Students perception towads formative assessment in selected english prounciation classes at ho chi minh city industry and trade college

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY– HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN SELECTED ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION CLASSES AT HO CHI MINH CITY INDUSTRY AND TRADE COLLEGE A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in Partial Fulfillment of the Master’s Degree in TESOL By Nguyen Ngoc Chau Supervised by Le Hoang Dung, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JUNE 2018 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY– HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN SELECTED ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION CLASSES AT HO CHI MINH CITY INDUSTRY AND TRADE COLLEGE A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in Partial Fulfillment of the Master‟s Degree in TESOL By Nguyen Ngoc Chau Supervised by Le Hoang Dung, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JUNE 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to those who provided me the possibility to complete this thesis I would first like to show my greatest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Lê Hoàng Dũng, for the continuous support of my thesis, for his patience, sympathy, motivation, and immense knowledge I could not have imagined having a better mentor for my study Without his encouragement and guidance, this thesis would not have been completed Beside my supervisor, I would like to thank all of my teachers at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their interesting and informative lectures thoughout my Master course in TESOL 2014 My sincere thanks also go to all of my friends in this Master course Especially, I thank Ms Nguyễn Mỹ Khánh for being my closest friend, Ms Nguyễn Đặng Phương Thảo for being a great supporter at my final stage of completing the thesis, and Mr Nguyễn Minh Giang for being a wonderful monitor of our class of TESOL 2014 A I am aslo profoundly grateful to my colleagues and students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Ho Chi Minh City Industry and Trade College Their huge support and participation played a major role in the completion of my study Last but not least, I must express my very heartfelt gratitude to my parents and my husband for providing me with unconditional love, unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis This accomplishment would not have been possible without them i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that this thesis entitled “STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN SELECTED ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION CLASSES AT HO CHI MINH CITY INDUSTRY AND TRADE COLLEGE” is my own work This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution Ho Chi Minh City, June 2018 NGUYEN NGOC CHAU ii RETENTION OF USE I hereby state that I, Nguyen Ngoc Chau, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master‟s Thesis deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of the theses Ho Chi Minh City, June 2018 NGUYEN NGOC CHAU iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages Acknowledgements i Statement of originality ii Retention of use iii Table of contents iv List of tables viii List of figures x Abstract xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Assessment in teaching and learning 2.2 Formative assessment 2.2.1 Definition of formative assessment 2.2.2 Teachers and students‟ roles in formative assessment 2.2.3.1 Teachers‟ role in formative assessment 2.2.3.2 Students‟ role in formative assessment 10 2.2.3 Timing and places of formative assessment 11 2.2.4 Purpose of formative assessment 12 2.2.5 Formative assessment tasks 13 2.2.4.1 Sharing success criteria 16 2.2.4.2 Classroom questioning 17 2.2.4.3 Teacher‟s feedback 18 iv 2.2.4.4 Peer assessment 22 2.2.4.5 Self-assessment 23 2.2.4.6 Tests 24 2.3 Formative assessment in teaching and learning pronunciation 25 2.4 Conceptual framework 28 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 31 3.1 Research design 31 3.2 Context of the study 31 3.3 Participants 32 3.4 Research tools 32 3.4.1 Treatment 33 3.4.1.1 Students‟ recordings 34 3.4.1.2 Teacher‟s feedback 34 3.4.1.3 Peer-assessment 36 3.4.1.4 Students‟ self-assessment 37 3.4.2 Teaching diary 38 3.4.3 Questionnaire to students 38 3.4.4 Interview to students 39 3.4.5 Summary of research tools 40 3.5 Data collection procedure 41 3.6 Data analysis procedure 42 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 44 4.1 Analysis of data 44 4.1.1 Analysis of students‟ responses to the questionnaire 44 4.1.1.1 Students‟ perception on who to conduct formative assessment 44 4.1.1.2 Students‟ perception on when to conduct formative assessment 46 4.1.1.3 Students‟ perception on where to conduct formative assessment 47 4.1.1.4 Students‟ perception on why to conduct formative assessment 48 4.1.1.5 Students‟ perception on teacher‟s feedback 50 v 4.1.1.6 Students‟ perception on peer-assessment 54 4.1.1.7 Students‟ perception on self-assessment 56 4.1.1.8 Students‟ ranking of the three formative assessment tasks 59 4.1.2 Analysis of student‟s responses to the interview 60 4.1.2.1 Students‟ opinions about teacher‟s feedback 60 4.1.2.2 Students‟ opinions about peer-assessment 62 4.1.2.3 Students‟ opinions about self-assessment 66 4.1.2.4 Students‟ suggestions for the three formative assessment tasks 69 4.1.2.5 Students‟ opinions about the pronunciation course 70 4.1.3 Analysis of teaching diary 72 4.1.3.1 Strengths 72 4.1.3.2 Weaknesses 75 4.2 Discussion of results 78 4.3 Summary of major findings 84 4.3.1 Research question 84 4.3.2 Research question 86 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 90 5.1 Conclusion 90 5.2 Suggestions 91 5.2.1 Suggestions for