Feedback from teachers and peers in speaking activities perceptions and reality

Moreover, not only feedback from teachers affect students‟ speaking performance, students also need advice and recommendations from their peers, which could be more particular and easier

GRADUATION THESIS

FEEDBACK FROM TEACHERS AND PEERS IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES: PERCEPTIONS AND REALITY

AN INVESTIGATION AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HOCHIMINH

CITY (IUH), VIETNAM

STUDENT: LÊ HOÀNG TƯỜNG VY

GRADUATION THESIS

FEEDBACK FROM TEACHERS AND PEERS IN SPEAKING

ACTIVITIES: PERCEPTION AND REALITY

AN INVESTIGATION AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HOCHIMINH

CITY (IUH), VIETNAM

STUDENT: LÊ HOÀNG TƯỜNG VY

MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Student‟s declaration: “I certify that this work is entirely my own and has not been accepted

as part of a submission to another purpose elsewhere.”

Word length : 12562 words

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the problem 2

1.2 Statement of the problem 2

1.3 Research hypothesis 2

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Purpose of the study 3

1.6 Significant of the study 3

1.7 Research questions 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Definition of terms 6

2.1.1 EFL 6

2.1.2 IUH (Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City) 6

2.1.3 Speaking 6

2.1.4 Feedback 7

2.2 Theoretical framework 8

2.2.1 Speaking 8

2.2.2 EFL Students‟ common mistakes in Speaking: 9

2.2.4 Peer Feedback: 12

2.2.5 Opportunities of feedback 13

2.2.6 Criteria of Learners Feedback: 14

2.2.7 The impact of the feedback on the learning process: 15

2.3 Related research 16

2.4 Research questions 17

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS 18

3.1 Locate of the study 19

3.2 Participants 20

3.3.1 Questionnaires 21

3.3.2 Classroom observation 21

3.4 Procedure of the study 22

3.5 Timeline for Data Collection and Observation Procedures 23

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 24

4.1 Overview 25

4.2 The Analysis of students and teachers‟ Questionnaire: 25

4.3 Classroom Observation analysis 43

4.3.1 The first period 43

4.3.2 The second period 44

4.4 The results of teachers and students questionnaire 44

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 46

5.1 Summary 47

5.2 Teachers and students perceptions on the importance of feedback 47

5.3 The implementation of teacher and peers feedback 47

5.4 Limitations 48

5.5 Suggestions for further research 48

5.5.1 Raising more awareness of the importance of feedback in students 49

5.5.2 Enhancing the quality of feedback 49

5.5.3 Changing students‟ perceptions of teacher and peer feedback 49

REFERENCES 50

APPENDICE 50

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure I: Difficulties students encounter when practicing speaking in English 25

Figure II: Students‟ common feedback givers 26

Figure III: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “Feedback is a justification of the grade student have received.” 26

Figure IV: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “When the listeners give students feedback, it shows that they care about the students‟ performance or work.” 27

Figure V: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “Feedback tells students what they need to do to improve their performance in English speaking.” 28

Figure VI: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “Students deserve feedback when they put so much effort into their performance.” 28

Figure VII: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “Feedback is a response from the teacher and peers to something students have said in the class.” 29

Figure VIII: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “When students receive a lot of feedback, they feel encouraged.” 30

Figure IX: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “Receiving feedback does not reduce students‟ anxiety about a subject.” 31

Figure X: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “Feedback is an evaluation of students‟ strengths and weaknesses.” 32

Figure XI: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “Lecturers who provide feedback care about students‟ performance.” 33

Figure XII: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “Feedback shows students what the expectations of teachers/peers are.” 34

Figure XIII: Students and teachers‟ views towards the statement: “Feedback motivates students to study.” 35

Figure XIV: Students‟ views towards the statement: “When students don‟t receive any feedback, they would feel that the listeners do not respect them.” 36

Figure XV: Frequency of teacher feedback 37

Figure XVI: Frequency of peer feedback 37

Figure XVII: Types of mistakes that students give feedback to their peers 38

Figure XVIII: Types of mistakes that teacher give feedback to students 38

Figure XIX: Participants‟ responses about their peers‟ form of giving feedback 39

Figure XX: Participants‟ responses about their teacher‟s form of giving feedback 39

Figure XXI: Participants‟ feelings about their teacher‟s feedback 40

Figure XXIII: Participants‟ opinions about their teacher‟s feedback 41 Figure XXIV: Participants‟ opinions about their teacher‟s feedback 41 Figure XXV: Reasons why the participant evaluated peers‟ feedback is “of little help” or

“useless” 42 Figure XXVI: Reasons why the participant evaluated teacher‟s feedback is “of little help” or

“useless” 42 Figure XXVII: The calculations of teacher and peer feedback in a period of DHAV9 43 Figure XXVIII: The calculations of teacher and peer feedback in a period of DHAV11 44

