Using peer feedback to improve 11th graders english writing skill

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY _ PHAN THI HANH USING PEER FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE 11TH GRADERS' ENGLISH WRITING SKILL MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghe An, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY _ PHAN THI HANH USING PEER FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE 11TH GRADERS' ENGLISH WRITING SKILL MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Major: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8.14.01.11 Supervisor: Huynh Anh Tuan, Ph.D Nghe An, 2019 i ABSTRACT Peer feedback (PF) has long been regarded as one of the important dominant tools in enhancing the process of acquiring superior English writing; however, it is not widely acknowledged as tremendously effective as teacher feedback (TF) method, or occasionally is considered as an ineffective one As a result, educators have a tendency to shy away from applying it to their regular classes The present study intends to ascertain how to apply peer feedback to classroom to improve 11th graders‟ writing, and whether it is beneficial or not The study involved 30 students of 11th graders for a duration of six months The students were divided into three groups based on their writing proficiency: good, average, and below average Both qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized to analyze the data collected, which included tests, interview, and questionnaire During the study, all the participants were tested before and after the intervention to see how much they had improved Test papers were judged by three main criteria: grammar, lexical resources, and structures After the intervention in which the students received PF, opinions of the PF method were explored based on their responses to the post-intervention questionnaire and interview Contradict to the so-called claim that PF is not efficacious, this research demonstrates that PF, in fact, could produce numerous far-reaching benefits, namely less writing apprehension, writing skills improvement for the writer, and cognitive and social benefits for the reviewer as well as the writer ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I should like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor - Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn for his ideas and comments concerning the initial drafts, and especially his undeniably interesting and knowledgeable lessons, without which the work would not have been complete I am grateful to him for his valuable insights and suggestions concerning materials chosen for doing this research Grateful acknowledgement is also made to my friends - for their various kinds of help and encouragements during the time when I undertake this research My warmest thanks to my parents and my younger sister for shaping me into an open-minded person that now allows me to will my thoughts into meaningful words and actions to make real positive changes Finally, I am totally aware that despite all the advice and assistance, this work is still far from perfect Thus, any inadequacies and shortcomings are my sole responsibility Vinh, June 6, 2019 iii DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this master “Using peer feedback to improve 11th graders' English writing skill” and that I have not used any sources other than those listed in the bibliography and identified as references I further declare that I have not submitted this thesis at any other institution in order to obtain a degree Signed Date: iv TABLE OF CONTENTS i ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim and objectives of the study 1.3 The significance of the study 1.4 The scope of the study 1.5 Research methodology 1.5.1 Research questions 1.5.2 Research approach 1.5.3 Data collection tools 1.5.4 Data analytical framework 1.6 The structure of the research Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Relating research in the world 2.2 Research in Vietnam (High school) 2.3 Definition of writing 10 2.3.1 What is writing? 10 Having a topic sentence in each paragraph makes the paragraph coherent and the reader easily captures the idea of the whole paragraph Other sentences in the paragraph may have interpretive meaning or practical examples for the verse (Cameron, et al., 2009) Since then, the paragraph is summarized, bringing a full meaning and high authenticity 13 2.3.2 Sub-skills of writing 13 2.3.3 The process of writing 14 2.3.4 Assessing writing 16 v 2.4 Peer Feedback 17 2.4.1 Definition of peer feedback 17 2.4.2 The characteristics of peer feedback 18 2.4.3 The significance of peer feedback 25 2.4.4 The drawbacks of using peer feedback 27 Chapter METHODOLOGY 35 3.1 Research approach: action research 35 3.2 Research setting 37 3.3 Research participants 38 3.3.1 Research questions 38 3.3.2 Data collection tools 39 3.3.3 Research procedure 40 3.4 Research approach 42 Chapter FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 44 4.1 Improvement in students‟ writing performance 44 4.1.1 Pre-intervention results 45 4.1.2 Post-intervention results 47 4.2 Students‟opinions of peer feedback method 48 5.1 Recapitulation 67 5.2 Implications 68 5.3 Suggestions 69 REFERENCES 72 https://www.masscommunicationtalk.com/definition-and-techniques-of-writingskill.html 72 APPENDICES 77 APPENDIX1 77 