(Luận văn thạc sĩ) praise as classroom communicative reinforcing device perception of haiphong university students

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ THÙY LINH PRAISE AS CLASSROOM COMMUNICATIVE REINFORCING DEVICE: PERCEPTION OF HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS (Nhận thức sinh viên trường Đại học Hải Phòng lời khen ngợi phương tiện tăng cường giao tiếp lớp học) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 HANOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ THÙY LINH PRAISE AS CLASSROOM COMMUNICATIVE REINFORCING DEVICE: PERCEPTION OF HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS (Nhận thức sinh viên trường Đại học Hải Phòng lời khen ngợi phương tiện tăng cường giao tiếp lớp học) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Phùng Hà Thanh, M.Ed HANOI - 2010 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements i Declaration ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of figures and tables vi INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Purpose of the study Research questions Methodology Significance of the study CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .4 1.1 Teacher praise: definition and functions 1.1.1 Definition of teacher praise 1.1.2 Functions of teacher praise 1.2 Classification of teacher praise .6 1.3 Students’ perception of teacher praise 1.3.1 A framework of students’ perception 1.3.2 Students’ perception of teacher praise 1.4 Resistance to teacher praise 11 1.5 Guidelines for effective teacher praise 11 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 15 2.1 Sampling and defining the case 15 2.2 Data collection 16 2.2.1 Instruments 16 2.2.2 Procedures 18 2.3 Data analysis 18 v CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 20 3.1 Different types of teacher praise 20 3.2 Students’ preference for different types of teacher praise 21 3.3 Students’ emotional responses to different types of teacher praise 24 3.4 Influences of different types of teacher praise on students’ self-concept .25 3.5 Influences of different types of teacher praise on students’ behaviour 25 3.6 High-achievers versus low-achievers in preference for teacher praise 26 3.7 Implications 27 CONCLUSION .31 Summary of the study 31 Limitations and future research .32 REFERENCES 33 APPENDIX I vi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Page Figure 1.1: Constructs of three components of mind……………………… ………… Figure 1.2: Guidelines for effective praise…………………………………………… 13 Table 2.1: Teachers’ profile…………………………………………………………… 16 Table 3.1: Means and Standard Deviation for different types of teacher praise…… …20 Table 3.2: Percentages of students’ cognition………………………………………… 22 Table 3.3: Students’ preference for different types of teacher praise……………………22 Table 3.4: High – achievers’ and low – achievers’ preference for teacher praise……….26 INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study It is human nature that actions bringing pleasure tend to be repeated When a person earns praise for having done something right, that praise acts as a reinforcer stimulating that person to repeat the desirable behaviour Every one of us desires praise at some level, and in one form or another In a working environment, being praised for working well helps people to feel worthwhile They will feel motivated to continue working hard and will be encouraged to whatever needs to be done to support the business In educational settings, being noticed and appreciated for their good behaviour, students are willing to more than they are asked, volunteer ideas and become more involved and committed to what they are doing Most educational psychologists and other sources of advice to classroom teachers stress the significance of teacher praise in communication transaction as it positively influences students’ academic achievement (Gettinger, 1983; Luiselli & Downing, 1980), on-task behaviour (Ferguson & Houghton, 1992; Vollmeyer & Rheinberg, 2005), pupil’s speech (Moore, Knott & McNaughton, 1989), students’ perceptions (Baker & Graham, 1987, Stipek & MacIver, 1989) and helps to provide encouragement to students, to build self – esteem and a close teacher-student relationship (Brophy, 1981) Indeed, it is reported to be one of the most long – recognized and essential skill for language teacher and the strategy teachers find easiest to employ (Munroe, 1982) Research findings tend to indicate that the simple act of praising a student can have both reinforcing and informative qualities My own thinking was no exception until one day, when I offered a student a statement of praise, he seemed indifferent to it His facial expression and behaviour revealed that he did not like that praise at all I felt quite embarrassed, and then I hooked on research of praise right after getting home In study after study, I find out that teacher praise is not always beneficial; even it does more harm than good when teacher praise does not meet student’s expectation Such researchers as Denny (1986), Gordon (1989), Mueller & Dweck (1998), Kamins & Dweck (1999), and Burnett (2002) argued that praise, whether intended or unintended, can produce a number of negative outcomes to students’ learning environments Being urged by the situation, I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to conduct a research study on students’ perception of different types of teacher praise in a university in Vietnam to see whether it motivates or demotivates students in classroom communication Purpose of the study This research is designed to investigate into teacher praise and students’ perception in a case of Haiphong University The purposes of the study are: + to recognize different kinds of praise used by teachers at Haiphong Univeristy + to see how students at Haiphong University perceive different kinds of teacher praise Research questions For such purposes, the study aims at answering the following questions: 3.1 What are different types of praise that the teachers at Haiphong University offer in classroom? 