Improving students english writing skills through teacher feedback and student self assessmant an action research at le quy don high school m a 60 14 10

Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on students’ English writing skills .... Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on the students’ English writing

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS THROUGH TEACHER FEEDBACK AND STUDENT SELF-ASSESSMENT: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT

LE QUY DON HIGH SCHOOL

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfilment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

by

TRAN LAM NGAN VI

Supervised by

Nguyen Thi Hong Tham, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, JUNE 2020

STATEMENT OF ORGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS THROUGH TEACHER FEEDBACK AND STUDENT SELF-ASSESSMENT: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT LE QUY DON HIGH SCHOOL

in terms of the statement of the Requirements for the Theses in Master’s programs issued by Higher Degree Committee

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, June 2020

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, TRAN LAM NGAN VI, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University pertinent to the retention and use of Master’s theses 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 purposes 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 2020

TRAN LAM NGAN VI

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am very grateful for the support, help, and assistance of many people who have aided and stood

by me during the time I conducted my thesis

First, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my research supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Hong Tham, Ph.D., for her valuable guidance, timely advice and strong encouragement She kindly gave

me considerable inspiration, constructive feedback and generous encouragement when my enthusiasm for writing was flagging or when I got stuck in findings solutions for my thesis This thesis would obviously not have been possible without her support in every step throughout the process Indubitably, words fail me in expressing my indebtedness to her

Secondly, I would like to extend my profound gratitude to all the lecturers at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their gifts of knowledge on my learning journey They were unwavering in their personal and professional support during the time I spent at the University, which equipped me with many skills in researching

I am also grateful to all my students at Le Quy Don High School They were brave and eager to join the study Without their passionate participation in the study, this thesis would be far from being completed My particular thanks go to them

Importantly, I would like to take this opportunity to send my huge thank to all my friends in Class MATESOL-2016A They have provided me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement We have together experienced many ups and downs in the past four years Without them, I could not successfully harness the motivation to complete this thesis My gratitude extends

to them and our beautiful memories

Last but not least, I must express my heartfelt gratitude to my family I am indebted to my parents for their unceasing support and encouragement I also place on record, my sense of gratitude to

my sisters who cheered me up when I was ready to quit I could not have accomplished this thesis without their unconditional love and support

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF ORGINALITY i

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

LIST OF TABLES ix

ABSTRACT x

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Rationale for the study 4

1.3 Aims of the study 6

1.4 Research questions 7

1.5 Significance of the study 7

1.6 Scope of the study 8

1.7 Structure of the thesis 8

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 English writing skills 10

2.1.1 Definitions of English writing 10

2.1.2 Approaches in the teaching and learning of English writing 11

2.1.3 Skills for English writing 13

2.2 Transferable skills 18

2.2.1 Definitions of transferable skills 18

2.2.2 Importance of transferable skills 19

2.2.3 Transferable skills for EFL classrooms 19

2.3 Formative Assessment 26

2.3.1 Formative assessment and summative assessment 27

2.3.2 Teacher feedback 30

2.3.3 Student self-assessment 38

2.3.4 Guidelines for teacher feedback and student self-assessment 41

2.4 Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on students’ English writing skills 49

2.4.1 Impacts of teacher feedback on students’ English writing skills 49

2.4.2 Impacts of student self-assessment on students’ English writing skills 50

2.5 Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on students’ transferable skills 53

2.5.1 Impacts of teacher feedback on students’ transferable skills 53

2.5.2 Impacts of student self-assessment on students’ transferable skills 55

2.6 Conceptual framework of the study 57

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 60

3.1 Research questions 60

3.2 Research design 60

3.3 Research context 63

3.4 Research participants 63

3.5 Data collection methods 65

3.5.1 Teacher journals 65

3.5.2 Semi-structured interviews 66

3.5.3 Classroom documents 67

3.6 Data collection procedures 74

3.6.1 Research cycle 1 74

3.6.2 Research cycle 2 75

3.6.3 Reliability and validity issues 77

3.7 Data analysis procedures 78

3.7.1 Thematic analysis 78

3.7.2 Analysis procedures 79

3.8 Research procedures 82

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 84

4.1 Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on the students’ English writing skills 84

4.1.1 Impacts of teacher feedback on the students’ English writing skills 84

4.1.2 Impacts of student self-assessment on the students’ English writing skills 87

4.1.3 Teacher feedback and student self-assessment and their impacts on the students’ English writing skills 90

4.2 Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on the students’ transferable skills 94

4.2.1 Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on the students’ critical thinking skills 94

4.2.2 Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on the students’ problem-solving skills 97

4.2.3 Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on the students’ self-regulation skills 100

4.2.4 Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on the students’ research skills 104

4.2.5 Impacts of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on the students’ time management skills 105

4.3 The advantages and disadvantages of the implementation 106

4.3.1 The students’ advantages 106

4.3.2 The students’ disadvantages and their suggestions 109

4.4 Summary of major findings 115

4.5 Discussion of findings 116

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 125

5.1 Conclusion 125

5.2 Pedagogical implications 126

5.3 Limitations of the study 129

5.4 Recommendations for further research 130

REFERENCES ……… ……….……… 131

APPENDICES 154

APPENDIX A 154

APPENDIX B 157

APPENDIX C 160

APPENDIX D 162

APPENDIX E 164

APEENDIX F 166

APPENDIX G 167

APPENDIX H 168

APPENDIX I 172

APPENDIX J 173

APPENDIX K 174

APPENDIX L 175

APPENDIX M 176

APPENDIX N 179

APPENDIX O 182

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: The guidance and feedback loop 48

Figure 2.2: Conceptual framework of the study 58

Figure 3.1: Summary of research cycle 1 74

Figure 3.2: Summary of research cycle 2 76

Figure 3.3: Thematic network of the study 81

Figure 3.4: Research procedures 82

Figure 4.1: A student’s draft about a film review 92

Figure 4.2: A student’s revised paper about a film review 93

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Micro- and macro-skills for EFL writing 17

Table 2.2: Two key clusters of transferable skills 20

Table 2.3: Critical thinking skills for writing 21

Table 2.4: Problem-solving skills for writing 22

Table 2.5: Formative and summative assessment 28

Table 2.6: Characteristics of formative assessment 29

Table 2.7: Summary of characteristics of constructive feedback 37

Table 2.8: Analytic rubrics and holistic rubrics 44

Table 3.1: Structure and timeframe of the research cycles 62

Table 3.2: Summary of journal entries 65

Table 3.3: Summary of interview items 67

Table 3.4: Summary of writing topics 68

Table 3.5: Summary of assessment criteria in teacher feedback and student self-assessment forms .70