ABSTRACT

Speaking is one of the most significant skills in learning a language It is believed that the most effective way to communicate is through speech It is obvious that students at university level are taught how to speak English inside the classroom as well as use their speaking skills in social communication Also, feedback plays a major role in giving information and evaluation towards students‟ oral production in order to improve their performance Nevertheless, this process of teaching has still been neglected in some research, which has made the experience of students has not been effectively developed Moreover, not only feedback from teachers affect students‟ speaking performance, students also need advice and recommendations from their peers, which could be more particular and easier to obtain However, not many students aware of their roles in assisting their friends‟ improvements and have not contributed much in giving feedback

The core of this research is the investigation on one of the most important technique in teaching EFL which is feedback either from teachers or peers

This research has five chapters: Introduction, Literature review, Research design, Research findings and discussion and Conclusion and recommendations with different purposes contributed to the topic In the first chapter, the researcher introduces the overviews

of the research including its purposes, hypothesis and significance In chapter two, the researcher reviews the literature and theory which is related to the research questions of the topic Chapter three is about the methodologies of the topic that are conducted by using the methods of questionnaires and classroom observation In the fourth sections, the researcher gives the analysis and conclusion from the data collected and discuss more about them In chapter five, the researcher summarizes the whole study and then recommends some suggestions to put into practice or for further research

Finally, through this study, the researcher hopes that feedback on students‟ learning process would be enhanced and students would be motivated to communicate and perform correctly after receiving various constructive feedback from their teachers and peers

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

During the period of performing the graduation report, I received a plenty of

enthusiastic help and support that encouraged me to overcome all difficulties and finish this challenging but meaningful time

Firstly, I would like to express thanks to the School Board of Industrial University of

ho Chi Minh City and the Faculty of Foreign Languages for giving an opportunity and

provide so many conditions for me to complete my graduation thesis

My deepest thanks go to my supervisor, Ms Lê Thị Thiên Phước, for her professional advice, guidance and encouragement throughout my studies During the process I have met such tough difficulties that I believe I could not have overcome them without her enthusiastic support

In addition, I would like to thank all of my friends and family who gave me the

greatest support and assistance during the time of conducting this research They were the one who shared feelings and gave me valuable advice whenever I was frustrated or demotivated Also, I could not go through this hard time without their love and support

I would also like to give special thanks to the students and teachers who have

participated in this study, for their great effort in supporting me during the research

In brief, I would like to offer my deepest love and appreciation to the all great people who supported me to finish this graduation thesis

SUPERVISOR’S COMMENTS & REMARKS

MARKER:

SIGNED:

OPPONENT’S COMMENTS & REMARKS

MARKER:

SIGNED:

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the problem

The speaking skill is considered as a significant subject of EFL teaching, especially in Vietnam Additionally, the academic speaking is apparently designed for English majored students at university level It is obvious that students at this level are taught how to speak English inside the classroom as well as use their speaking skills in social communication Thus, teachers at this level play a major role in giving information and evaluation about their students‟ speaking performance In other words, he or she provides the feedback for the students to improve their performance Similarly, student can also have a better understanding

of their performance and a chance to learn from other friends or classmates through peers‟ feedback By this way, students‟ friends and classmates are also encouraged to undertake the feedback for their friends in order to help them overcome errors and develop their oral performance

1.2 Statement of the problem

English speaking in classroom as a skill has been considered as a part of the syllabus

in English teaching and speaking skill is mainly developed when learners interact with the teacher or with each other Therefore, teachers should react to his or her students‟ oral performance by giving feedback mainly about the obstacles they have and the errors they commit, some of them are: mispronunciation, grammatical mistakes, lack of vocabulary, etc Hence, assessment is considered as an important component in learning and teaching In Vietnam and particularly in Faculty of Foreign Languages of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, this process is greatly focused by many lecturers Nevertheless, this process of teaching has still been neglected in some research, which has made the experience of students has not been effectively developed What is more, not only feedback from teachers affect students‟ speaking performance, students also need advice and recommendations from their peers, which could be more particular and easier to obtain However, not many students aware

of their roles in assisting their friends‟ improvements and have not contributed much in giving feedback

1.3 Research hypothesis

The researcher hypothesizes that feedback from teachers and peers which is provided

at the end of EFL learners‟ speaking performance would assist and encourage EFL learners to overcome their obstacles and to improve their oral performance for a better language production

1.4 Scope of the study

In this research, students in the Foreign Language Department at Industrial University

of Ho Chi Minh City are chosen to be potential participants and all of them at that time were having Speaking or Presentation Skill classes In these classes, the students are required to present their oral performance, in which they can obtain lots of feedback from their teachers and peers In addition, many of students are having jobs related to their major such as interpreters, teaching assistants, tour guides, etc Therefore, they consider speaking a significant skill and invest a lot for the subject Obviously, their expectations in receiving feedback and their perception of feedback is clearer than in other subjects