3.2 What is students’ preference for different types of teacher praise? 3.3 What are students’ emotional responses to different types of teacher praise? 3.4 To what extent is students’ self – concept influenced by different types of teacher praise? 3.5 To what extent is students’ behaviour influenced by different types of teacher praise? 3.6 To what extent are high – achievers different from low – achievers in terms of their preference for different types of teacher praise? Methodology The research employed case study, using observations and semi – structured interviews as instruments of data collection Significance of the study Although studies of teacher praise are numerous in Western cultural and educational settings, such studies of teacher praise in Vietnam are extremely scarce The study is undertaken to find out the teacher praise and how students perceive it in Vietnamese context, particularly in Haiphong University Therefore, this study contributes to enriching the researches on this area in the context of university English classrooms in our country The findings and implications of this study will be of much help to both teachers and students of English teacher training CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter sets out to review the literature related to teacher praise, its functions, then discuss the classifications of teacher praise and students’ perception in previous studies 1.1 Teacher praise: definition and functions 1.1.1 Definition of teacher praise The term “praise” is derived from the Latin verb “pretiare”, which means to value highly (Burnett, 2002), and involves “commending the worth of or to express approval or admiration” (Brophy, 1981) By definition, praise is “positive evaluation made by a person of another’s products, performances or attributes, where the evaluator presumes the validity of the standards on which the evaluation is based” (Kanouse, Gumpert & Canavan – Gumpert, 1981, p 98) This was selected in part because it is comprehensive, and resonates well with commonsense conception of praise According to Hitz & Driscoll’s research on the use of teacher praise in the classroom (1989), effective praise was thought to occur when the teacher positively acknowledged students’ work They pointed out that this required teachers to be non – judgemental to prevent status being assigned to students 1.1.2 Functions of teacher praise There are two main functions of teacher praise: praise as reinforcement and praise as informational feedback Along with the development of language teaching, different methods and approaches have emphasized on different functions of teacher praise Praise as reinforcement As a behaviorist, Skinner (1974) was forming the belief that language was learnt through repetition and positive or negative reinforcement Reinforcement is the process by which the likelihood of a certain response following certain stimuli is increased Hence, in the time of Audio-Lingual Method, reinforcement as the extrinsic approval and praise of the teacher or fellow student or the intrinsic self-satisfaction of target language use is a vital element in the learning because it increases the likelihood that the behavior will occur again and become a habit When administered properly, such positive reinforcement can successfully modify behaviour and stimulate learning In the educational settings, this use of praise as a positive reinforcement has been widely recommended as a teaching strategy Stringer & Hurt (1981, p 1) stated that “the communication transaction of verbal praise is an interpersonal experience and plays an important role in the reinforce ment process, which in turn affects the learning and behavioral activity of students.” Furthermore, Thomas (1991) referred to praise as a kind of positive reinforcer, with consistent praise thought to encourage desirable behaviour, while extinguished undesirable behaviour He suggested that praise could be a motivational tool in the classroom if reinforcement was descriptive and involved using the students’ name, choosing appropriate praise words carefully and describing precisely the behaviour that merits the praise Similarly, Woolfolk (1987), quoted in Moore (2007, p 202), discussed praise as reinforcement that teachers use a rewarding stimulus to motivate some action or behaviour Numerous researchers have demonstrated that teacher praise can improve academic behaviour Blaney (1993) investigated the effects of teacher praise on academic achievement of elementary students, comparing groups that were taught using high (i.e., praising correct responses, providing corrective feedback for incorrect response) versus low (i.e., neutral feedback, such as “OK” for correct responses and “No” for incorrect responses) levels of teacher praise The author found that students in the groups that received higher rates of praise for correct responding performed significantly better on academic tests than did students who received lower praise rates for correct responding Praise as informational feedback In contrast to behaviourists, constructivists in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) emphasize interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language Therefore, the teacher acts as an advisor during communicative activity, a facilitator of students’ learning, or a co-communicator, and helps learners in any way that motivates them to work with the language So, praise in this approach is regarded as both communicative reinforcer and informational feedback In its essence, praise is “a form of feedback that conveys information about the correctness or appropriateness of answers and other behaviours, as well as information about the teacher’s positive regard for the behaviours” (Emmer, 1988, p 32) For 24 what was good in their performance Hence, the probability of any misunderstanding was lessened This finding was in line with other research’ mentioned earlier in chapter one 3.2.3 