Table 3.6: Summary of student self-reflection items 71

Table 3.7: Student self-assessment and student self-reflection 72

Table 3.8: Summary of the uses of data collection methods 73

Table 3.9: Data and coding summary 79

ABSTRACT

This research explores the implementation of teacher constructive feedback and student assessment in an EFL writing class as well as its impacts on students’ writing skills and transferable skills To take full advantage of these new assessment methods and hone students’ skills, it has been tried out with two writing units using a qualitative action research approach Thirty-two ten graders participated in the study for eight weeks in their second semester The resulting dataset comprised two teacher journal entries, twelve individual semi-structured interviews with the students, and classroom documents The findings suggest that students’ writing skills increased in terms of micro- and macro-skills thanks to teacher feedback and student self-assessment The majority of them also sharpened their transferable skills, namely critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, self-regulation skills, research skills and time management skills Besides, during the implementation, the students benefited from individualised, encouraging and timely teacher feedback, and relevant writing topics However, they encountered some challenges, such as their inexperience, personality traits and low language proficiency Interestingly, the findings depict the way the students overcame these difficulties and indicate their overall satisfaction with the implementation Suggestions for the better implementation of teacher feedback and student self-assessment were also proposed The study concludes that the implementation of teacher constructive feedback and student self-assessment could be promising for the teaching, learning and assessing of EFL writing in high schools Based on the findings of the action research, pedagogical implications were offered to researchers, administrators, teachers and students Further investigation is indubitably warranted

self-Keywords: English writing skills, teacher constructive feedback, student self-assessment, high

school students

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Chapter overview

The introductory chapter focuses on the background and the rationale for the study This opening part also states the aims of the study and addresses the research questions The significance and scope of the research are then discussed Finally, the structure of the thesis is present at the

end of Chapter 1

1.1.Background to the study

English writing as described as the “multifaceted enterprise” by Kroll (2011, p 7) is one

of the two productive skills that perhaps English language learners (ELLs) manfully struggle to

master To be skilful at English writing skills, Harmer (2004) argued that ELLs need to be cautious

not only about the syntactic structure and lexical items (also known as micro-skills) but also about persuasiveness and rhetorical organisation (also known as macro-skills) These skills are hard to

be learnt, there are yet factors that operate to further hinder the learning of English writing

Hyland (2010) reported on research into second (L2) and first (L1) students’ writing by previous researchers in his book in order to point out the key factors preventing ELLs from mastering English writing skills The author cited the work by Grabe and Kaplan (1997) and stated that “students have certain preconceptions about writing which they have learned in their own cultures and which may be inappropriate in native English-speaking settings” (p 54), all acting as

a major hindrance to effective written communication Other researchers such as Cook (2008) and Nation (2009) after thorough research also subscribed to the school of thought that says that differences between L2 and L1 writing systems make it difficult for ELLs to learn English writing skills

In the Vietnamese context, distinctions between English and Vietnamese linguistic features make it tough for Vietnamese learners of English to learn to write in English Particularly, according to a study conducted by Nguyen (2009) on worth-concerning issues in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing classrooms in Vietnam, Vietnamese learners of English usually contend with the negative interference of their own language in the English writing process For Nguyen, another obstacle is that EFL writing instruction does not seem to carry a lot of weight in

the core curriculum of most schools in Vietnam Last but not least, Nguyen contended thatthere appears to be a mismatch between the purposes of teaching, learning and assessing of English writing in Vietnamese schools

In my school, the picture is the same I was told by the Head of Foreign Languages Division

to only teach receptive skills, and not to pay much attention to teaching English writing skills From my observation, one often-heard complaint was that students were mainly surrounded by English grammar-and-vocabulary focused examinations that had moulded them into jumbled-word sentence re-arrangers I then made up my mind and put more effort into teaching my students English writing skills It was not therefore surprising when I heard them say “Why do we have to learn English writing when we will take the English multiple-choice university entrance examination soon?”, “It is a thorny problem to me when it comes to writing an English paragraph”

or “I tie myself in knots trying to produce a letter in English”

It can be seen that challenges confronting Vietnamese learners of English writing may be ascribed to the pull of their own language, insufficient and improper EFL writing instruction, and above all assessing and testing methods Cheng and Fox (2017) claimed that when there is misalignment among learning goals, instruction and assessment it may hamper student learning Assessment practices, thus, should agree with the school curriculum, learning objectives and classroom activity Why, what and how to assess in the EFL writing classrooms all contribute to the alignment of teaching, learning and assessing

Basically, there are two major approaches in EFL writing assessment, namely summative

assessment and formative assessment (Cheng & Fox, 2017) With summative assessment, the

learner’s English writing skills are evaluated based on some sorts of standardized tests which carry the teacher’s ring of authority and thus lead to the learner’s sense of unease Summative assessment embraces the hierarchical model of power and control, it may be impossible for the learner to determine how well they are doing By contrast, formative assessment is used to remedy the shortcomings of its antecedent as its main purpose is not to classify or rank students but to take into account how students learn and what strategies they use to improve their learning In virtue of its power to articulate a trajectory of development of knowledge, formative assessment which is criterion-referenced has gradually taken over from summative assessment for the past decades (Andrade & Heritage, 2017; Brown & Abeywickrama, 2018)

Furthermore, over a decade ago, Hall and Burke (2004) made the important point that

“teachers are now being urged to incorporate formative assessment into their classroom practice much more explicitly and consciously” (p 1) Therefore, how teachers should carry out assessments in the EFL writing classrooms to promote students’ learning is of crucial importance

As teacher feedback serves as a decisive role in assessment, how teachers should provide feedback

on students’ writing is also a weighty matter As formative assessment has gained ground in the past decades, teacher feedback has drawn special attention from researchers

Like assessment, teacher feedback can be summative or formative In summative

orientation, feedback is not highly conducive to learning, but is merely intended to correct errors

in student writing, and as a consequence results in burnout for teachers and students Over the past

years, summative feedback, which seems to treat student writing as a final product, has been gradually superseded by formative feedback This formative focus makes it easier for students to

develop intrinsic motivation, learning autonomy and transferable skills in learning English writing since formative feedback “points forward to the student’s future writing and the development of his or her writing process” (Hyland, 2003b, p 1)

To enhance formative assessment and formative feedback in the EFL writing classrooms, teachers need to ensure that “a prominent role is accorded to the learners” (Lee, 2017, p 3)

Student self-assessment, which is also a subset of formative assessment, can ease teachers’

assessment burden and contribute to increased student involvement in learning Black and Jones (2006) brought up the importance of it by positing that student self-assessment is “the power to oversee and steer one’s own learning so that one can become a more committed, responsible and effective learner” (p.8) Along with student-centred approaches in English Language Teaching (ELT), student self-assessment has been proved to be closely connected with self-regulated and autonomous learning in the EFL writing classrooms (Andrade & Valtcheva, 2009; Bullock, 2010)

Teacher feedback and student self-assessment should be incorporated as each has its drawbacks Teacher feedback when incorrectly interpreted and utilised may be of little effect (Cheng & Fox, 2017) Similarly, “fragile” student self-assessment may lead students to “select personal goals that are unrealistic, adopt learning strategies which are ineffective, exert low effort and make excuse for performance” (Stipek et al., as cited in Ross, 2006, p 7) To untangle this conundrum, it is proposed that student self-assessment should be used in combination with teacher

feedback According to Gibbs and Simpson (2004), teacher feedback can act as ‘scaffolding poles’

to build up and look after ‘fragile’ student self-assessment Moreover, Brookhart (2017) postulated that teacher feedback and student self-assessment are part of formative assessment in which

“formative feedback involves giving comments (or arranging for self- or peer assessment), then giving the student additional performance opportunities within the same learning cycle” (p 3) Teacher feedback and student self-assessment, indeed, can be esteemed a good combination as Cheng and Fox (2017) claimed that “the more our assessment practice directly involves our students, the greater the probability that our students will develop increased awareness of their learning progress and take responsibility for their learning” (p 77)