1.5 Purpose of the study

The main purpose of this research is to discover and provide an understanding of the role of teacher and peer feedback in students‟ speaking learning process There are some reasons that urge the researcher to conduct this study Firstly, the researcher wanted to find out how important of feedback as considered by students and teachers Since feedback is an essential process of English speaking learning, it is vital that students recognize the significance of feedback provided by their teachers and peers By seriously obtain and study

on the feedback, students could acknowledge their errors and obstacles in their speaking and have the kick-start to improve them Moreover, if students are keen on giving feedback to their peers, they could develop a critical thinking and concentration on what others are demonstrating Encouraging students to provide feedback is a way to remind them of the common mistakes, which helps them be more careful in their own speech production Secondly, after researching on the perception of teachers and students in providing and receiving feedback, the researcher aimed to explore the reality in the feedback process in speaking skill classrooms It is important to obtain the participants‟ points of view about feedback but it is even more crucial to know whether they are employing it in real situations Finally, the researcher attempts to offer some suggestions and recommendations for the feedback process based on what have been observed in speaking skill classes

1.6 Significance of the study

This study is intended to give some clarification about the perception of EFL learners and teacher about the role of feedback upon students‟ oral performance and the reality of its employment in speaking classes It is hoped that after this investigation, teachers could be more aware of students‟ perspectives and perception of feedback, knowing that teachers‟

their oral performance What is more, teachers could hereby put more efforts on encouraging students‟ classmates to contribute feedback to their friends‟ performance The researcher hopes that students‟ learning process would enhance and they would be motivated to communicate correctly by receiving various constructive feedback from their teachers and peers

1.7 Research questions

This research aims to explore and encourage EFL teachers to undertake the feedback

to their students as well as advise their peers to provide feedback to their friends In order to achieve the goal, the study will focus on the two main question below:

1) What are the teachers' and students‟ perceptions and attitude about feedback?

2) To what extent do the teachers and students employ feedback in speaking activities

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of terms

2.1.1 EFL (English as a Foreign Language)

Jeremy Harmer (2007) declares EFL (English as a Foreign Language) as: “situations

where students were learning English in order to use it with many other English speakers in

the world - when students might be tourists or business people Students often studied EFL in

their own country, or sometimes on short courses in Britain, the USA, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, etc.”

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Published by Oxford University Press, 2016) also defines: “EFL refers to the teaching of English to people for whom it is not the first language”

Besides, British Council describes “English as a Foreign Language, or EFL, refers to learning and using English as an additional language in a non-English speaking country.” The Oxford University Press official website states that: “Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide” As can be seen from the description, Oxford University Press is a famous organization from Oxford University and is globally recognized in the field of education Therefore, the definition of EFL of Oxford website is chosen in this research

2.1.2 IUH (Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City)

IUH is a short term of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city According to HEEAP, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) is one of the leading technological institutions in Viet Nam It is committed to the specialized knowledge of its faculties and upgrading the existing facilities in order to increase the quality of training and research The University was officially established in October 1957 under the name of National Technical Center through the amalgamation of College of Civil Engineering, College of Electrical Engineering, Maritime Transportation School and College of Mechanical Engineering After being merged with College of Chemical Engineering in 1972, the National Technical Center has renamed the National Technical Institute and subsequently Polytechnic University (1974)

It was the only institute training engineers for the South of Vietnam before 1975

2.1.3 Speaking

There are various ways of understanding the term “speaking”:

For instance, (Burns & Joyce, 1997) defines speaking as “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, the participants, and the purposes of speaking” Clearly, speaking is the communicative process of exchanging

information, negotiating meaning and maintaining interaction

Also, Chaney (1998) states his own definition of speaking as "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" From his point of view, the speaker has to think vocabulary in mind and puts it into

the meaningful language in specific context in which communication takes place

Besides, Brown and Yule (1983) cites: “speaking skill consists of short, fragmentary utterance, in a range of pronunciation There is often a great deal of repetition and overlap between one speaker and another and speakers usually use non-specific references.”

In this study, the definition of Burns & Joyce (1997) is chosen for its adequate meaning of the term “Speaking” prevails the other two in clarification

Overall, speaking is one of the most significant skills in teaching language that the learner needs to master in learning a language, particularly English

2.1.4 Feedback

In general, feedback is an act of correcting learners‟ errors in the learning process in order to learn the language from the incorrect and to enhance the level of proficiency Feedback ultimately has the meaning of leading to a better learning and understanding Therefore, it is considered as an essential part of teaching and learning process

Webster‟s (2001) states feedback as “a process in which the factors that produce a result are themselves modified, corrected, strengthened, etc by that result” More broadly, feedback allows the comparison of actual performance with some set standard of performance, as cited by Johnson & Johnson (1993) In educational field, it is considered that the main purpose of this feedback is to confirm or change a student‟s knowledge by giving out the correct statement or terms of knowledge or evaluation of learners‟ performance Whereas, the two definitions above could fit more in a host of systems

Also, Shute (2008) defines formative (educational) feedback as: “Formative feedback

is information communicated to the learner that is intended to modify his or her thinking and behavior to improve learning.”