Verbal praise versus non – verbal praise Taken verbal and non – verbal praise into consideration, the majority of the recipients (86.67%) had a preference for the former type One reason was verbal praise was easier to recognize and it provided more information than just teacher’s pleasantness It was also advised that two types should be combined together in order to take full advantages The result highlighted that verbal and non – verbal praise were incorporated and integrated Though students perceived the former type in a more positive way for it is easily recognizable and much more informative, the latter type was believed to increase the validity and credibility of teacher praise when two types were accompanied 3.3 Students’ emotional responses to different types of teacher praise The third question revealed the overall feeling of the recipients of praise All of those who were aware of teacher praise responded that they were happy and proud The study showed that it was a common belief among students to crave praise from their teachers They all liked to hear that others were noticing their hard work, triumphs and achievements In response to the question 4, “Do you like your teacher praise and the way he/she praised you?”, most of the interviewees claimed “Yes” since it gave them the sense of achievement and they felt like being valued and appreciated for what they had done One of them stated that: “I like to get teacher praise so I know that I am headed in the right direction, and I like to receive such a praise that would give me ideas on how I can improve my work and it can direct my thinking When a teacher takes the time to evaluate my work, it shows that he or she values who I am and the work that I produce.” Only 10% disliked the way their teacher praised them, including 6.7% who were uncertain about merit of the praise they received Some of the participants suggested that the teacher praise in the way that it could point out what was good and what should be improved in students’ performance One student said, 25 “A sentence or two outlining what I did well and any areas for improvement would contribute to the success that I would feel regarding my work.” The study result indicated that being fully aware of teacher praise inspired positive feeling inside students, especially those who received specific praise reported more satisfaction It highlighted that in terms of emotion, students respond positively to qualified teacher praise One possible explanation for the case that the student expressed his indifference towards teacher praise might be he did not understand the teacher praise or the teacher praise did not meet his expectation or need 3.4 Influences of different types of teacher praise on students’ self – concept Regarding students’ cognition, question eight was addressed The interviewees all believed praise from their teachers made great sense to them They admitted that they deeply desired recognition and acknowledgement for what they had done in the classroom, particularly when they earned verbal and specific praise Being offered a praise statement that was tailored to a specific behavior or effort, students could more genuinely evaluate themselves By praise, they felt their teacher noticed their hard work, contribution, achievements and what they had done made a difference It in turn enhanced their motivation in learning They opined that good teacher praise helped them a lot in building their positive self – image One of the interviewed showed that teacher praise could help to better her self – concept: “It helps me to see the good in ourselves, to overcome difficulties and challenges, then build on success” 3.5 Influences of different types of teacher praise on students’ behaviour With regards to the two last questions about the influence of different types of teacher praise on students’ conation, students found no distinction between effort and ability praise, verbal and non – verbal praise However, they stressed more importance on specific praise than general one All the participants who liked their teacher praise said it was of much help in the sense that it motivated them to keep on learning and to make more academic contribution in the class This was best demonstrated in the opinions as follows: 26 “Praise is very important to me because it fosters my self – confidence and encouragement” “Teacher praise motivates me a lot It makes me more research I want to contribute more and get more” The finding that praise can be an effective agent of change was similar to an abundance of research suggesting that teachers can use praise to influence students’ behaviour and academic achievement positively It should be noted that some people are self – motivated because they like challenge and want to perform While educators cannot make or teach students to be self – motivated, they can encourage and promote this by letting student know what is expected of them, that the effort is worthwhile and they will benefit through effective performance In sequence, praise helps build intrinsic motivation and a positive self-image 3.6 High – achievers versus low – achievers in preference for teacher praise As observed during 25 class visits, teacher praise was distributed unevenly to high achievers and low – achievers 19 out of 30 praised students were high – achievers and 11 were low – achievers Types of High - achievers’ preference Low - achievers’ preference teacher praise (in percentage) (in percentage) Effort 36.8% 81.8% Ability 63.2% 18.2% Specific 68.4% 27.3% General 31.6% 72.7% Verbal 84.2% 90.9% Non – verbal 15.8% 9.1% Table 3.3: High – achievers’ and low – achievers’ preference for teacher praise The most significant difference was found out among the two groups of student regarding preference for the first dimension of teacher praise 63.2% of high – achievers wished to receive ability praise, meanwhile 81.8% of low – achievers had preference for effort praise There was likelihood that high – achievers