1.2.Rationale for the study

Since the student-centred and communicative approaches became the focus of many a study, students have expected more than of teacher feedback Ferris and Hedgcock (2013) reported

in their book on student views of teacher feedback and concluded that “student writers appreciate and value a blend of encouragement and constructive criticism” (p 240) Later, Richards (2015)

emphasised that teacher constructive feedback “during assessment for learning is descriptive,

rather than evaluative, and it is intended to show students how they can improve their learning” (p 677) The basic idea here is that teacher feedback should be constructive not only about what students did well but also about what students need to do for future improvement

Teacher constructive feedback can confirm areas of strength and pinpoint areas needing further work Students, nonetheless, may not close the gap between current and desired learning outcomes if they cannot learn much from teacher feedback For Cheng and Fox (2017), for feedback to be most effective, “the key is our students’ interpretation and use of the feedback” (p 171) Therefore, teacher constructive feedback will be of much use when it enables students to internalise it through student self-assessment

There are studies (Brookhart, 2013; Brown & Abeywickrama, 2018; Gibbs & Simpson, 2004; Hounsell et al., 2008; Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006) affirming that teacher feedback and student self-assessment can be used in conjunction so as for students to watch over their learning progress and internal constructions of learning goals and standards Among them, Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006) postulated a change in the role of teacher feedback in student self-assessment and stated that “teachers are much more effective in identifying errors or

misconceptions in students’ work than peers or the students themselves In effect, feedback from teachers can help substantiate student self-regulation” (p 208) It is thus incumbent upon teachers

to provide constructive feedback that promotes student self-assessment as well as self-regulation

While the considerable body of research has contributed much to teacher feedback and student self-assessment in EFL writing courses, studies focusing on teacher feedback and student self-assessment in higher education have been what dominate the research agenda for the orthodoxy that college students are better at assessing their performance and taking greater responsibility for their learning However, in an experimental study conducted by McDonald and Boud (2003) to examine the effects of student self-assessment training on academic performance, they concluded that student self-assessment should be introduced into high school contexts with the help of teacher feedback as young learners could recognise the value of what they were learning Other researchers such as Stiggins (1999), Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, and Wiliam (2003), Cheng and Fox (2017) have got to the key point that high school students can develop the ability to work at a metacognitive level and self-assess their learning when teacher constructive feedback is present

In Vietnam, there has not been a relatively huge volume of research on the use of teacher feedback and student self-assessment in EFL writing classrooms in tertiary education as yet, let alone high schools or lower levels, while interest in this is becoming higher in the literature and reality In my school, many students want to improve their English writing skills to pursue higher education and to get a better job here or overseas However, with only summative assessments at some points in each semester, tests are used to assess students’ knowledge of grammar and vocabulary Bettering English writing skills is one of students’ learning goals Moreover, I focus

my effort into teaching them these skills Despite more time being invested for the EFL writing classes, the main assessment approach still concentrates on rating students according to their exam results There is a mismatch between learning goals, instruction, and assessment Therefore, I decided to change my assessment approach into formative not only for me to improve my teaching practice but also for my students to better their English writing skills

The study is initially motivated by careful observation that young Vietnamese learners of English experience a great deal of difficulty in learning English writing skills, particularly tenth graders in my workplace – Le Quy Don High School (LQDHS) Another motivation for

conducting the current action research is that I would like to use a new assessment approach in my

EFL writing class at LQDHS: formative assessment, which includes two parts – teacher

constructive feedback and student self-assessment, with the view to improving my students’

English writing skills and bettering my English teaching practices Last but not least, there has been little empirical research on the use of teacher constructive feedback and student self-assessment in EFL writing classrooms in Vietnam, while interest in this topic has never flagged The gap appears to have existed for some time and has yet to be bridged These reasons fuelled

my interest to carry out the thesis and made it unique

The aforementioned reasons altogether leave a research gap that forces me to conduct this

study which is entitled “IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS

THROUGH TEACHER FEEDBACK AND STUDENT SELF-ASSESSMENT: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT LE QUY DON HIGH SCHOOL” This thesis aimed at the

implementation of teacher constructive feedback and student self-assessment in an EFL writing class, and its impacts on students’ English writing skills and transferable skills; thereby offering

far-reaching implications for the teaching, learning and assessing of EFL writing skills at LQDHS

1.3.Aims of the study

Bearing in mind the idea of seeking some ways to help the students at LQDHS improve English writing skills, I always eagerly search for any methods that help This study aims to, hence, explore:

(1) the extent to which teacher feedback and student self-assessment help improve the students’ English writing skills;

(2) the extent to which teacher feedback and student self-assessment help the students develop transferable skills;

(3) advantages and disadvantages the students experience as well as their suggestions for the better implementation of teacher feedback and student self-assessment

Based on the result of thematic analysis, some useful and applicable suggestions are expected to be found in order to help the students overcome difficulties in learning English writing skills, thereby communicating in English written form more accurately and fluently

The research questions are employed to formulate the conceptual framework and to then analyse the findings of the study

1.5.Significance of the study

With those aims accomplished by answering the three research questions, the present study has its theoretical and practical significance When reviewing the key characteristics of teacher feedback and student self-assessment as well as identifying the difficulties students at LQDHS are encountering in learning English writing skills, the study hopes to provide a theoretical foundation for the use of formative assessment in EFL writing classrooms in Vietnamese high schools in particular, thus contributing to the growing body of formative assessment in EFL writing classrooms in general

In terms of practice, two key goals of this project are to develop students’ English writing skills and transferable skills and to better my teaching practices It stands undisputed that good English writing skills and transferable skills open learners to greater opportunities for scholarship programmes, better jobs, and professional development A deep understanding of teacher feedback and student self-assessment, good learning and self-assessing strategies also help students at LQDHS feel more inspired, motivated and empowered to develop academic prowess and lead independent lifelong learning in the long run Apart from students’ linguistic, cognitive and meta-cognitive development, conducting this action research would help me to develop my research

skills, to move toward new pedagogical methods, to become adept at classroom management and

to ultimately further my teaching career in the future

1.6.Scope of the study

The thesis focuses on improving students’ English writing skills through teacher constructive feedback and student self-assessment at LQDHS The scope of the study still needs some more clarification yet This study is confined to the investigation into impacts on the students’ English writing skills brought about by the implementation of teacher constructive feedback and student self-assessment at LQDHS Besides, the project will only inspect what transferable skills teacher feedback and student self-assessment help the students develop in an English writing class, neither reading nor listening class The thesis is also limited to the editing and revising phase, that is to say, post-writing stage in the EFL writing class The study also centres

on advantages and disadvantages the students experienced as well as their suggestions for the better implementation of teacher feedback and student self-assessment Thus, another delimitation

of the study is that it will not closely examine what factors influence the students’ and my perspectives toward the implementation of teacher feedback and student self-assessment Therefore, the findings of the study will be merely reasoned based on the three research questions

of the study

1.7.Structure of the thesis

Apart from Acknowledgements, Abstract, References and Appendices, this thesis is a

fivefold study, consisting of (1) Introduction, (2) Literature Review, (3) Methodology, (4) Findings and Discussion, and (5) Conclusion and Recommendations The focus of each chapter is summarised below