the administrations of HITC 92 5.2.2 Suggestions for the teachers of English pronunciation at HITC 93 5.2.2.1 Suggestions on the general application of formative assessment in a pronunciation course 93 5.2.2.2 Suggestions on the application of teacher‟s feedback 95 5.2.2.3 Suggestions on the application of peer-assessment 96 5.2.2.4 Suggestions on the application of self-assessment 98 5.3 Limitation of the study 102 5.4 Recommendation for further study 103 REFERENCES 104 vi APPENDICES 109 APPENDIX 1: Script for students‟ recordings 110 APPENDIX 2: Minimal pairs (Vowels) 111 APPENDIX 3: Teacher‟s feedback form 112 APPENDIX 4: Peer-assessment form 113 APPENDIX 5: Self-assessment form 114 APPENDIX 6: Script for in-class peer-assessment (Vowels) 115 APPENDIX 7: Teaching diary form 117 APPENDIX 8: Questionnaire to students 118 APPENDIX 9: Interview questions 122 APPENDIX 10: Transcription of students‟ responses in the interviews 123 APPENDIX 11: Teaching diary 142 vii LIST OF TABLES Pages Table 2.1 William and Thompson's formative assessment model (2007) 14 Table 2.2 Question Types (Harlen, 2006) 18 Table 3.1 The participants‟ background information 32 Table 3.2 Example of written feedback 36 Table 3.3 Summary of research tools 41 Table 4.1 Students‟ questionnaire responses on who to conduct formative assessment 45 Table 4.2 Students‟ questionnaire responses on when to conduct formative assessment 46 Table 4.3 Students‟ questionnaire responses on where to conduct formative assessment 47 Table 4.4 Students‟ questionnaire responses on why to conduct formative assessment 49 Table 4.5 Students‟ questionnaire responses on teacher‟s feedback 51 Table 4.6 Students‟ questionnaire responses on peer-assessment 54 Table 4.7 Students‟ questionnaire responses on self-assessment 57 Table 4.8 Students‟ ranking of the three formative assessment tasks 59 Table 4.9 Students‟ interview responses on what they liked about teacher‟s feedback 60 Table 4.10 Students‟ interview responses on what they disliked about teacher‟s feedback 61 Table 4.11 Students‟ interview responses on what they liked about peerassessment 63 Table 4.12 Students‟ interview responses on what they disliked about peerassessment 65 Table 4.13 Students‟ interview responses on what they liked about self-assessment 67 Table 4.14 Students‟ interview responses on what they disliked about selfassessment 68 viii Learning The students showed their Through the excitement when working in students‟ groups Some of them were not performances and afraid to ask the teacher about questions in class, I what they did not understand found out that and which sound they could there were a lot of not pronounce And after some students who had students already raised their poor pronunciation questions, more and more and were students were willing to share struggling a lot their difficulties to the teacher with this skill and ask for help 145 class I will pay more attention to the weak students in class and provide them with timely support Date: 29/08/2017 and 31/08/2017 Session 3: Diphthongs and problematic vowels Strengths Teaching Learning Weaknesses Solutions After finishing my instructions Though I had tried In the next session, on the English vowels, I to give a clear I will collect the delivered the peer-assessment explanation on assessment forms and self-assessment forms to the how the students from the students students and asked them to can the to see if they meet the assessment at home I spent assessment at my expectation about 20 minutes to explain to home, I was still After that, I will the students the benefits of these not sure if all of point out some tasks and give them some them actually problems (if any) guidelines on how they can understood my and suggest some assess the recordings of their instructions Due solutions classmates Most of the students to the large size of paid much attention to my class, I could not instructions and some of them cover all of the even asked me to clarify what students‟ reaction they did not understand to my instructions After having the necessary Some of the knowledge about the English students might still vowels, some of the students told be confused about me that their pronunciation in what they have to the first recordings contained at home but did some errors That was a positive not have a chance signal showing that the students to express what could recognize their errors and they had not they were able to connect the understand about new knowledge with their the tasks current ability 146 Date: 05/09/2017 and 07/09/2017 Session 4: Review of the English vowels Strengths Teaching Weaknesses Solutions I gained a lot of It took me a lot of time I already asked understanding about the to explain and make the some students to students‟ difficulties in students understand the make clearer doing the two assessment rules of the in-class recordings of the tasks at home after I asked peer-assessment task English them to share their This was one of the consonants and problems This will help me reason why we ran out send them to their improve the application next of time when some friends to make time for the English groups were yet to finish sure there will be consonants their activity no poor recordings for the In this session, I asked the next assessment I students to the in-class also let the peer-assessment in groups students have a This activity attracted a lot chance to ask and of attention and interest explain to their from the students and friends what they created a lot of excitement did not understand in the classroom Although about the peer- the students were a little assessment confused about the task at first, they turned out to be Next week, when deeply involved in it once I already have a they understood all the look at the rules They also raised a lot students‟ of questions