P (2000) 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Student Attitudes toward Teacher Feedback”, RELC Journal, 38, 1, 38-52 36 Orsmond, P., Merry, S., Reiling, K (2005) “Biology Students’ Utilization of Tutor’ Formative Feedback: A Qualitative Interview Study”, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 30, 4, 369 – 386 37 Powel, M (2003) Presenting in English, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 38 Race, P (2001) “A Briefing on Self, Peer and Group Assessment”, The learning and teaching support network generic centre, Series No York Science Park, York 39 Ramaprasad, A (1983) “On the Definition of Feedback”, Behavioral Science, 28, 1, 4-13 40 Ribas, M.S.I (2010) The Effects of Teacher Talks on Students' Oral Productions, Unpublished Final Mater Dissertation, TED Masters Degree 39 41 Sales, G.C (1993) “Adapted and Adaptive Feedback in Technology-based Instruction”, in Dempsey, J.V and Sales, G.C (Eds.): Interactive Instruction and Feedback, Educational Technology Publications, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 159–175 42 Schaller, A & Szabo, A (2000) Learner Autonomy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 43 Stobart, G (2003) “The Impact of Assessment: Intended and Unitended Consequences”, Assessment in Education, 16, 2, 129-140 44 Sutton, R (1997) The Learning School, Salford, RS Publications 45 Teresé, H (2005) Oral Feedback, Karlstad: Karlstad University 46 The Learning Centre, The University of New South Wales (1987) Business Presentation Guide, Pitman Publishing 47 Tunstall, P & Gipps, C (1996) “Teacher Feedback to Young Children in Formative Assessment: a Typology”, British Educational Research Association, 22, 4, 389-404 48 Underhill, N (1987) Testing Spoken Language: A Handbook of Oral Testing Techniques, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 49 Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 50 Van Emden, J & Becker, L (2004) Presentation Skills for Students, Palgrave Macmillan 51 Vo, G (1994) New Ways in Teaching Speaking, “Speaking time”, In Baley, K.M & Savage, L (Eds), 276-277 52 Nguyen Thi Bich Van (2009) Investigating how to improve oral presentation skills for the second-year English majors of the department of foreign languages at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, University of Language and International Studies, Hanoi 53 Weaver, M.R (2006) “Do Students Value Feedback? Student Perception of Tutors’ Written Responses”, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 31, 3, 379-394 54 Ypsilanddis, G (2002) “Feedback in Distance Education”, Computer assisted language learning, 15, 2, 167-181 40 APPENDIX Questionnaire for students This survey questionnaire is designed for my research into the effects of teacher feedback on improving oral presentation skills Your assistance in responding to the survey is highly appreciated and you will not be identified in any discussion of the data I In completing these questions, please choose the answer by circling the letter next to your choice or expressing your ideas in the blanks How necessary you think it is to learn oral presentation skills in your speaking class? A Very necessary B Necessary C Quite necessary D Not necessary at all What you think is the reason for that necessity? (You can choose more than one) A Making oral presentations is one of the requirements in the university’s syllabus for speaking B Speaking skill is well – practiced through doing oral presentations C It’s a good way to evaluate one’s ability in speaking D It is for us to prepare for our professional ways of working in the future E Others (please specify)……………………………………………………………… ……… In what way you find delivering a presentation difficult? (You can choose more than one) A I cannot make a good voice variation (with stress & intonation) B I am not good at using body language such as eye contact, facial expression, and hand gestures C I feel nervous in front of the audience D I not know how to handle with the audience’s questions E Others (please specify)………………………………………………………………….…… What you think are the reasons for such difficulties? (You can choose more than one) A Our English proficiency is quite low B Giving oral presentations is new to us C We are low – motivated D It’s our teacher that fails to teach us what a good oral presentation should be E Others (please specify)……………………………………………………………… …… … In what way you like your teacher to give feedback on your oral presentations? A Teacher interrupts students’ speeches to point out errors B Teacher waits until students finish their presentation, points out the errors and corrects them I C Teacher waits until students finish their presentation, points out the errors and asks students to correct them D Teacher gives a mark along without any comments or feedback E Others (please specify)……………………………………………………….… …………… How you assess your teacher feedback on your oral presentations? A effective and sufficient B effective but insufficient C ineffective D Others (Please specify)…………………………………………………………….………… What would you like your teacher to comment on your oral presentations? A The content of your presentations B The design of your presentations C Accuracy of your language D Your manner of delivery (hand gestures, posture, facial expression, eye contact, volume…) E Others (Please specify)………………………………………………………….……….…… How you feel when your teacher gives feedback to your oral presentations? A feel encouraged B feel discouraged C feel ashamed because teacher feedback makes you lose face D Others (please specify)……………………………………………………… ……………… II The following table is types of feedback that your teachers may use to respond to your presentations in English lessons Please put a tick (v) in the column to give your opinion Never No Your teacher helps you notice and correct mistakes yourself Your teacher directly corrects your mistakes Your teacher clarifies your utterance by asking questions like “what you mean by…?” or “Excuse me?” Your teacher draws your attention to mistakes by repeating your mistakes with a change in intonation Your teacher criticizes you when you make mistakes Your teacher gives comments/explanation for her mark on your presentation II 10 Your teacher compliments on your good performance Your teacher indicates to what extent your performance is good or not Your teacher gives you advice on how to improve your performance Your teacher suggests ways to help you overcome mistakes yourself III How effective is your teachers’ feedback on oral presentation skills? Please put a tick (v) in the column to give your opinion No Teachers’ feedback 10 Your teacher helps you notice and correct mistakes yourself Your teacher directly corrects your mistakes Your teacher clarifies your utterance by asking questions like “what you mean by…?” or “Excuse me?” Your teacher draws your attention to mistakes by repeating your mistakes with a change in intonation Your teacher criticizes you when you make mistakes Your teacher gives comments/explanation for her mark on your presentation Your teacher compliments on your good performance Your teacher indicates to what extent your performance is good or not Your teacher gives you advice on how to improve your performance Your teacher suggests ways to help you overcome mistakes yourself Thank you for your cooperation! III APPENDIX Interview Questions for Students Do you think that oral presentations are important skills? Why? What is the most difficult factor you encounter when making oral presentations? (content, accuracy, fluency, gestures, body language, audience questions…) Does your teacher have any comments on your presentations? General or detailed comments? Compliments or criticism? What you think about your teacher’s feedback on your oral presentations? Effective or ineffective? Is it sufficient and clear enough to understand? How you feel when receiving teacher’s feedback on your oral presentations? Encouraged or embarrassed/ discouraged? What you think your teacher should when giving feedback in order to help students improve oral presentation skills? IV ... by teachers of English at VCU when their second year English – major students make oral presentations? How those types of feedback contribute to the improvement of oral presentation skills of the. .. collect their opinions on the types of teachers? ?? feedback they received and the effectiveness of these types of feedback on improving students’ oral presentation skills Interviews were conducted... general and on their oral presentation skills in particular 3.2.2 Teachers? ?? feedback and its effectiveness on improving students’ oral presentation skills The results of the questionnaire and interviews