The first chapter, namely Introduction, aims to achieve the following goals: to afford the

background information of the study, to explain the rationale for conducting the research, to state the research aims and research significance, to address the research questions, to affirm the scope

of the study and to offer the overall organisation of the thesis

Chapter 2, Literature Review, sets out a review of the growing body of related literature,

which provides a sound theoretical footing for the thesis This chapter can be divided into two major parts The first one presents the scientific background to the research with a detailed review

of theories and concepts associated with English writing skills, transferable skills, teacher feedback and student self-assessment The second section is the review of previous studies on the impacts

of teacher feedback and student self-assessment on English writing skills and transferable skills Based on this theoretical background, the conceptual framework is formulated as a guideline for the research design, and the collection and analysis of data

The third chapter, Methodology, outlines the research design and methodology, or, more

precisely, a description of the methods employed to carry out the study Also, in this chapter, the research questions are further enlarged on and descriptions of procedures for collecting and analysing data are unpacked

The penultimate chapter, Findings and Discussion, consists of the thorough analysis and

discussion of the garnered data as well as the major findings of the study Chapter 4 not only gives the answers to the research questions but also serves as the basis for the pedagogical implications presented in Chapter 5

The last chapter, entitled Conclusion, concludes the thesis with a summary of findings,

limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research Particularly, this final chapter will discuss pedagogical implications, focusing on how the findings can be translated into pertinent ELT materials that would help LQDHS students further their English writing skills through teacher feedback and student self-assessment

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter overview

This chapter provides the theoretical background of English writing skills and transferable skills involved in the course of EFL learning Also, we will discuss EFL writing assessment, particularly formative assessment and its two major elements, namely teacher constructive feedback and student self-assessment Here we shall take a closer look at why teacher feedback and student self-assessment are an important part of EFL writing assessment, and the conditions for which teacher feedback and student self-assessment can be incorporated in an EFL writing class Next, we shall see how teacher feedback and student self-assessment impact on students’ English writing skills and transferable skills The conceptual framework which serves as a footing for guiding the study in pursuit of answers to the research questions is outlined at the end of this chapter

2.1 English writing skills

In this section, we are going to explore the related literature on EFL writing skills—an enormous challenge for both teachers and students This part is an exploration of the past and current contexts of teaching and learning EFL writing Therefore, what writing is, which approaches are used to teach and learn writing, and what writing skills EFL learners need to develop are reviewed

2.1.1 Definitions of English writing

Reviewing the literature, we can see that there have been attempts to define L2 writing

Long ago, White and Arndt (1991) conceptualised L2 writing as a “form of problem-solving which involves such process as generating ideas, discovering a voice with which to write, planning, goal setting, monitoring and evaluating what is going to be written, and searching with language with

which to express exact meanings” (p 3) Later, Byrne (1996) characterised L2 writing as the

encoding of a message or idea transmitted through a sequence of sentences put together systematically Thus, the way of ordering the written sentences requires much conscious mental effort such as making notes, planning, drafting, and revising Simply put, good preparation and extensive revision are the names of the game if one wants to succeed in writing

It would not be an overstatement to say that English writing is a considerable but

enthralling challenge that EFL learners are asked to confront To meet this challenge, EFL learners are required to gain not only a broad knowledge of syntactic and lexical standards but also an acute understanding of rhetorical patterns and discourse structures over time (Cumming, Kantor, & Powers, 2002) Besides, writing is “a social-cognitive act” and “writers must create themselves as writers and professionals through repeated and progressively more complex practice in meaningful contexts” (Craig, 2012, p 15)

There is a plenitude of definitions about English writing in the literature, though Brown and Lee (2015) provided a comprehensive one Given the aforesaid definitions, the present study takes Brown and Lee’s (2015) definition as a frame and defines English writing as a complex inner thought process which is concerned with English literacy and involves generating ideas, putting these ideas in a logical sequence, and revising and making any necessary corrections to produce a final product Furthermore, good writing must exhibit sufficient knowledge of English syntactic rules, lexical ranges, logical connections and discourse standards Indeed, to finish up with a fluent, coherent and extended piece of English writing requires considerable mental dexterity

2.1.2 Approaches in the teaching and learning of English writing

L2 writing demands instruction to master; how to teach students to write in English has become increasingly important for educators and researchers There are generally two opposing

approaches to the teaching and learning of English writing: product writing and process writing

As defined in Hyland (2003b), product writing refers to “a means of reinforcing language patterns through habit formation” and “the result of imitating and manipulating models provided by the teacher” (p 3); whereas in process writing “writers discover and reformulate their ideas as they attempt to approximate meaning” (p 11) In the Vietnamese context, product writing entails over-attention to sample written texts while process writing emphasises the writers as an independent producer of texts on a journey of discovery of English

The debate between these two major approaches naturally leads to the debate of how writing models should be used in EFL writing classrooms Understandably, arguments for and against each approach are also those for and against the complete use of sample texts in the EFL writing classroom There are some strong supports for the process approach to English writing Among these is the theory that English writing is a thinking process whereby cognition is a central

element of the process; and that the EFL student writer’s intrinsic motives are placed at the centre

of learning (Brown & Lee, 2015) Thus, the EFL student writer should learn how to produce, select and link ideas, which emphasises the role of creativity and the lack of another model text to fall back on (Nation, 2009)

The second argument is that EFL student writers should be guided to develop strategies for generating, drafting, and refining ideas through the teacher’s intervention This implies that EFL writing is “essentially learnt, not taught, and the teacher’s role is to be non-directive and facilitating, assisting writers to express their own meanings” (Hyland, 2003a, p 18) Hence, Hedgcock (2005) later distilled the essence of process writing into three principles: the learners’ engagement in meaningful writing, the encouragement of multiple drafts and revisions, the presence of teacher feedback and student self-assessment Process writing should happen solely through discovery-based precepts rather than being dependent on sample texts and should be more suited to intermediate and advanced-level EFL learners

Supporters of process writing have also taken issue on overusing models in product writing They have claimed that overusing models can be dangerous as English learning can happen too fast and knowledge can be uncertain (Hyland, 2010; Nation, 2009) If teachers and students depend crucially on sample texts in product writing, it is also believed that they will not be likely to make

a routine of seeing writing as a way of communicating (Majchrzak, 2017)

Although the process approach has largely dominated the theories of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and particularly ELT, since learner-centred and communicative approaches became the focus of much research, the use of model texts in the classroom has never been fully eliminated, especially when they help students make textual conventions transparent (Hyland, 2010) Arguments endorsing the use of model texts in EFL writing classes are also numerous and have recently gained more rigour as researchers are looking back at product theory in a more critical light (Hasan & Akhand, 2011; Silva, Cumming, & Leki, 2008)

Some ELT techniques that involve use of model texts are also shown to be highly effective, (Grabe & Kaplan, 1997; Johns, 2011; Richards 2015), which include setting the scene, explaining how linguistic characteristics of text differ according to contexts of writing, elaborating the social nature of writing and the role of language and text structure in effective written communication and helping low-proficiency EFL students gain confidence in their writing Core functional writing

categories introduced through the use of model compositions are believed to be suitable for beginners In other words, product writing provides students with clear guidelines on how to construct the different kinds of texts they have to write, which process writing fails to offer as it simply overemphasises “the cognitive relationship between the writer and the writer’s internal world” (Swales, 2011, p 220) Commenting in their book (2015), Brown and Lee also noted that

“the product is, after all, the ultimate goal; it is the reason that we go through the process of prewriting, drafting, revising and editing” (p 349)