wanted to prove their intelligence, their capability which in turn inspired them to higher levels of challenge On the contrary, 27 low - achievers believe that teacher praise should focus more on their hard work, skills and strategies that students used to accomplish the given tasks, which led them to increase attempt and enhance skills even the mistakes would be made in the learning process 3.7 Implications Teachers have both the challenge and the responsibility to attempt to discover what makes the student desire, or not desire to seek knowledge, to develop better social relationships, to use his abilities and to cultivate his potential High communication skills are necessary in order to effectively teach and motivate the students The findings of the study highlight that praise is an imperative part and communicative strategy in the teaching and motivating process Teacher praise is positively correlated with students’ feeling of pride, their levels of happiness and satisfactions, and results in enhancement of motivation and their expectation for success in the future However, ineffective praise achieves the opposite of a sincere teacher’s goal and may actually stifle a student’s natural curiosity and desire to learn by focusing his attention on pleasing the teacher or on conforming to an unspoken classroom “norm” Even wellmeaning but ineffective praise turns the learner’s attention from the intrinsic rewards that come for mastering a task and focuses it on the extrinsic rewards that may be gained by “winning” This kind of praise replaces a desire to learn with blind conformity and/or a mechanical work style Teachers who strive to encourage every student create a positive learning environment where students not fear continuous evaluation, where they can make mistakes and learn from them, and where they not always need to strive to meet someone else’s standard of excellence Learners thrive in class and beyond when they are given specific feedback and are given the opportunity to evaluate their own behavior and work In short, praise, like penicillin, must not be administered haphazardly There are rules and cautions that govern the handling of potent medicines – rules about timing and dosage, cautions about possible allergic reactions There are similar regulations about the administration of emotional medicine (Ginott, 1965, p 39) There are many types of praise, many types of people, and each type of praise given will either positively or negatively affect students and their state of mind Since students comes from different social – economic status families, and have different individual traits, personality, social and 28 cultural background, it is important to realize each student have his/ her own needs Therefore, teachers need to bear this in mind in giving praise for they are supposed to fit the needs of their students in classroom situations Following are some brief guidelines for educators to give effective praise in order to reinforce communication within the context of university classrooms:  Be fair Consciously and unconsciously teachers tend to react more positively to some students more than others Teachers need to try to put personal differences aside and be fair in distributing their praise Students should be treated equally so that each has the same opportunity to be motivated to learn Teachers should be proactive enough to look for positive things to say about a student’s work even when pointing out problems and mistakes with the work Some students may earn teacher praise for bigger accomplishments than others but even the lower – achievers/performers need praise for effort or a little contribution  Be specific It is suggested that teachers specify praise to behaviours that they want to promote by recognizing noteworthy things, calling attention to new skills or evidence of progress When this kind of praise is used, students make meaningful connections between the praise and the behaviour Giving specific praise motivates students because it clarifies the teacher’s expectations and allows students to evaluate themselves more effectively This will make the praise much more valuable to them, and it will reinforce desirable behaviours as well as build students’ self – esteem and provide intrinsic motivation for continued learning  Praise sooner, not later Praise can enhance expected behaviours in students, but its effectiveness greatly diminishes over time Thus, it is advisable that teachers administer specific praise as soon as they notice a worthy behaviour This creates an immediate psychological feedback association between the praise and the behaviour which is still fresh in students’ mind and also avoids misunderstandings  Tailor praise to each student Students are not widgets and they not all respond to praise in the same way Some might want a nod; some might want a whole class announcement about their success Some might want to be praised for their effort; some might want to be praised for their ability Therefore, teachers should attempt 29 to be sensitive to students’ needs and preferences, and then modify their praise to serve the individual’s  Show sincere and honest appreciation Praise can be a powerful reinforcing and motivating tool But it needs to be genuine, and has to be done with sincerity; otherwise it runs the risk of being dismissed as being fake or manipulate As Bouchard (cited in Shepell, 2000) indicated, “what’s important is the honesty and intention behind our words As long as people sense we are being sincere - that we are not humouring them, giving them mixed messages or trying to serve our own purposes - our praise will likely be well received.” Teachers should administer praise simply and directly, in a natural voice, without gushing or dramatizing Instead of gushy exclamations and rhetorical questions, it is better to convey praise by using straightforward and declarative sentences Additionally, teachers are supposed to be consistent using verbal and non – verbal