Since Shute‟s definition is more appropriate in educational aspect, it is chosen to indicate the term “feedback” in this research

2.2 Theoretical framework

2.2.1 Speaking

2.2.1.1 The importance of Speaking skill:

The main purpose of learning a foreign language is to interact and to communicate effectively with other people in that language As can be seen, we speak more than we write Teachers always have certain approaches to teach the English language Many teachers focus

a lot on developing the speaking skill among four major skills Kouicem (2009) declares: “Of all the four skills listing, speaking, reading and writing, people who know a language are referred to as speakers of the language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing”

It is considered the development of the foreign language depends mainly on the speaking skill

so learners in EFL classes are given opportunities to practice the speaking skill more than the other skills when they learn In addition, it helps learners to express their emotions, their

ideas, and the different other functions of the language to others

2.2.1.2 The purpose of Speaking:

Although the main purpose of learning to speak a foreign language is to interact and communicate with other people, there are certain purposes of speaking in any language Kingen (2000) collects all the purposes of speaking into a list of twelve points as follows:

 Personal: expressing personal feelings, opinions, beliefs and ideas

 Descriptive: describing someone or something, real or imagined

 Narrative: creating and telling stories or chronologically sequenced events

 Instructive: giving instructions or providing directions designed to produce an outcome

 Questioning: asking questions to obtain information

 Comparative: comparing two or more objects, people, ideas, or opinions to make judgments about them

 Imaginative: expressing mental images of people, places, events, and objects

 Predictive: predicting possible future events

 Interpretative: exploring meanings, creating hypothetical deductions, and considering inferences

 Persuasive: changing others‟ opinions, attitudes, or point of views, or influencing the behavior of others in some way

 Explanatory: explaining, clarifying, and supporting ideas and opinions

 Informative: sharing information with others

2.2.2 EFL Students’ common mistakes in Speaking:

It is common that EFL learners face obstacles and commit errors when they produce the second language since they have not acquired enough knowledge to master well the

second language as the native speakers Harmer (2001) cites: “…all students make mistakes at various stages of their language learning It is a part of the natural process they are going through and occurs for a number of reasons.” He declares that teachers should aware that all

students make mistakes as a natural and useful way of learning the second language

2.2.2.1 Mistakes in pronunciation:

Pronunciation is the core of the speaking skill, also to the intonation It is the learners‟ ability to articulate sounds for communicating with others EFL learners have to pronounce most of words and sounds correctly so as to communicate with others more easily However, most EFL students in Vietnam still face with difficulties in correct pronunciation There are many factors behind that situation, such as: lack practice of listening, unfamiliar sounds pronunciation and many students focus more on the words meaning instead of their pronunciation As a result, they can master well the writing because of the knowledge of vocabularies and the grammatical rules, but they cannot master the speaking skill because of incorrect pronunciation

2.2.2.2 Mistakes in grammar

Grammar is one of the most important elements in the English language either in oral

or written context Grammar in written is not the same in speaking but it is essential to use the correct grammar in oral performance aligning with written context

Thornbury (2008) states the different features of the grammar in Speaking form which are:

 The utterance can be accomplished by optional head and tail slots

 The utterance can include tag questions

 The utterance can be direct instead of the reported form

 Using the vagueness expressions in order to reduce the face threaten of the assertiveness, and to keep one of the main Grice‟s maxims which is the quality in learners‟ speech

 The speech contains a lot of ellipsis

 Using the performance effects which refer to what the speaker indicates when he faces difficulties These performance effects can be as hesitation, repetition, false starts, incomplete utterance, and the ambiguity of the structure

If the learners do not aware of these features, they can commit many grammatical errors in their

oral performance, the common ones are:

 The misuse of the pronouns

 The misuse of the transition signals and the coordinating signals

 Difficulties in the choosing appropriate tense according to the context

 Mistake in the addition of “s” in the present tense

 The misuse of word-order especially in the placement of the adverbs and adjectives

2.2.2.3 Vocabulary:

To develop learning the English language, EFL learners should enrich their vocabulary knowledge Unfortunately, they cannot acquire more vocabularies as they do not know the correct ways So, they have many difficulties to undertake the suitable vocabularies for expressing the intended meaning because they lack practicing them in their speech, they

do not know the different situations in which the vocabularies are used, they do not care about the new vocabularies, they lack practicing reading and listening, and they use certain vocabularies just only for conveying the intended message in the course

According to Thornbury (2008), he shows that chunks are one of the vocabulary forms

in speaking It occurs randomly in the oral performance by combining words These chunks can be as: collocations, phrasal verbs idioms, catchphrases and saying, sentence frames, and finally as discourse markers