It can be said that although process writing is still regarded as the dominant approach, researchers in the field are reconsidering issues about its assumptions and practices At the same

time, more attention is also drawn to the overlooked justifications for the balanced use of both

product and process approaches in the English writing classrooms because “writing is a composing process and usually requires multiple drafts before an effective final product is created” (Brown

& Lee, 2015, p 442)

In summary, like most dichotomies, the process-product distinction is invidious As

language teachers, we need to direct attention to both process and product writing Process is not

the end; it is the means to the final product The L2 writing specialist Ann Raimes settles this argument by stating:

In a writing class, students need to be taught both how to use the process to their advantage as language learners and writers, and also how to produce an acceptable product on demand A shortcoming of the debate around these issues is that process and product have been seen as either/or rather than both/and entities However, while students certainly need to learn how to pass exams, they also need to perceive writing as a tool for learning, a tool that can be useful for them throughout their professional and personal lives (Raimes, as cited in Nunan, 2015b, p 119)

2.1.3 Skills for English writing

In the introduction of their book, Bazerman and Prior (2003) claimed that “to understand writing, we need to explore the practices that people engage in to produce texts as well as the ways that writing practices gain their meanings and functions as dynamic elements of specific cultural settings” (p 2), studying components of EFL writing skills, thus, is a must to the teaching, learning

and assessing of EFL writing skills Because of the complexity and difficulty of EFL writing skills

as well as its significance, I investigated a jaw-dropping archive of scholarship on the subject Thus, skills for English writing are the primary focus of this part

English writing skills are considered as an indispensable tool in both academic and working lives, from early education to college and far beyond According to Nunan (2015b), the purpose

of English writing skills is to discover new aspects of language, to reinforce and support language development There are two subsets of EFL writing skills: micro-level skills and macro-level skills (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2018; Ferris & Hedgcock, 2013; Harmer, 2004; Hyland, 2010) Micro-skills of EFL writing involve the ability to use grammatical structure, word choice, and mechanics Macro-skills of EFL writing pay attention to the ideas and content, organisation and awareness

• Micro-skills for EFL writing

Micro-level features of EFL writing skills, or the so-called word- and sentence-level features include morphosyntactic properties, lexical choices, word spelling and conventions

associated with particular writing genres or topics At this level, grammar structure used by EFL

students needs to be not only complete but also correct and diverse in terms of tenses, agreement,

word order, and the like (Cook, 2008) Word choice should be appropriate and various to express ideas in particular content areas (Hinkel, 2003) Mechanical conventions such as spelling,

handwriting, capitalization, and punctuation should not mar EFL novice writers’ intended meaning

in specific situations (Harmer, 2004)

• Macro-skills for EFL writing

Macro-skills for EFL writing concern the ideas and content, organisation and awareness as

a writer These macro-skills are not separated but interrelated to best convey the writer’s intended message (Brown & Lee, 2015) More importantly, macro-skills also need to be built up from micro-skills and cannot be taken apart from basic micro-skills

As for ideas and content, students need to know how to generate and develop key ideas or

concepts which are not only relevant to the given topic but also original to catch the reader’s attention through their manipulation of words (Hyland, 2003a) Also, the choice of content is often made through a variety of techniques such as brainstorming, clustering or word mapping Topic sentences, supporting sentences and concluding sentences should impart the main content or argument of the text (Brown & Lee, 2015)

EFL student writers also need to deal with how text is organised and unfolded, i.e the

organisation of the text According to Hyland (2010), to perform this ability well, learners are

asked to know a lot about not only the underlying semantic relationships among text propositions

– coherence but also the surface realisation of such relationships through the use of cohesive devices – cohesion The sequential logic marked by explicit transitions contributes to text

coherence (Harmer, 2004) In other words, for a text to be coherent, EFL students need to set out their thoughts in the right order However coherent a text is, nonetheless, it will not make sense

unless it has cohesion To manage information flow, EFL students can use lexical cohesion through the repetition of words and phrases Besides, grammatical cohesion should help EFL students navigate their way around the stretch of discourse in several of ways such as anaphoric reference (when a word or phrase used refers to something mentioned earlier in the discourse), cataphoric reference (when a word or phrase used refers to something mentioned later in the discourse), exophoric reference (when a word or phrase used refers to something outside the discourse yet

known to interactants), and other cohesive devices or linkers (Hinkel, 2003)

The writer’s awareness means student writers need to be aware of who their writing is

intended for (audience), why their writing is needed (purpose), what their writing entails, what and how information must be included to accomplish the communicative goals (clarity and tone)

(Anderson, 2007) Particularly, Hyland (2010), a name to conjure with among researchers in L2 writing, stated that writing is conceptualised as social interaction between the writer and the reader

Audience, which is a difficult concept for novice EFL student writers, indicates that writing “is not

an act of an isolated individual but a joint endeavour between writers and readers, co-constructed through the active understanding of rhetorical situations and the likely responses of readers” (Hyland, 2010, p 44) EFL learners need to be aware of for whom their text is intended, and even the cultural difference between them and that person (Knapp & Watkins, 2010) The writer must have every intention of creating a purposeful and meaningful text for the reader to take a willingness to make sense of and accept the text as such through the writer’s understanding of the social and cultural context in which the text occurs (Rinnet & Kobayashi, 2009) To make it simple, Brown and Lee (2015) stressed that student writers “need to be able to predict the audience’s general knowledge, cultural and literacy schemata, specific subject-matter knowledge, and very important, how their choice of language will be interpreted” (p 342)

Purpose of writing can be an easy concept for EFL students to grasp yet hard for them to

apply in reality Purpose can vary according to particular writing genres or topics, e.g to provide information, to persuade, or to entertain the reader The purpose of writing also helps to maintain and strengthen the interpersonal relations between the interactants (Hedge, 2005; Jobst, 2000) Purpose, aim or goal of an L2 writing piece can hence be achieved by considering micro-level features and other macro-level ones such as audience, rhetorical pattern and voice (Hyland, 2010)

Clarity plays an important role in EFL writing To achieve both lexical and textual clarity,

EFL writing students need to understand the purpose of writing, the audience, and “distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing” (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2018, p 232) According to Hyland (2010), checking for grammar, vocabulary and conventions when editing and proof-reading is essential to ensuring text clearness Furthermore, to create particular effects with words, for example, to persuade the reader EFL students need to use the appropriate tone

Tone, which exhibits formality and informality, politeness and impoliteness, is a feature of the

register (Harmer, 2004) Syntactic and lexical choices can convey EFL writers’ tone and signal their views on the subject being written (Hinkel, 2003) Additionally, to set the style and tone appealing, EFL students need to take into account the purpose of writing and the audience (Hyland, 2010)

Table 2.1 below summarises what EFL writing skills students need to acquire at both micro- and macro-levels As Assiter (2017) claimed that “skills are not given, they are coproduced” (p 2), these skills are interwoven and developed over a period practising writing different genres These skills are important for EFL students as they “will indeed need, either for further study of English or for their ultimate academic/vocational goals” (Brown & Lee, 2015, p 341) That is to say, EFL learners need to master both micro-skills and micro-skills to succeed in EFL written communication for study and work Last but not least, writing, however, is not a solitary activity;

in the course of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, EFL students can develop transferable skills

Table 2.1 Micro- and macro-skills for EFL writing (Adapted from Brown & Abeywickrama,

2018, p 221 Additional sources include: Ferris and Hedgcock, 2013; Hinkel, 2003; Hyland, 2010)