form of praise Inappropriate non – verbal cues like facial expressions and posture will alert the students that praise is not sincere In that case, the praise will not be effective at all  Vary ways to praise Individual statements that a teacher uses should be varied When students hear the same praise statement given over and over, it looses its value To prevent praise from becoming mundane, below is a list of some structures for specific praise that teachers can use in the classroom: + I like/ appreciate/ enjoy… + I’m glad/ impressed/ happy to see… + It makes me feel… + Nice job explaining/ presenting… + You must be… + Your thought/ idea/ work is … + You showed your… + That’s a good/ great way… + Thanks for… One of the best ways to administer praise is to incorporate students’ ideas or contribution into teacher praise It makes praise distinctive and diverse 30 As a teacher, I hold that taking a good look at my own teaching practice is a healthy thing Graphing praise and students’ responses surely helps me reflect on best practice and focus on improving this area of my teaching style I am fully aware that it is the teacher’s job to create a supportive and friendly environment for students to learn As observed, praise is one of the effective tools to reinforce communication between teachers and students since being recognized and appreciated is important and makes all the difference to people’s levels of happiness, satisfaction, and motivation Using praise, I can encourage my students to the best that they possibly can Before conducting this research, I found it very easy to praise students with such comments as “Good job” or “Well done”, but these general statements lost their effectiveness after a while To avoid this, I have tried to tell them more than one sentence linked to specific noteworthy points I have figured out in their performance I realize when I give them these positive comments, my students feel heartened to their best and to achieve something that they think they cannot This study is also thought to be of some help for the students of English teacher training with the role both as the recipients of teacher praise and as the evaluators in their upcoming career as a teacher It is good for them to gain first hand experience Then, they can draw themselves the good or bad impact of each kind of praise Besides, they may regard this behaviour of their university teachers as models which they are supposed to follow to shape their teaching skills and styles Thus, it cannot be denied that teacher praise in turn can impact their teaching in the future Summary In this chapter, the results of the observation and semi – structured interviews were presented The data analysis indicated some important findings regarding how university students perceived different dimensions of praise Also, an attempt was made to draw some underlying implications whose core was the guidelines for effective teacher praise in the classroom 31 CONCLUSION Summary of the study Obviously, students at any academic level prefer an environment where they feel supported and appreciated Most educators have been taught to consider praise as a communicative reinforcing device which aids in fostering students’ self - esteem, their achievement, and motivation for learning Previous research findings tend to support the use of this positive reinforcement in the classroom and demonstrate how teacher praise can effectively encourage students and motivate them to improve their performance However, teachers must be cautious when providing praise to their students because through their interactions teachers may unintentionally communicate messages which can be useful or harmful to students’ learning Therefore, the author felt it was a need to ponder perceptions of each type of praise among student populations at university In an endeavor to achieve that, a case study was set up to explore types of praise that teachers administered and how correlated they are with students’ cognitive, affective and conative Five teachers and thirty students fully took part in the study The data were collected through class observations and semi – structured interviews After analysis based on descriptive statistics, the major findings from this study provided a solid foundation for future research Firstly, six types of praise namely effort praise, ability praise, specific praise, general praise, verbal praise and non – verbal praise were distributed unevenly to both male and female, low – achieving and high – achieving students Secondly, university students perceived verbal, specific praise in a more encouraging way than the other types because of its apparent recognition and precise information about their performance Thirdly, students evoked positive emotional responses to teacher praise, for that it made them happy, proud and feel worthwhile Furthermore, teacher praise, especially specific praise could better students’ self – concept because it helped them to value what they had performed Besides, teacher praise was believed to be an agent to change students’ behaviour and motivate them to learn Last but not least, high – achievers desired to draw ability praise while low – achievers were happier to receive effort praise 32 It was interesting to observe that teacher praise and students’ perception depended much on each personality, teaching and learning style Also, praise was not a simple one – way transmission from the evaluator to the recipient but rather a complex social communication in which the role of the recipient was just as critical as the role of the evaluator That is, the effects of praise varied depending not only on the content of the praise but also on the context in which it was delivered, the array of potential meanings it may convey, and the characteristics and interpretations of the recipient Accordingly, teachers should choose an appropriate way when administering praise Some guidelines were provided in the implications for university teachers