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 77 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE 78 APPENDIX3 80 PRE- AND POST-INTERVENTION TESTS 80 APPENDIX DIARY ON 13/5/2019 81 APPENDIX 82 vi UNIT 6: WRITING A LETTER OF REQUEST AND REPLY 82 APPENDIX 88 UNIT 10: WRITE A DESCRIPTION OF CAT BA NATIONAL PARK, USING THE FACTS AND FIGURES BELOW 88 APPENDIX 91 UNIT 12: WRITE A PARAGRAPH OF 120 WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE GAMES, USING THE CUES GIVEN BELOW 91 APPENDIX 94 UNIT 13: WRITE ABOUT THE COLLECTION, REAL OR IMAGINARY, FOLLOWING THESE GUIDELINES 94 APPENDIX 97 UNIT 15: WRITING A BIOGRAPHY 97 APPENDIX 10 101 UNIT 16: BELOW ARE SOME NOTES MADE BY A VISITOR TO THE PONAGAR CHAM TOWERS IN NHATRANG USE HIS/HER NOTES TO WRITE A REPORT ON THE VISIT 101 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AES: Automated Essayscoring EF: English Proficiency PF: Peer Feedback TF: Teacher Feedback Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale English is permeating its popularity into every corner of the world During that process, English has inherently become the bridge among communicators working in several different fields such as politics, science, technology, tourism, economics, and so forth Consequently, in this age, teaching and learning English are extremely essential In the realization of that, Vietnam government has introduced English as a mandatory subject for pupils since the age of Some institutions even determine to teach English at the pre-elementary level In addition, English is one of the selected subjects to test for the national examination Nevertheless, such enforcements were insufficient to elevate the proportion of fluent English users According to the EF English Proficiency Index (2018) 1, Vietnam ranked at number 41 out of 88 participating countries and has never grouped in the top 30 Several attempts such as changing teaching and studying materials have been performed to transform this; however, they did not succeed in doing so but further downgrading the ability of ESL learners Apart from materials relating problems, how teachers and educators educate ESL learners is also proven to be problematic Instead of concentrating on encouraging the enhancement of four main English skills: Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing, they determine to pursue perfect grammar-oriented method However, due to the shortage of time and resource, the author is not able to investigate all four skills Furthermore, in an academic context, in comparison with other skills such as reading, speaking, and listening, writing requires extra time and effort of learners to master it while other skills are far more unchallenging to activate or to become proficient in Therefore, writing is the 88 APPENDIX UNIT 10: WRITE A DESCRIPTION OF CAT BA NATIONAL PARK, USING THE FACTS AND FIGURES BELOW Task 1: Listen and fill in the missing word(s) located Cuc Phuong National Park is in three provinces: Ninh Binh, Hoa Binh and Thanh Hoa area is southwest It’s 160 km of Ha Noi Its total 13,200 ha, including 200 square kilometer of rain famous for landscapes forest It is beautiful and many kinds of rare animals and plants Visitors often go visit there to study butterflies, caves, hike mountains and look at 1,000 year old tree According to scientists, there are about 2,000 species different of plants and 450 species of animals The shell knives and human bones which are found in Nguoi Xua cave show that people inhabited there from 7,000 to 12,000 years ago Location Total area Special features Animals and plants Historic features location Total area Special features Animals and plants Historic features -X is located in/on Y -X is…km north/south/east/west from Y -X is… square km in total./ Its total area is about… - X covers square km , including square km of -The park is characterized by … - It is famous for … - Visitors go there to study/ to look at - species of plants/animals live there/can be found there - There is/ are… -X is home to species of - X preserves .species of -Archeologists found … - found there show that people inhabited there .years ago 89 Some facts and features about Cat Ba National Park Location: Cat Ba Island 120 km from Ha Noi 20 km from Hai Phong Total area: 15,200 Special features: tropical forests and coastal waters, white sand beach, abundant natural resources , beautiful landscapes, rare animals and plants Animals and plants: species of fish: 300 species of animals: 40 species of birds: 150 species of plants: 620 Historic features: 6,000-year-old stone tools and human bones Unit 10: NATURE IN DANGER Lesson 4: WRITING Vocabulary: Coastal waters( n) : /'koustəl/ vùng nước ven biển Stone tool ( n ): công cụ đá Human bones (n): xương người abundant ( a ) /ə'bʌndənt/ dồi 90 Location Total area Special features Animals and plants Historic features Unit 10: -X is located in/on Y -X is…km north/south/east/west from Y -X is… square km in total./ Its total area is about… - X covers square km , including square km of -The park is characterized by … - It is famous for … - Visitors go there to study/ to look at - species of plants/animals live there/can be found there - There is/ are… -X is home to species of - X preserves .species of -Archeologists found … - found there show that people inhabited there .years ago NATURE IN DANGER WRITING Presenting the writings Sample