Micro-skills

Grammar Can use grammatical forms (e.g., tenses,

agreement, word order), patterns, and rules

Word choice Can use vocabulary to express a

particular meaning in written discourse Conventions Can produce spelling, handwriting,

capitalization and punctuation to suit the purpose

Macro-skills

Ideas and Content Can provide interesting, relevant

information through examples, explanations to support the main argument

Organisation Can use cohesive devices and/or

transitions in written discourse to bind the text together

Writer’s awareness

Audience Can predict the audience’ knowledge and

expectations of the topic Purpose Can understand the purpose of writing

and accomplish the communicative functions of the text according to purpose Clarity Can establish and maintain focus on the

subject being written, distinguish between explicit and implicit meanings when writing

Tone Can express attitude (i.e positive or

negative) and style (i.e formal or informal) according to genres and purposes

2.2 Transferable skills

Transferable skills have drawn educators’ and researchers’ attention to deeper learning and development of 21st-century competencies within a particular discipline Included in this part are the definition of transferable skills, the importance of developing transferable skills and transferable skills for EFL writing classrooms Extensive and rigorous studies relating to transferable skills are hence reviewed

2.2.1 Definitions of transferable skills

Since Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy of learning objectives, many steps towards describing 21st-century skills have been made With the express purpose of understanding and organizing 21st-century skills, researchers differentiate generic skills and transferable skills While they accept that both terms refer to essential 21st-century skills, they believe that generic skills are not confined to a particular task or context, whereas transferable skills are flexible and can be applied

to other tasks in other situations, albeit with some modification (Denicolo & Reeves, 2013)

The concept of transferable skills has not been clearly defined as it refers to quite broad

abilities Educators have described transferable skills as vital competencies to get a job, to advance

in a career, to be capable of learning, and to transform acquired knowledge and skills to new working environments and conditions (Assiter, 2017) Since then, attempts to underpin a clear definition of transferable skills have been made Kennedy and Loeb (1998) conceptualised transferable skills as abilities one needs to make a smooth transition from one career to another during his or her lifetime Since the turn of the century, transferable skills have been considered as one survival skills in the 21st century According to Pellegrino and Hilton (2012), these skills can

be converted or applied in new situations to answer questions and solve problems The consensus that exists among educators seems to be that transferable skills are critical for every domain and every individual to live and grow in a fast-changing society

There are other ways of defining transferable skills Among them, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2012), or OECD for short, provided a more specific definition of transferable skills in researching, which will afterwards be modified to meet the aims and scope of this thesis:

Transferable skills are skills learned in one context (in this case, research) that are useful in other (for example, future employment, whether in research, business, etc.) They can serve as a bridge

from study to work and from one career to another, as they enable subject- and research-related skills to be applied and developed effectively in different work environments (p 17)

After reviewing the related literature, I, thereby, come up with the operationalised definition of transferable skills in this study as follows: transferable skills are skills that can be developed in learning English along with English writing skills They can serve as a bridge from learning English writing skills to sharpening other skills For instance, when writing a letter to a penfriend from another culture, a student has to solve problems of cultural differences, he then should apply problem-solving skills to new situations in life EFL students are hence expected to avail themselves of these transferable skills to adapt to and grow into EFL different learning situations and conditions

2.2.2 Importance of transferable skills

Since student-centredness is the pinnacle of English teaching and learning, EFL students will already have been expected to develop not only language skills but also transferable skills to bring to bear on the tasks (Denicolo & Reeves, 2013) In other words, beyond knowledge and skills students learnt in school and even academia, they still need to strengthen, expand and harness transferable skills for their next stage in education and their career prospects overall Furthermore, Murray and Christison (2010) noted that improving EFL students’ transferable skills may help them adapt themselves to a variety of future learning contexts, thereby generating further innovation outside the English classroom

2.2.3 Transferable skills for EFL classrooms

There has been a great deal of press in recent years about transferable skills for EFL classrooms We may be wondering why we should not only concern with obvious EFL writing skills since they are key ones in an EFL writing class, or perhaps we may suspect that EFL writing skills and transferable skills are chalk and cheese Let us allay that suspicion and agree that English writing skills and transferable skills are closely connected Indeed, transferable skills enable EFL students to monitor their progress in the EFL writing class and better still, to become even more avid and independent EFL learners (Pei, Zheng, Zhang, & Liu 2017)

EFL learners benefit from acquiring transferable skills during their learning, as these help them learn the target language effectively and successfully, and equip them to handle subsequent

academic challenges Pellegrino and Hilton (2012) classified transferable skills into three broad categories, formulating a typology of transferable skills needed for EFL learners

Table 2.2 Two key clusters of transferable skills (Adapted from Pellegrino & Hilton, 2012, pp 32-34)

Problem-solving skills

From Table 2.2 it can be seen that transferable skills are commonly grouped into cognitive skills (i.e thinking about our learning), and metacognitive skills (i.e thinking about our thinking)

Cognitive skills include critical thinking and problem-solving Metacognitive skills embrace regulation It is evident that each of two domains of transferable skills above comprises other subsets, but those listed in the table are widely expected to develop in the second language classroom and across other subjects (Pellegrino & Hilton, 2012)

self-• Cognitive skills

From the three broad domains of competence in Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy of learning objectives, Pellegrino and Hilton (2012) viewed cognitive skills as “involving thinking and related abilities such as reasoning, critical thinking, problem-solving and memory” (p 21) Cognitive skills, which are one subset of transferable skills, have the potential to account for the links

between thinking and learning Two widely examined cognitive skills are critical thinking and

problem-solving

o Critical thinking skills

It needs to be acknowledged that “the idea of critical thinking having a key role in education

goes back perhaps as far as the idea of education itself” (Moore, 2011, p 7) Developing critical

thinking skills aims at teaching students how to become independent thinkers and lifelong learners

(Bassham et al., 2012) To understand what critical thinking is, we need to first look at the word

‘critical’ We must dispel the notion that ‘critical’ means ‘fault-finding’ Moore (2011) interpreted

‘critical’ as a human disposition, namely “given to adverse or unfavourable judgement” The researcher also considered ‘critical’ as a general intellectual method, “the exercise of careful judgement or observation” (p 14) Commenting on these ‘general’ meaning of ‘critical’, Bassham

et al (2012) argued that critical thinking, which is a branch of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions, is the ability to “identify, analyse, and evaluate arguments and truth claims; to discover and overcome personal preconceptions and biases; to formulate and present convincing reasons in support of conclusions; and to make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to believe and what to do” (p 1)

Now that many burning issues about teaching and learning have been raised, the discussions have focused on fostering critical thinking skills as Swartz (2003) stated that “thinking about their thinking has dramatic effects on students’ learning and is usually not a difficult or complicated task for even primary-level children” (p 297) EFL writing students should thus learn

to become more and more critical in the process of writing which offers a practice to enhance the habits and tools of critical thought In the course of writing, students have to “make critical and reflective choices when they write” (Hyland, 2010, p 182) For instance, “how to remove redundancy (which may not jibe with their first language rhetorical tradition), how to combine sentences, how to make references to other elements in a text, how to create syntactic and lexical variety, and much more” (Brown & Lee, 2015, p 342) Critical thinking skills are important in the EFL writing classes and are interwoven with English writing skills Northedge (2005) unpacks the key characteristics of critical thinking skills, which are also associated with L2 writing skills