as well as students of English language teaching First, teachers should be fair in distributing praise Second, an effective praise should be specific, immediate, individualized, sincere and honest Last, teachers should vary ways of praising; and praise selectively to nurture and foster students’ satisfaction and motivation to study All in all, this study highlighted that teachers need to be aware of how they relate to various students in the classroom and to monitor their behaviour to create a more equitable and satisfying learning environment for all students Limitations and future research Since this area of research is young, this study was designed to provide a starting point for future research This study was carried out in five weeks During that short period of time, the students were interviewed only once, right after the observation sessions in order to get their immediate feedback and opinions The problem is that these participants might not have full awareness of the impacts of different kinds of teacher praise Moreover, it does not exclude the possibility of changes in their perception after a while Therefore, if possible, a longitudinal research study should be conducted so as to get back to praised students two or three more times to see how teacher praise influences them in the long term What’s more, this study investigated all three dimensions of teacher praise and students’ perception of six types simultaneously The findings just offered an overall view but not in-depth exploration into the matter Thus, a further research should concentrate on distinctive type of teacher praise or typical group of students in order to gain more comprehensive and profound outcomes 33 In the final word, I want to express that it was interesting to see what results emerged during the intervention and analysis of the study It is admitted that I would be interested in carrying out deeper investigation into students’ perception of teacher praise in a longer time scale to compare with this study’ results 34 REFERENCES Allwright, D & Bailey, K (1991) Focus on the language classroom New York: Cambridge University Press Apter, T (2009) Praise, whether we’re or 60, presents pleasures and dangers Retrieved September 21st 2009 from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ domestic-intelligence/200905/the-science-praise Blaney, R L (1983) Effects of teacher structuring and reacting on 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Lexinton, MA: D.C Heath Denny, P L (1986) The relationship of teacher praise to teacher orientation and their relationships to students’ perceived competence, intrinsic motivation, and achievement Disseration Abstracts International, 46, 2541A 10 Elwell, W C & Tiberio, J (1994) Teacher praise: What students want Journal of Instructional Psychology, 21, 322 - 329 11 Emmer, E T (1988) Praise and the instructional process Journal of Classroom, Interaction, 23, 32 – 39 12 Farson, R E (1968) Praise reappraised In Hamacheck, D E (Ed.) 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New York: Pergamon Press 34 Rowe, M B (1974) Relation of wait – time and rewards to the development of language, logic and fate control: Part II – Rewards Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 11, 291 - 308 35 Schunk, D H (1984) Sequential attributional feefback and children’s achievement behaviours Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 1159 – 1169 36 Shepell, W (2000) Health Quest: A quarterly newsletter focusing on mental health issues and concerns Retrieved November 10th 2009 from http://www.warrenshepell.com/articles/praise.html 37 Skinner, B F (1974) About behaviorism New York: Knopf 38 Snow, R E., Corno, L., and Jackson, D (1996) Individual differences in affective and conative functions In D C Berliner and R C Calfee (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology New York: Macmillan 39 Stipek, D & MacIver, D (1989) Developmental change in children’s assessment of intellectual competence Child Development, 60, 521 - 538 37 40 Stringer, B R & Hurt, H T (1981) To praise or not to praise: factors to consider before utilizing praise as a reinforcing device in the classroom communication process Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Speech Communications Association, Austin, Texas 41 Thomas, J (199) You’re the greatest! A few well – chosen words can work wonders in positive behaviour reinforcement Principle, 71, 32 - 33 42 Vollmeyer, R & Rheinberg, F (2005) A surprising effect of feedback on learning Learning and Instruction, 15, 589 – 602 I APPENDIX OBSERVATION FORM Teacher:…………………………… Subject:…………………… Class:……………………………… Time:……………………… Room:……………………………… Date:……………………… No Student’s name Kinds of activities What to praise How to praise FOLLOW – UP SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW (FOR SUBJECTS OF PRAISE) Do you know that your teacher have praised you? Do you know what your teacher praised you for? How did you feel when your teacher praised you? Do you like your teacher praise and the way he/she praised you? Do you like to be praised because of your effort or of your ability? Which you prefer, general praise or specific praise? What type of praise you like more, verbal or non – verbal praise? Can your teacher praise help you be aware of your performance and effort? Does your teacher praise motivate you to learn? 10 Should you continue to behave like that in the class? Why? Note ... NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ THÙY LINH PRAISE AS CLASSROOM COMMUNICATIVE REINFORCING DEVICE: PERCEPTION OF HAIPHONG. .. teacher praise and students? ?? perception of those praises when teachers gave lectures to English majors in classroom setting, as a result, a case study was utilized The reason for choosing the case... praise and students? ?? perception in a case of Haiphong University The purposes of the study are: + to recognize different kinds of praise used by teachers at Haiphong Univeristy + to see how students