As a solution, the teacher should make their learners familiar with the language by giving feedback on their performance Teachers should show students how feedback positively involves their speaking production and should advise them to take feedback into

consideration and train the speaking skill inside and outside the class room from the feedback

in order to improve their speaking production

2.2.3 Feedback

2.2.3.1 The role of feedback

Few studies have focused on teacher feedback about student performances, and fewer

on student perceptions or preferences Drew (2001) found that for students, feedback relating

to all aspects of progress was important, not just performance in essays or exams In this study, feedback is defined as information provided to students about their performance, and includes written comments on assignments, verbal responses provided in class or individually, peer feedback and self-evaluation forms of feedback

2.2.3.2 The Oral Feedback:

Frey and Fisher (1977) declare that it occurs mainly through the spoken form In order

to get positive learners outcome, the oral feedback should be characterized by the setting, the structure, and the tone This type of feedback helps the learner to get it Through effective oral feedback, the teacher should be specific and should demonstrate the learner to which is correct or not

There are three parts of the structure for academic feedback:

 Showing the result of learner‟s performance

 Describing and distinguishing between the right form and the wrong form that

 should be changed

 Motivating and encouraging to centime

Harmer (2001) claims that the teacher‟s feedback is helpful during the oral tasks, in which the teachers should react to their learners‟ performance in different way; the helpful feedback based mainly on the stage of lesson, the activity, the type of committed errors, and the particular receiver of the feedback

2.2.3.3 Students Response to Teacher’s Feedback:

Generally, students react to their teacher‟s feedback either positively or negatively So, the significance of the teacher‟s feedback depends mainly on the students‟ reaction to it The teacher provides feedback to his learners through different ways As Blosham and Boyd (2007) mention, teacher‟s feedback can take different forms which the learners should

from peers, or question and answer; moreover, they declare that the students can ask their teacher for clarification of the provided feedback

Dana Ferris (2007) shows some ways in which the students respond to their teacher‟s feedback, the common ones are:

In addition, the second language proficiency, prior experience, and group dynamic are characteristics which can likely influence providing peer feedback Moreover, the common one is when the learners are divided into groups of two, three, or four, then they exchange the first draft and give comments each other‟s work

In other side, Hyland (1980) states that students should comment on their classmates‟ brain storming and outlines of their ideas before doing the draft of a task to be aware of their writing strategies and to develop their writing product Thus the peer feedback is provided by incorporating learners into each other‟s brain storming and by incorporating learners into each other‟s first drafting through commenting on them

2.2.4.1 Benefits of peer feedback

With the growing advocacy of the benefits of student involvement in assessment, students are not only involved in grading themselves and their peers, they are also increasingly involved in providing written/ oral feedback to their peers Feedback is typically provided by teachers, but students themselves can also be effective providers of timely feedback that can be acted upon Some students provide insightful feedback while other less

contribute to facilitation of learning by prompting the articulation of goals and the explicit judgments of progress towards the accomplishment of those goals, as cited by O‟Donnell & Topping, 1998 By involving students in the assessment process, students can take important steps in coming to grips with criteria and standards of the assessment tasks, learning what constitutes good work as they apply the criteria and standards to work of varying quality, and developing the ability to evaluate the quality of their own work, something that will be crucial

in their working lives It also helps students understand how their work is assessed by teachers, letting them know more about how assessors‟ minds work, and what the assessment criteria actually mean in practice

2.2.4.2 Concerns over peer feedback

However, there are some concerns over peer assessment and feedback One of the problems associated with peer assessment and feedback is students lack the knowledge and experience in assessment In a number of studies (Fineman, 1981; Lapham & Webster, 1999), students showed their concern about their lack of competence and knowledge in assessing each other in a fair and objective way Ngu et al (1995) noted that many students were in favor of including peer assessment as an assessment component, though most stated a preference for teacher marking due to lack of confidence in peer marking In peer assessment, students play a dominant role in the learning and teaching process They shift from passive learners to active learners and even judges of their peers The change in the role is significant

in „assessment for learning‟ Nevertheless, the influence of peer assessment on learning is

greatly determined by students‟ knowledge, experience in and perceptions of this kind of assessment approach

Therefore, it is important to take these factors into account when evaluating students‟ learning

performance under this assessment approach

2.2.5 Opportunities of feedback

The last pathway towards more sustainable feedback lies in creating the learning environment which seek to maximize the degree of „congruence‟ (by McCune & Hounsell, 2005) between high-quality learning outcomes and opportunities for formative feedback The concept of congruence grows out of Bigg‟s (2003) model of „constructive

alignment‟, „sharing its concern with goodness-of-fit between curriculum goal and learning and assessment strategies as a prerequisite of pedagogical effectiveness, while acknowledging both a wider array of contextual influences and the need to take due account

teaching-of localized constraints and opportunities, which influence what may be feasible and

suggested that well-established small-group tutorials or seminars can offer rich possibilities for feedback Another powerful means of creating feedback-enriched teaching-learning environment is the implementation of „collaborative and on-display assignments‟ in which the end-product or completed work is not privately and individually handed in to the teacher but openly visible to some or all of the students An example of this is group work in which students work cooperatively on a shared task, and as a result learn from and with each other in contributing not only perspectives but also strategies for handling such task Another instance

is to be found in individual as well as group activities, where the learning outcomes are shown

in an oral or poster presentation Teaching-learning environments could become more fertile grounds for feedback if it were made a much more visible and more central component in teaching and assessment policies and strategies

