4.4 The teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of
4.4.2 Classroom practices in terms of teacher feedback
To give feedback in accuracy-focused activities, the teacher explicitly corrected the students’ mistakes and asked them to repeat what they had said. In the repetition activity, she explicitly corrected the students’ pronunciation mistakes in
“can” and “can’t” and then asked them to repeat. In the sentence-completion
activity, she gave feedback by asking one student to repeat what he had said and then explicitly correcting his pronunciation mistake:
S: I can eat, but I can’t cook. <doesn’t stress “can’t”>
T: <laughing>. OK. One more time. Đọc lại câu đó giùm cô đi. Please say that sentence again.
S: I can eat, but I can’t cook. <doesn’t stress “can’t”>
T: OK. But I can’t cook. <stresses “can’t”>
S: can’t cook. <stresses “can’t”>
(O2) The teacher said she had explicitly corrected this pronunciation mistake because the students “very often mispronounced these words” (SR). This revealed her belief in helping students avoid bad habits. In summary, in accuracy-focused activities, she used two techniques to correct students’ mistakes including asking them to repeat what they had said and explicitly correcting their mistakes. These practices showed her belief in the importance of oral accuracy.
In fluency-focused activities, the teacher corrected the students’ mistakes while talking with them because she was a participant for most of the time. She used six ways of giving feedback including (from the most frequent to the least frequent) reformulation, echoing, and facial expression - peer feedback - hint - and explicit correction. She reformulated one student’s mistake when he was talking about his favorite performer:
S: He … He name is Dưa Leo.
T: Right. That is his nickname, huh?
S: Nickname and he … he … he has … standup comedy.
T: Oh, right, a standup comedian. <writes “standup comedian” on the board and then explains it>
(O1) In the stimulated recall interview, she said she had done this because:
If I just corrected, it would be too explicit. I asked for his confirmation so he could contribute to the correction. (SR)
This explanation revealed her belief in making students responsible for their learning. She also echoed this student’s mistake and frowned when he was complimenting a classmate.
S: This song very well. How long did you practice it?
T: OK. So, this song is really well? <raises her voice and frowns>
S: is really well.
T: is really well? <raises her voice>
S: How long
T: Wait. This song is really well? <raises her voice>
S: Ủa, very good, chứ. Oops, very good.
T: Uh-huh
S: Ủa lộn. My bad.
(O3) In the role-play, she echoed another student’s mistake:
S: It didn’t expensive.
T: It didn’t expensive? <raises her voice> didn’t? <raises her voice>
S: doesn’t
T: doesn’t? <raises her voice>
S: wasn’t
T: <Laughing> Yah, wasn’t expensive. I just got it with a hundred thousand dong. Yah, maybe. <Laughing>
(O3) She used echoing and facial expression because she thought “they were good ways” (SR) to help the students realize their mistakes. This explanation also indicated her belief in making students responsible for their learning. In another episode, she also asked the students to correct each other:
S: <reads aloud a question in the textbook> In your opinion, who is the most talent singer today?
T: <asks the other students> Did you recognize something wrong?
Some students: talent
T: the most …
Some students: talented
T: Yeah, talented, the most talented.
(O2) She asked the other students to point out the mistake because:
The other students often made this mistake, so I asked to help them remember their own mistake. I also wanted them to correct each other. I wanted more community sense here. (SR)
This explanation revealed her belief in helping students avoid bad habits and one factor influencing this practice, i.e. students’ relationship.
In the role-play, she also explicitly corrected another student’s mistake:
S: What a beautiful sweeter!
T: sweater.
S: <repeats> sweater
(O3) In the stimulated recall interview, she said that she had explicitly corrected this mistake because it was common among the students. This also showed her belief in helping students avoid bad habits.
In summary, to give feedback in fluency-focused activities, the teacher utilized six techniques including (from the most frequent to the least frequent) reformulation, echoing, and facial expression - peer feedback - hint - and explicit correction. She corrected mistakes while the students were talking. The rationale behind these techniques revealed her belief in the importance of oral accuracy, another reality-oriented cognition, i.e. making students responsible for their learning, and one factor influencing her instructional decisions, i.e. students’
relationship. The following section will describe the relationship between her cognition and classroom practices related to teacher feedback.