Table 2.3 Critical thinking skills for writing (Adapted from Northedge, 2005, pp 287-288)

▪ Argue different points of view

▪ Be aware of what has been written and know how to cite it correctly

▪ Develop points in a logical sequence which leads to a conclusion

▪ Look at the strengths and weaknesses of the writing

▪ Take the argument apart

▪ Provide relevant and valid examples to support the argument

▪ Ensure that the writing is detached

▪ Exclude irrelevant points which do not back up the argument

From Northedge’s (2005) critical thinking principles in writing classes, we shall, of course, acknowledge that EFL students need to understand the arguments and beliefs of others, critically evaluate those arguments and beliefs, and develop and defend their well-supported arguments and

beliefs What is more, EFL learners should develop critical thinking to grasp the arguments and issues discussed in their textbooks and classrooms, to critically evaluate what and how they are learning in class, and to marshal arguments and evidence in a way that convinces others of their views on a particular writing topic (Leicester & Taylor, 2010)

o Problem-solving skills

There have been increasing calls for problem-solving skills in everyday life As many

studies (Denicolo & Reeves, 2013; Majchrzak, 2017; Zimmerman & Campillo, 2003) have emphasised, student-centred approach features the core philosophy of problem-solving and students will be better at solving problems when intrinsically motivated, and when their ownership over the learning process is exhibited Classrooms are a place where teachers should kit their students up with problem-solving skills for a lifetime of working with their complex issues

Problem-solving comprises two distinct types of cognitive skills; that is, analytical and creative (Moore, 2011) Analytical refers to the way students come to see knowledge not as fixed and absolute, but as open to criticism and development Creative means the way students don’t accept knowledge as it is but say new and potentially interesting things about it from various perspectives Commenting on the relationship between problem-solving and writing, Hyland (2010) considered writing as “a problem-solving activity: how writers approach a writing task as

a problem and bring intellectual resources to solving it” (p 20)

Table 2.4 Problem-solving skills for writing (Adapted from Berkenkotter, 2000, p 38)

▪ Make a plan of action before writing

▪ Define the problem and the identity of the reader

▪ Gather information and organize them in a tight structure

▪ Try different approaches

▪ Try not to let pressure (e.g time or noise) get too great

▪ Get away from distractions

▪ Try to relax as you write

Ways that students can maximise their problem-solving skills are also documented by Berkenkotter (2000) The author proposed skills to approach and tackle a problem For instance, first, develop a plan with goals and sub-goals before writing Second, try to identify all the relevant

factors about the topic and the reader from the outset Third, list ideas and organise them in a logical structure Flexibly generating multiple approaches to the problem is the core Next, staying positive and persistent is also crucial Finally, relax when writing but still display concern for accuracy, or, more precisely, pay attention to detail Developing problem-solving skills is an essential ingredient in improving EFL learners’ transferable skills and requires much effort and practice (Zhou, 2016)

• Metacognitive skills

No doubt developing transferable metacognitive skills can help learners adapt themselves

to “new learning challenges in a positive, self-reinforcing cycle of academic improvement” (Pellegrino & Hilton, 2012, p 90) A host of studies (Moos, 2017; White & Dibenedetto, 2017)

have indicated that metacognitive skills, particularly self-regulation skills help enhance learning

and that these useful skills can be effectively taught and learnt in the classroom and applied beyond

it Metacognitive skills deal with “a person’s own ability to monitor, motivate and target” (Dupree, 2013, p 16) One salient element of metacognitive skills is self-regulation skills

self-o Self-regulatiself-on skills

For about the last three decades, self-regulation has been variously described as effortful choice-making, volitional competence and metacognitive activities that one uses to match goals, manage emotions and positively change study habits (Pellegrino & Hilton, 2012) When considering why a student may not be performing well in school, therefore, it would be better to check out the presence of self-regulation for learning From the extant literature on self-regulation

in education, it has been documented that “self-regulation for learning will help learners develop resilience and autonomy, learn to reflect on experiences, and consider multiple ways to solve complex, ambiguous problems” (Cash, 2016, p 6)

Researchers have attempted to dissect the concept of self-regulation in many different ways There have been quite a lot of studies deeming self-regulation as adaptive competence of cognitive, behavioural, motivational, and emotional conditions through iterative processes of planning, monitoring, evaluation, and change (Dignath, Büttner, & Langfeldt, 2008; Graham, Harris, MacArthur, & Santangelo, 2017; Mevarech, Verschaffel, & Corte, 2017) Researchers advocating this concept of self-regulation draw a clear-cut distinction between metacognition and

self-regulation They stated that self-regulation is under the umbrella of metacognition Efklides (2008) and Greene (2017) took another view They argued that metacognition and self-regulation both embrace skills for metacognitive and motivational processes In this study, I choose to use self-regulation as a subset of metacognition and focus on three keys components of self-regulation:

goal setting, self-awareness and self-regulation

▪ Goal setting

Much has been written about goal setting in English language learning (Lee, 2017; Robinson & Burton, 2009) Goal setting is seen as a key component of the English learning process and a significant learning skill as it triggers students’ motivation to learn the target language Goal setting refers to identifying and planning intended academic performances or learning outcomes (Greene, 2017) Schunk and Zimmerman (1998) viewed goal setting as a vital criterion to monitor learning progress and enhance the learner’s motivation Setting appropriate goals helps learners of English successfully navigate the complex learning process “with specific directions, motivate them to expend more effort, and push them to persist longer in learning” (Chang et al., 2012, p 301) Deciding which goals to pursue is the first phase of self-regulation and forms the basis for the next stage: self-awareness

Specifically, one must have a self-talk on ‘what he/she knows about what he/she knows’

to well articulate concept of the self, this process is also known as intrapersonal communication Communication within oneself can include reflective questions such as “Where am I?”, “What are

my strengths and weaknesses?”, and the like Self-regulation follows a cyclical pattern in which

students set goals, monitor their progress, reflect to reappraise relevant information, and adjust to set new goals Therefore, “as students become more reflective and more self-aware, they can set their own goals and make plans for how they will complete the task” (Chen & Bembenutty,

self-2017, p 417) and move onto the last phase: self-regulation

▪ Self-regulation

Self-regulation is conceptualised as the ability one adopts to monitor, direct and adapt actions towards goals of information acquisition in the light of learning experiences (Bailey & Heritage, 2018; Paris & Paris, 2001) Specifically, self-regulated students see learning as a systematic and controllable process, and they accept to take on greater responsibility and if need

be switch to different learning strategies for the achievement of their desired learning outcomes (Lee, 2014; McMillan & Hearn, 2008) As Rivers (2001) asserted that “use of metacognitive, affective and social strategies to control the language learning process and the learning environment is the hallmark of self-regulated language learning” (p 287), students’ affective factors such as motivation or responsibility are crucial parts to their self-regulation Indeed, motivation is a “facet” of self-regulation (Wolters et al., 2011, p 301) Learners with strong intrinsic motivation may increase their effort and maintain perseverance while working on tasks towards goals (Macklem, 2015)

In essence, self-regulation skills help learners “to become more effective in writing and to experience more control over their learning” (Oxford, 2016, p 281) In other words, self-regulatory processes of planning, drafting and revising are important to writing and its development The three dimensions of self-regulation are inextricably interwoven and even, in high-able learners, work in tandem (Schunk & Zimmerman, as cited in Cash, 2016)