2.2.6 Criteria of Learners Feedback:

Teachers should take into consideration some features when they provide feedback to their students The two researchers, Frey and Fisher (2007) mention that the feedback‟s criteria are timely, specific, understandable, and actionable which aim to get the informative and effective feedback

 Specific:

If the feedback is superficial, the learners do not understand what they are going to do and they do not relate between how they do the assignment and what they need to do well in the future

Whereas if the feedback is specific, students understand what they should do and on what they focus in the future and they find opportunities to improve their performance (Frey and Fisher, 2007)

 Understandable:

If learner do not understand the feedback, it will not change anything in learners‟ performance For example, the teacher does notice any reaction from his learners when he gives information or language that is not familiar with them Furthermore, Frey and Fisher (2007) suggest that if the feedback is not understandable, “the student probably is not going to learn, despite the time that the teacher has put into providing the feedback” So, they declare that the informative feedback should not only be timely but also understandable

 Actionable:

Learners should have the chance to act on the information provided through teacher‟s feedback So, they should practice, improve, and retry what they get from the feedback The latter affects negatively on student‟s performance when the teacher indicates whether his learners answer is right or wrong while it affects positively on student‟s performance when the teacher provides information to his learners with correct answers (by Frey and Fisher, 2007) They state the positive effect of feedback as follow: “positive effect when teachers provided students with explanations about their correct and incorrect responses”

The teacher makes value of the feedback‟s effectiveness when his learners learn something new or change something in their oral performance Frey and Fisher (2007) claim that the teacher‟s feedback can be effective and useful when it occurs through the criteria mentioned previously (timely, specific, understandable, and actionable): in addition, they state

that: “teacher feedback focuses on the emotional impact of teacher feedback and the potential damage it can do to student teacher relationship” So, they refer to the effect of the teacher‟s

feedback which is clear from the students‟ reaction to it

2.2.7 The impact of the feedback on the learning process:

The feedback has a great impact on improving the learning process So, it fixes the correct new information mentioned through it in the learners‟ minds, and it is considered as a main element in the teaching process It should be at the end of the learners‟ production, and during their performance according to certain conditions The feedback has a lot of advantages among them: It informs the learner about his learning‟s results, whether it is correct or not, which

decrease the learners‟ stress when he wants to know his performance s results

 It encourages the learner to continue his learning especially when he knows that his

 If the learner finds that his production‟s results are incorrect, he will take into considerations that he is the responsible for his performance results, thus he should do better in the next time

 It shows to the learner his learning direction and to what extent he has developed the oral second language performance A learner will be given a chance to have a clear report about the main weaknesses he encounters and having the opportunity to look for possible remedies to get a better performance

 It provides the learner with additional information in order to support, rich, and encourage the learning process

2.3 Related research

In recent years, increasing attention has been given to assessment and instruction This

is due largely to a growing trend for higher education institutions to adopt service orientation models in the provision of educational services (Hill, 2005) As Birenbaum (2007) notes, such information not only assists higher education institutes to better serve their customers, but investigation of students‟ preferences for instruction and assessment is valuable for understanding a variety of other factors that drive the learning process and its outcomes Some studies, for example, link student learning and testing preferences to performance differences (Phillips, 1999) Teacher evaluations have been found to be influenced by student preferences (Birenbaum, 2007) Unlike teaching preferences, which have received much attention, few studies regarding student assessment preferences are available, especially on feedback

Some studies have looked at the interaction between preferences and student characteristics, that is, personality, attitudes, cognitive styles, learning orientations and strategies (Birenbaum, 2007)

Positive feedback has been found to improve mood and satisfaction ratings in undergraduate students (Stake, 1982) Such studies suggest that preferences for feedback are related to students‟ self–esteem, self-concept and self-efficacy The relationship between feedback and self-efficacy has been supported (Bandura, 1986) and experimental studies (such as Lackey, 1997) Some gender differences in perceptions have been found (Rucker & Thompson, 2003) In a study of medical students Parikh et al (2001) found that individual feedback was the most strongly preferred type, with peer and group feedback also favored Assessment preferences have been linked to learning orientations and styles (Birenbaum, 1997; Gijbels & Dochy, 2006) For example, „surface learners‟ have been found to prefer

contents of study materials, and „deep learners‟ have been found to prefer courses which are intellectually challenging and where assessment procedures allow them to demonstrate their understanding (Biggs, 2003; Gijbels & Dochy, 2006) Birenbaum (2007) found that students preferred instruction and assessment that was on the teacher-dependency side of the dimension of learning