for me assessment forms, whenever there were I will give them disagreements among the some comments members‟ opinions and solutions At the end of the in-class Next time, I will 147 Learning peer-assessment, I provided save as much time the students with the correct as possible for the ways to pronounce the in-class peer- words in the task and asked assessment to them to repeat At that time, make sure every the students started to student has a realize their errors as well as chance to how to pronounce correctly experience this Almost all of the students Although most of the submitted the assessment students submitted their forms that I had asked them assessment forms, there to at home This really were still some students showed that they were who failed to that In serious about their learning my observation, most of The students seemed to be highly motivated by the inclass peer-assessment They showed their great interest in listening to their friends‟ pronunciation and provide corrections to the errors these students were those who did not pay their attention throughout the previous lessons and also those who were usually absent in class They started to look back at In addition, when I the lessons they had learnt asked about the and also had very lively students‟ difficulties in discussions with their doing the assessment at classmates home, they pointed out some common problems: - They could not clearly hear what their friends pronounced since the sound was in poor 148 task quality - They found it difficult to express what they thought in words - They did not understand their friends‟ feedback when they received it In terms of the in-class peer-assessment, it took the students a while to completely understand this task and how to it Due to the lack of time, some groups could not finish the task, which meant some students did not have the chance to perform in front of their classmates and receive feedback from them 149 Date: 12/09/2017 and 14/09/2017 Session 5: Student - Teacher conference Strengths Teaching Weaknesses Solutions I spent some moments at the My major problem in I will provide the beginning of the session to this session was that I students with more give some comments to the did not have enough detailed feedback students after I had looked time for the conference in written form for at their assessment forms I In order to make sure their second pointed out some examples that all of the students recording of of the students‟ good and could receive my English vowels poor assessment and from feedback, I had to keep that I guided them on how them remain in the to make a better one classroom for extra Hopefully, the students time This activity took could learn from that and much more time that I improve next time had expected and thus I spent almost the whole session to give feedback to the students‟ pronunciation in their first recordings From this activity, I had a better understanding of the students‟ pronunciation and their errors since not all of what I heard in the recordings was the same as the students‟ actual pronunciation This activity enabled me to adjust my caused some frustration for both me and the students Moreover, due to the lack of time, I could not go into every detail of the students‟ pronunciation but only emphasize the key points The feedback, for that reason, was not as informative as I expected feedback to the students Next time, I will conduct the conference with a group of students at a time instead of doing that with only one student By doing that, I can save a lot of time and give the students clearer feedback Besides, when taking part in group conferences with both their teacher and friends, the students might be more comfortable to share their problems After giving feedback to the students, I asked them to 150 make a new recording of the same content and send me via email This time, the students were expected to show their improvement in pronunciation since they already had the specific knowledge of how to pronounce the English vowels and they also experienced all of the three formative assessment tasks Learning The students showed their The students could not attention and interest when prevent themselves they were assessed and from their shyness and given feedback by the fear of talking with the teacher They were deeply teacher Throughout the involved in the face-to-face conference, they did meeting with the teacher not raise any questions and showed their great or express any concern cooperation throughout the but only received the conference feedback from the teacher and followed what the teacher asked them to Some students showed their impatience when they had to wait for their turn 151 Date: 19/09/2017 and 21/09/2017 Session 6: Voiced and voiceless consonants Strengths Teaching Weaknesses In this session, after the The students showed Next week, I will students-teacher conference some real problems give the students last week, I recognized that in pronouncing some more exercises and the interaction between me difficult consonants also provide them and the students was much They revealed that with the links to better than before The the English some useful videos students were more willing consonants were on how to and confident to approach me much more difficult pronounce the whenever they had any to pronounce and consonants so that questions and problems in remember than the they can follow pronunciation vowels them to practice at home After meeting with each student in the conference, I had a clearer and better understanding of my students, about which of them were good and which of them were weak, and also about their common problems in pronunciation This understanding helped me a lot in deciding where to pay my attention in the classroom Learning Solutions The students improved a lot in the way