Self-regulation, by nature, is a cyclical process in which learners set goals, identify their current position, and make an effort to modify learning strategies to improve performance Enhancing self-regulation skills involves “reflective processes” which require learners to answer three simple, critical questions: “Where am I going? Where am I now? and Where to next?” (Andrade, as cited in Andrade & Heritage, 2017, p 15) To master the skills of self-regulation, learners should understand their learning goals, identify the gap between the desired learning goals and present position, adapt learning strategies towards these goals with greater responsibility and

2.3 Formative Assessment

The tasks of education are not becoming easier as teaching and learning cannot occur without assessment Educators and researchers have devoted time and effort to study the significance of assessment in teaching and learning as “assessment and teaching are partners in the learning process” (Brown & Lee, 2015, p 433) Among them, Birnie (2016) stressed the central importance of assessment as follows:

“Assessment provides information about individual students’ strengths and needs as well as identify strengths and gaps in the instructional program Such information is invaluable for preparing for high-stakes tests-and more important than that, for enabling students to develop effective skills in thinking and writing” (p 9)

Assessment has evolved in its meaning and it has spawned substantial interest and research

We are now going to look at what assessment is, particularly formative assessment, how formative assessment is different from summative assessment, and the two components of formative assessment: teacher constructive feedback and student self-assessment, which are the focuses of this thesis

The word assessment is characterised as “the activity of integrating and evaluating

information relevant to student academic achievement from different sources” (Cronbach, as cited

in Flores, 2016, p 13) Similarly, according to Pellegrino, Chudowsky, and Glaser (as cited in Irons, 2008), assessment is interpreted as “a tool designed to observe students’ behaviour and produce data that can be used to draw reasonable inferences about what students know” (p 12) Moreover, Richards (2015) contends that teachers need to assess their students’ learning to measure the effectiveness of their teaching practices and the materials they are employing via students’ work, classroom observations, and so on

No matter how differently assessment is defined, the utmost important thing is that researchers see eye to eye with each other on the ultimate purpose of assessment in the classrooms, i.e to be a factor in shaping every part of the student learning experience Assessment aims to convert knowledge in books into that in reality and “any attempt to turn ideas into practice will be

a learning experience” (Black et al., 2003, p 118), thereby assisting SLA process

2.3.1 Formative assessment and summative assessment

In this part, the concept, the purpose and key features of formative assessment are presented

with contrasts to those of summative assessment, which has had a high profile in recent decades

Additionally, we should gain some insight into what contexts the two types of assessment should

be used

Summative assessment is any assessment that helps teachers to see whether the changes

they bring about in their instructional practices indeed have an impact on their students’ EFL learning This kind of assessment takes place at the end of a unit or course when learners either take a formal test or submit an essay to demonstrate what they have learnt and to receive a grade (Cizek, 2009) Summative assessment is conducted to accomplish the chief purpose of summarising and reporting the skill acquisition and academic achievement of students at a particular point in time (Cheng & Fox, 2017) In this kind of assessment, students receive marks

or scores from these tests or projects for their final grade However, marks or scores are used to partly describe how much has been learnt, much less what has been learnt or what needs to be learnt (Brownlie & Schnellert, 2009) Like snapshots, “marks represent a way of telling others the measurement of a student’s learning” (Brownlie & Schnellert, 2009, p 24), they are only figures that cannot tell what needs to be done to improve student learning

Formative assessment is any assessment whose design and practices place a high priority

on promoting student learning (Black et al., 2003) Formative assessment includes journals, conferences, teacher observations, self-assessment, peer assessment and portfolios, which occur during the course when learners can put the information to good use in their learning Contrary to summative assessment, usually, teachers do not use marks or scores when assessing; however, they give formative feedback, or, more precisely, constructive feedback (Brownlie & Schnellert, 2009) Formative assessment is geared to helping students to further their learning by keeping them posted of what they have obtained and how to move further Through formative assessment, students receive exactly what they need to progress, thus enhancing the learning process Nikolov (2016) stated that in formative assessment learners “should benefit from ongoing classroom testing” and that teachers should view assessment as “an integral part of their teaching and build

on test results to inform their teaching” (p 10) for the ultimate goal of education–lifelong learning

Table 2.5 Formative and summative assessment (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2018, p 13)

Continuous long-term assessment One-shot, standardised exams

Untimed, free-response format Timed, multiple-choice format Contextualised communicative tasks Decontextualized test items

Individualised feedback and washback Scores suffice for feedback

Open-ended, creative answers Focus on the ‘right’ answer

Fosters intrinsic motivation Fosters extrinsic motivation

The fine line of difference between formative assessment and summative assessment is not the structure of the test per se, but the purpose it serves and the decisions made based on the assessment results Formative assessment has gained momentum, and principles and practices in formative assessment have been greatly discussed Formative assessment has been a centrepiece

of educational improvement efforts and reform proposals which put a greater emphasis on the learner’s role As Cheng and Fox (2017) put it, “it is also students who need to be encouraged to draw inferences from information arising as a result of the measurement, and then to take actions with the support and guidance of their teachers” (pp 63-64) Key aspects of formative assessment are thus the use of teacher feedback and the opportunity for students to self-assess in order to foster intrinsic motivation (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2018) The usefulness of teacher feedback and student self-assessment, in turn, is of cardinal importance to the quality of formative assessment

Extant research about formative assessment suggests that in order to enhance the quality

of formative assessment, we need to fully understand its nature and characteristics There has been

a heightened interest in pinning down key features of formative assessment It is not surprising to find out that a good few educators and researchers (Andrade, 2000; Andrade, Du, & Wang, 2008;

Black & Jones, 2006; Hall & Burke, 2004; Nicol & Macfarlane‐Dick, 2006; Shute, 2008; Stiggins, 2008) have tried to described key characteristics of formative assessment Among them, Cizek (2009), indeed, analysed the research findings about formative assessment from other previous scholars (Andrade, 2000; Andrade, Du, & Wang, 2008; Shute, 2008; Stiggins, 2008) and then came up with a constellation of key characteristics of formative assessment as shown in Table 2.6

It should be noticed that each characteristic mentioned is increasingly recognised for its potential

to boost the achievement, development and benefits of formative assessment More importantly, not all of the characteristics have to be simultaneously present in any particular implementation of formative assessment

Table 2.6 Characteristics of Formative Assessment. (Cizek, 2009, p 8)

▪ Requires students to take responsibility for their own learning

▪ Communicates clear, specific learning goals

▪ Focuses on goals that represent valuable educational outcomes with applicability beyond the learning context

▪ Identifies the student’s current knowledge/skills and the necessary steps for reaching the desired goals

▪ Requires development of plans for attaining the desired goals

▪ Encourages students to self-monitor progress toward the learning goals

▪ Provides examples of learning goals including, when relevant, the specific grading criteria

or rubrics that will be used to evaluate the student’s work

▪ Provides frequent assessment, including peer and student self-assessment and assessment embedded within learning activities

▪ Includes feedback that is non-evaluative, specific, timely, related to the learning goals, and provides opportunities for the student to revise and improve work products and deepen understandings

▪ Promotes metacognition and reflection by students on their work

From Table 2.6, we can see that for formative assessment to be effective and to inform students’ learning, students must take responsibility for their learning, and teachers should provide feedback that is individualised, constructive and related to students’ needs Teacher feedback and student self-assessment are two important elements of formative assessment Both the teacher and