Other studies point to differences in student and teacher perceptions Deeprose and Armitage (2004) found that tutors failed to recognize the positive impact that their assessment feedback was having upon students Reid and Johnson (1999) found that perceptions of what constitutes good teaching differ between students and academics Such studies demonstrate the importance of considering the viewpoints of both students and academics, in that staff need to be more sensitive to student perceptions and students would benefit from a greater awareness of why particular teaching techniques are preferred by their teachers (Reid & Johnson, 1999) Finally, Birenbaum (2007) notes the importance of studying preferences lies

in the fact that, “students are aware of the factors that debilitate/facilitate their learning and this awareness influences their instruction and assessment preferences”

Conclusion

It is believed that feedback from teachers and peers which is central to the assessment and learning processes can lead to beneficial backwash on learning While most research focuses on the influence of the assessment component on the whole, there is a lack of research studies on the specific role of teacher and peer feedback in students‟ learning Feedback from teacher and peers plays an important role in the effective implementation of the new assessment component Improvement in learning only occurs when feedback is received, attended to and acted upon by students In order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of the implementation of the new assessment component, there is a need to examine the perception of students towards feedback from teacher and peers In other words, the influence of teacher and peer feedback on students of different English proficiency will be different In some research studies, formative assessment has produced the greatest gains for lower achievers This research will try to find out how students interpret and respond to teacher and peer feedback

2.4 Research questions

In order to obtain the goal, this research will focus on two specific questions:

1) What are the teachers' and students‟ perceptions and attitude about feedback?

2) To what extent do the teachers and students employ feedback in speaking activities?

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS

3.1 Locate of the study

This research was conducted in the Faculty of Foreign Language at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City

Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City was formerly Go Vap Vocational School founded by Don Bosco priests on November 11, 1956, at Hanh Thong commune, Go Vap District, Gia Dinh Province In 1968, the school was renamed as the Don Bosco Private Junior High School of Technology Until January 31, 1970, the school was upgraded to be the Don Bosco Private Junior High School of Technology, shortly referred to as the Don Bosco High School of Engineering After the day of peace and reunification, the Southern Liberation Army took over the school and on December 19, 1975, the School was handed over to the General Department of Metallurgy Engineering and Electronics In 1978, the School was renamed as the School of Engineering IV belonging to The Ministry of Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgy By 1994, the school was merged with the Chemical High School

II in Bien Hoa City to become the Industrial Engineering School IV under the management of The Ministry of Industry In March 1999, the school was upgraded to become Industrial College IV and in December 2004 the college was upgraded to become Industrial University

of Ho Chi Minh City according to the Decision of 214/2004/QD - TTG by the Prime Minister The university is currently one of the big educational and training institutions in Vietnam

Located on the ground floor of the block B, Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) has played a significant role in IUH Established in 2005, the faculty is responsible for training Bachelor of English IUH‟s students have to get a certain English certificate, depending on their levels Graduates of FFL have wider chances of recruitment The faculty is also in charge of General English classes for non-English majors of the other faculties in IUH Furthermore, FFL trains and grants international degrees A, B, C

Currently, Mr Bui Van Hat is The Dean of FFL who manages about 51 professional lecturers Besides, Ms Do Thi Kim Hieu and Ms Hoang Le Thi Tuyet are Deputy Deans There are three subject groups Firstly, Basic Skills group led by Ms Phan Thi Tuyet Nga The second one is the group of British and American Culture and Literature, Linguistics, Interpretation, and Translation, which Mr Nguyen Khanh Du is responsible for Finally, the leader of English Language Teaching Methodology that Ms Tran Kieu My An is the leader The main reason made the researcher chose the FFL was students of this faculty already have basic knowledge and skills in English since this is their major Besides that, this is also

the faculty that I belonged to for more than 3 years For that reason, it was more familiar with the participants as well as it was easier to get the permission from teachers easily

3.2 Participants

The subject of this survey mainly focused on English-majored students in the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) of the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city (IUH) For the purpose of the study, students from the DHAV9 and DHAV11 courses were randomly chosen for the research The students from DHAV9 were currently studying Presentation Skills and the students from DHAV11 were studying Speaking 2 at the time data was collected The number of participants in this study was 80 from 2 classes In addition, there were three teachers were asked to be participants in the research

There are some reasons why the researcher chose these participants The first reason is that all of them are English-majored students who have many years of acquiring English knowledge at high school and at least 2 years of speaking training at university Therefore, they have cognition of the language they are learning as well as their strengths and weaknesses in their Speaking skill

Moreover, as they are progressing in their learning process, they need lots of assessment and evaluation on their performance Taking part in Speaking and Presentation Skills classes gives them a chance to express their oral production and performance

Additionally, as they are at high level of language speaking, they have the capacity to distinguish between correct and incorrect terms in their friends‟ performance It is possible for them to give feedback to their friends also More than that, it is the critical thinking that has been developed They really need to receive feedback from either their teachers or peers to correct their mistakes and improve their performance