writing: Cat Ba National Park is located on Cat Ba island, 120 km from Hanoi and 20 km east of Hai Phong Its total area is 15,200 ha, including 9,800 of ocean It is famous for both tropical forests and coastal waters with white sand beach, abundant natural resources, beautiful landscapes and many kinds of rare animals and plants There are 300 species of fish, 40 kinds of animals, 150 kinds of birds and 620 species of plants The stone tools and human bones which are found in the island’s caves show that people inhabited there at least 6, 000 years 91 APPENDIX UNIT 12: WRITE A PARAGRAPH OF 120 WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE GAMES, USING THE CUES GIVEN BELOW Vocabulary: recruit (v) /rɪˈkruːt/ upgrade (v) /ˈʌpɡreɪd/ widen (v) /ˈwaɪdn/ tuyển chọn nâng cấp mở rộng official song (nph) /əˈfɪʃl sɔːŋ/ hát thức What will we build first? Why we have to upgrade the National Sports Centres and local stadiums? What need to be widen? What will we have to equip all the hotels and guest houses with? How can we promote and advertise the preparations for the Asian Games? Who will we recruit to serve for the Games? What should we to choose an official song? 92 What will we build first? We will build one more National Stadium, some sports buildings and car parks Why we have to upgrade the National Sports Centres and local stadiums? We have to upgrade the National Sports Centres because they are not in good condition What need to be widened? The training areas and roads to sports buildings need to be widened What will we have to equip all the hotels and guest houses with? We will have to equip all the hotels and guest houses with modern facilities How can we promote and advertise the preparations for the Asian Games? We can promote and advertise the preparations for the Asian Games on the radio and TV Who will we recruit to serve for the Games? We will recruit volunteers such as university teachers and students who are good at English to serve for the Games What should we to choose an official song? We should hold a competition to choose an official song 93 Form of the paragraph Topic sentence To prepare for the coming Asian Games, we have a lot of things to Supporting sentences Preparations of Vietnam for the coming Asian Games Connectors:  Conjunctions: First / firstly / first of all because, so, moreover, Second / secondly furthermore And/ Next / then One more thing is that … Finally / lastly  Expressions: have to + V-infinitive need to be + V-pp = need + V-ing It is necessary to … Tenses: simple present and simple future Concluding sentence We hope that the coming Asian Games in Vietnam will be successful 94 APPENDIX UNIT 13: WRITE ABOUT THE COLLECTION, REAL OR IMAGINARY, FOLLOWING THESE GUIDELINES I/ Pre-Writting Name the things people often collect Pens / Rules / Candies Hats / Shoes / Bags Musical Instruments (guitar, flute) Stamps /Pictures/ … Collect Coins / Money/ Telephone cards Books / Magazines Animals / Clothes / Soccer cards Flowers / Insects 95 WRITTING ABOUT YOUR COLLECTION Name of collection? books, money, hats, … How to collect? buy, exchange, ask … to give, … How to keep? in album, on shelf, in box, … Collection When started? two weeks ago, last year, … How to classify? color, age, size, price, Why? relax, broaden knowledge, …… Plan for future? continue to collect, join the exhibitions, … 96 Suggested writting I have been collecting both local stamps and foreign stamps for more than years so I have a great collection now My hobby got started/ started when I was a little boy I had always wanted the beautiful pictures on the stamps so I thought of a way to keep them At first I only collected local stamps which I got from the letters of my friends and relatives Then my relatives went abroad so my collection of foreign stamps started to increase Now I have two albums, one for local and the other for foreign ones I classify the stamps into categories before putting them into my stamp albums I put stamps of animals, flowers, birds, landscape, on different pages, which makes it easier to look for them When I have extra stamps of the same kind I often exchange them with my friends to enrich my collection I also go to the post office to buy some valuable ones I’m very proud of my collection It helps to broaden my knowledge about the world around me and it is also an effective way to improve my geography I plan to join the stamp exhibitions to learn from experienced stamp collectors and maybe I can expose my collection at an exhibition in the future 97 APPENDIX UNIT 15: WRITING A BIOGRAPHY Activity : Brain-storming Find out necessary information to write a biography Full name Date of birth Place of birth Biography Career Famous saying Life / well-known as (famous for) Nationality Checking vocabulary • • • • • • • • • • 10 to be appointed : career (n): quote / kwoʊt / (n): known as B.S ( Bacherlor of Science ) M.S ( Master of Science) investigate /ɪnvestɪɡeɪt/ (v): space shuttle (n): leap / li:p / (v,n): resign / rɪ’zaɪn / (v): • • • • • • • • • nghề nghiệp trích dẫn biết đến cử nhân khoa học thạc sỹ khoa học điều tra tàu thoi bước nhảy , nhảy vọt từ chức • 10 đề cử , đề bạt 98 III While you write (How to write a biography) ? How many parts are there in a biography? parts: Outline Brief Introduction - general information (date of birth, place of birth, career…) Body - lifetime accomplishments - major events