they made the second recordings since the quality and the clarity of the sound were better than last time In addition, all of them sent the 152 files on time without having any technical problems The students paid more attention to my instructions and were more responsible for their learning than before since they made a lot of questions regarding what they did not catch from my instructions After conducting all the three types of formative assessment tasks, the students seemed to recognize that they would use what they learnt to assess themselves and their friends 153 Date: 26/09/2017 and 28/09/2017 Session 7: Problematic consonants Strengths Teaching Weaknesses When I gave the students my The task of listening Next time, I will written feedback for their to the students‟ have to pay a lot of pronunciation, they seemed recordings and attention to my time to be very exciting They providing written management for the read the feedback carefully feedback consumed a written feedback I and also raised some lot of my time This should start this task questions when they did not task required much of as soon as possible understand what I had my effort, to make sure I can pointed out in the feedback concentration, and finish it on time patience Moreover, I should After finishing the lesson, I delivered the self-assessment and peer-assessment forms to the students and asked them to assess their classmates‟ pronunciation of the English consonants at home I reminded the students with their previous work and Consequently, I could make a list of the not finish all the students‟ errors and written feedback on the corresponding time and I had to tell suggestions so that I some students that I can refer to them will deliver the when the students feedback to them as have the same soon as I complete it errors made some notes on how to the assessment this time I found that my instructions this time was much easier to give and consumed less time that last time since the students were already familiar with these tasks Learning Solutions The students seemed to know I could not notice any what they should this time weaknesses in the after already experiencing students‟ learning this 154 these tasks for the first time week other than the since they did not show any common problem that confusion or problems like not all students could what they did last time pay their complete attention to the lesson because the class size was too large and the background noise was still made by some groups of students 155 Date: 03/10/2017 and 05/10/2017 Session 8: Review of the English consonants Strengths Teaching Weaknesses At the beginning of the session, I asked the students to exchange the peerassessment forms so that the readers could get the feedback from the assessors Then I gave them some time to discuss with their classmates to make sure they understood their friends‟ assessment I realized that the students were interested in this section since they actually had some serious discussions with their friends and they also asked me for help After reviewing the knowledge of the English consonants, I let the students to the in-class peerassessment This task once again attracted the students‟ interest and attention as the atmosphere was very good Besides, I did not have to explain much about the rules since the students already knew what they should As a result, the time was enough 156 Solutions for all students‟ performances Learning The students were already familiar with all of the assessment tasks and they showed no problems in conducting these tasks like what they did last time 157 Date: 10/10/2017 and 12/10/2017 Session 9: Student – Teacher conference Strengths Teaching Weaknesses This time, in order to make sure the time was enough for the conference, I met one group of students at a time instead of only one student I grouped the students according to the similar errors that they shared This attempt yielded very positive results: the conference finished on time and all of the students received the teacher‟s feedback on their errors and how to correct them Learning The students were not Some students admitted that what shy anymore when they the teacher pointed out in the were assessed in groups conference and written feedback for the same errors was different from what they could They were more willing see when assessing their own to show their errors and pronunciation These students raise some questions on certainly chose to rely on the what they did not teacher‟s feedback That was the understand from the reason why they were not very teacher‟s feedback confident in their own assessment 158 Solutions Date: 17/10/2017 and 19/10/2017 Session 10: Review of the English vowels and consonants Strengths Teaching Weaknesses Giving written feedback this time was easier than it was last time Since the students shared many similar errors, I could provide them with similar descriptions and solutions This way saved a lot of my time and effort and let me finish the work on time Learning The students showed that they already acquired a better knowledge of English pronunciation They confidently answered all of teacher‟s questions and knew how to pronounce most of the English sounds 159 Solutions ... research aimed at discovering the students? ?? perception towards formative assessment conducted in the pronunciation classes at Ho Chi Minh City Industry and Trade College (HITC) A total of 118 college. .. setting and selecting learning strategies, adaptation and seeking feedback Self-regulated learning, in fact, is a process of supporting students in achieving their learning goals by creating... profoundly grateful to my colleagues and students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Ho Chi Minh City Industry and Trade College Their huge support and participation played a major role in the