3.3 Research methodology

Based on the two research questions mentioned in the literature review as well as the need to achieve the goal of the study, the researcher decided to use qualitative methodology to collect and analyze data based on the opinions of participants, together with classroom observation to reassure the results from the data In order to apply the methodology, the researcher decided to use questionnaires to collect information from the students and teachers After that, the researcher took 2 periods of classroom observation to compare with the data from those questionnaires

3.3.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaire is an instrument for data gathering; it is used to collect information in order to answer the research questions This instrument is apparently a cheap and effective way to collect information in a large scale

The students‟ questionnaire consisted of nineteen questions; eighteen questions were multiple choices, and one question was open ended The questionnaire included 3 sections: general questions about speaking skill, students‟ perception of feedback and the reality of teacher and peers feedback they encountered in the classroom It was given to fifty fourth-year students of DHAV9 on April 3rd and thirty second-year students of DHAV11 on Aril 7th

Section One: Speaking Skill

From question one to question two, the students were asked about the obstacles faced

in their speech and the person who helped them when their committed error when speaking

Section Two: Students’ perception of feedback

From question three to question sixteen, the purpose was to collect students‟ background about the feedback and the importance of feedback Moreover, they were asked about their understanding of situations and reasons that feedback should be given The final question (question sixteen) is open-ended which allows the students to feel free to write their opinions about the significance of feedback in improving their oral performance

Section Three: The reality of teacher and peer feedback in the classroom

From question seventeen to question twenty-two, they are designed to collect students‟ data about the experience of teacher and peer feedback they have met in the classroom The questions are about the frequency of feedback given, the content of feedback, the form of feedback and their feelings towards the feedback from teacher and peers These questions are planned to compare with the results from the observation forms which is described below

The teachers‟ questionnaires are designed with mostly similar questions to students‟ questionnaires with the same purpose However, the questions about speaking skills (section one) were eliminated for those questions are mainly for students to name their common mistakes in speaking

3.3.2 Classroom observation

During two classes, lessons were observed The researchers attended the classes of the

observing their classes is to compare between their perception about feedback and the reality

of their assessment process in the class room The observations were conducted to provide more insight as well as the quantity of feedback given by teachers and students Both of the periods attended by the researcher were students‟ performance when DHAV9 students were asked to present their homework in the Presentation Skills class and DHAV11 were required

to prepare a speech based on topics provided by the teacher of that class

During the observations, an observation form was used focusing on the frequency of feedback from teachers and peers towards students‟ oral performance and the content of feedback This observation scheme includes the frequency of teacher and peer feedback by percentage, which was calculated by the division between numbers of feedback given and the time of the period Moreover, it also shows what kind mistakes is commonly given in the feedback

In this method, the researcher paid attention to the quantity of feedback and the content of feedback from teacher and peers on students‟ oral production and took note in an observation form The feedback rate is calculated by the amount of feedback x 60 / minutes observed and the quality of feedback was evaluated based on these criteria:

 Is the feedback specific and accurate?

 Is the feedback universal?

 Is the feedback timely?

 Is the feedback non-threatening?

3.4 Procedure of the study

In order to start the data collecting stage, the researcher asked for permission by sending an official letter to the Department of Foreign Language‟s Dean of IUH After that, the researcher contacted Ms Tu by email and telephone to receive the class schedules Next, the researcher clarified for students who were having Presentation Skills class and Speaking 2 class After defining the participants, the researcher contacted the lecturers from those classes

in order to get suitable dates and periods that the students will perform their presentations or speeches The researcher also asked the lecturers in advance for permission to get inside their classes at the recess and hand the questionnaires to the students one day before the class On the first day, the researcher came to the Presentation Skills class of DHAV9 students 15 minutes before the period to greet the lecturers, to reconfirm the permission and to prepare the materials At break time, the researcher started collecting data To begin, the researcher

participants would be able to understand what they have to do Then, the researcher began to hand the questionnaires to the students and gave them 20 minutes to do the task At the same time, the researcher also asked the lecturers to do the questionnaires for teachers The procedure was repeated in the second class, DHAV11

After collecting questionnaires from the students of the two classes The researcher continued to ask for permission to attend the period with students‟ performance for the purpose of observation Getting approval from the lecturers, the researcher came back to the classes to attend the period one week after the day questionnaires were handed and collected

On the observation day, the researcher attended the class as a student and sat at the back to fully observe the activities While observing, the researcher also noted down the frequency and the content of feedback given by teachers and peers on students‟ performance in the observation form

The timeline for this process is presented in the following table

3.5 Timeline for Data Collection and Observation Procedures

Procedures Time Range

Contacted for permission by sending an

official letter to the Department of Foreign

Language‟s Dean of IUH and got the

approval

From March 13th to March 17th, 2017

Contacted Mrs Tu by email and telephone

for the class schedules

From March 20th to March 22nd,

2017

Contacted to the lecturers for permission From March 27

th

to March 28nd,

2017 Asked for the permission reconfirmation and

rd

to April 07th , 2017

Handed questionnaires to students of DHAV9 April 03rd , 2017

Handed questionnaires to students of

th

, 2017

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND

DISCUSSION