of his life Short Conclusion - impact on society, famous sayings… Activity 2: Put each of the headings in the box in the appropriate blank ( Task 1: page 174): Quote Known as Date of birth Place of birth Career Neil Armstrong ( American astronaut ) (1) _ 5th August,1930 (2) Wapokoneta, Ohio (3) the first person to walk on the moon (4) _ 1949-1952 : pilot in United States Navy 1955 : receive a B.S / Purdue University 1962: join NASA astronaut program 1970: receive his M.S./ University of Southern California 1971 : resign / NASA 1986 : appointed vice chairman / committee/ investigate / space shuttle Challenger disaster (5) “ That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” 99 III While you write (How to write a biography) ? How many parts are there in a biography? parts: Outline Brief Introduction - general information (date of birth, place of birth, career…) Body - lifetime accomplishments - major events of his life Short Conclusion - impact on society, famous sayings… * Phrases: - from to - receive from - resign from - be known as - work as * Preposition: - at, on, in, with, from , to * Tenses: - Past simple tense, the present simple ,the passive voice * Conjunctions : After that, … / later, …/ then,…/ … years later… 100 Answers for Neil Armstrong Name, Neil Armstrong is a famous American astronaut He is known as the first date/place person to walk on the moon of birth He was born on 5th August, 1930 in Wapokoneta, Ohio From 1949 to 1952, he worked as a pilot in the United States Navy He received his B.S from Purdue University in 1955 Life and career In 1962 he joined the NASA astronaut programmes.( program) On July 20th , 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the Moon’s surface He received his M.S from the University of Southern California in 1970 He resigned from NASA a year later (in 1971) and from 1971 to 1979, he taught at University of Cincinnati In 1986, he was appointed vice chairman of the committee that investigated the space shuttle Challenger disaster Famous saying 10 Armstrong is famous (well-known) for what he said /his quote (when he stepped on the moon’s surface) “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind ” Neil Armstrong is an American astronaut, he was known as the first human to walk on the moon He was born on 5th August, 1930, in Wapokoneta, Ohio From 1949 to 1952, he worked as a pilot in the United States Navy Armstrong received a B.S from Purdue University in 1955 He joined the NASA astronaut program in 1962 On 20th July, 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the Moon's surface After that, he received his M.S at the University of Southern California in 1970 In 1971, he resigned from NASA From 1971 to 1979, he taught at the University of Cincinnati years later, in 1986, Armstrong was appointed vice chairman of the committee that investigated the space shuttle Challenger disaster He is also well-known for what he said when he stepped on the moon’s surface: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” 101 APPENDIX 10 UNIT 16: BELOW ARE SOME NOTES MADE BY A VISITOR TO THE PONAGAR CHAM TOWERS IN NHATRANG USE HIS/HER NOTES TO WRITE A REPORT ON THE VISIT Helpful Structures have a brief tour to in …… = S.O’s visit to …… Includes a brief to …… Ex: I had a brief tour to Ha Long Bay in Quaûng Ninh =My visit to Quaûng Ninh last year included a brief to Ha Long Bay  one of the most beautiful examples of The Cham architecture: (moät hình mẫu đẹp kiến trúc Chàm)  Consist of = include: bao goàm  Be located : toạ lạc (tại)  Be dedicated to :dâng hiến cho  Be built in honor of S.O : xây dựng để tôn vinh (ai đó)  Each is holding a specific object, illustrating the Buddha’s power: (cánh tay) cầm mọt vật mô tả sức mạnh đức phật  Command OUTLINE FOR WRITING A REPORT ON THE VISIT Brief Introduction - Last year I visited …………………………… - My visit to …………………………………………… Development - The Ponagar Cham Towers………… Conclusion - My tour to ………………………………………… - My visit to ………………………………………… 102 REPORTING IN FULL FORM Last year during my stay in Nha Trang, I had a brief tour to Ponagar Cham Towers, one of the most beautiful examples of Cham architecture in central Vietnam The Ponagar Cham Towers consist of four towers They are located on Cu Lao Marble Hill, two Kilometers north of Nha Trang They were built between the 8th 13th centuries The remaining towers were dedicated to different god The largest tower was built in honor of Lady Thien Y The 22.5m high tower contains her sandstone statue sitting on Buddha’s throne The 2.6m high statue has 10 hands, holding specific objects illustrating the power of Buddha The tour to Ponagar Cham Towers lasted hours I was rather tired, but the tour was enjoyable, memorable and informative ... research on ? ?Using peer feedback to improve 11th graders' English writing skill? ?? 1.2 Aim and objectives of the study The study aims to find out whether the application of peer feedback method improves... study intends to ascertain how to apply peer feedback to classroom to improve 11th graders? ?? writing, and whether it is beneficial or not The study involved 30 students of 11th graders for a duration... _ PHAN THI HANH USING PEER FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE 11TH GRADERS' ENGLISH WRITING SKILL MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Major: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: