Learners attitudes towards applying formative feedback in teaching english writing to non english major students m a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS APPLYING FORMATIVE FEED

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS APPLYING FORMATIVE FEEDBACK IN TEACHING ENGLISH WRITING TO NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of Master’s degree in TESOL

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

This is to certify that the thesis entitled “The learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in teaching English writing to non-English major students” is the original work carried out by Tran Nguyen Phuong Khanh under the supervision of Dr

Le Hoang Dung, and assistance of lecturers and committees at Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities

All sources used for this thesis are explicitly acknowledged This thesis also contains no materials previously published or written by others without due acknowledgement

Ho Chi Minh City, 2019

Tran Nguyen Phuong Khanh

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I, Tran Nguyen Phuong Khanh, am a Master candidate in TESOL at Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities I hereby state that I agree with all requirements relating to the retention and use of master theses in the library of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City

I accept my original thesis deposited in the library can be accessed for the purposes of studies and I obtain all the copyright permissions for all copyrighted materials used in my thesis I agree to comply with the conditions established by the library for care, loan and reproduction of theses following the rules of library

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

When I worked on my thesis, I have received tremendous support from my supervisor, lecturers, colleagues, friends and family Not only do they give me invaluable assistance but they strongly encourage and give me useful suggestions for

my thesis completion

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my inspiring and dedicating advisor, Dr Le Hoang Dung for his support and encouragement This thesis would not have been completed without his assistance and suggestions He not only gave me expert knowledge to improve my thesis but invested his precious time in giving me insightful advice which brought this work to a successful completion

I wish to thank Dr Le Nguyen Minh Tho, Dr Pho Phuong Dung and Dr Nguyen Thi Nhu Ngoc as the committee members of my proposal defense I am also incredibly thankful to Dr Nguyen Nha Tran, Dr Nguyen Duy Mong Ha, Dr Tran Quoc Thao, Dr Nguyen Truong Tram Anh and Dr Tran Thi Minh Phuong as the committee members

of my oral defense They gave me the insightful comments, useful feedback and valuable suggestions which made the great contribution to my thesis

I would like to give my sincere thanks to all lecturers and staffs in academic affairs at Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University

of Social Sciences and Humanities; and all friends of TESOL15A and TESOL15B for their support and encouragement

I highly appreciate the contributions of my colleagues at Center for Foreign Languages, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, who provide me with research facilities, workshops to help me conduct my thesis and improve my knowledge

Finally, I extremely express my heartfelt thanks to my family for their love, support and encouragement during this research I would like to give my special thanks

to my parents for always being my side and encouraging me to value education and try

to complete this thesis as well as my sisters for their encouragement to keep on my thesis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

ABSTRACT ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 State of problems 4

1.3 Research aims 7

1.4 Research questions 8

1.5 Significance of the study 8

1.6 The scope of the study and limitations 10

1.7 Organization of the study 10

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 12

2.1 The theories related to assessment in teaching and learning 12

2.1.1 The definition of assessment 12

2.1.2 Types of assessment 13

2.1.3 Formative assessment in teaching and learning 13

2.1.3.1 Definition of formative assessment 13

2.1.3.2 The effect of formative assessment on teaching and learning 13

2.1.3.3 Three forms of formative assessment 14

2.2 The theories related to feedback in teaching English writing 15

2.2.1 The definition of feedback 15

2.2.2 The vital role of feedback in teaching writing 16

2.2.3 Factors affecting feedback 17

2.3 The theories related to attitudes towards giving and receiving feedback in English writing 17

2.3.1 The definition of attitudes 17

2.3.2 The importance of attitudes in language learning 18

2.3.3 The learners’ attitudes towards feedback in writing 19

2.4 The theories related to formative feedback in teaching English writing 19

2.4.1 The definition of formative feedback 19

2.4.2 Three levels of formative feedback 20

2.4.3 The functions of formative feedback in teaching writing 21

2.4.4 The features of formative feedback in teaching writing 23

2.4.5 Factors affecting learners’ giving and receiving feedback 24

2.4.6 The benefits of applying formative feedback in teaching writing 26

2.4.7 The problems of applying formative feedback in teaching writing 27

2.5 Summaries of formative feedback 28

2.6 Conceptual framework 30

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 32

3.1 Research questions 32

3.2 Research design 32

3.3 Research site 33

3.4 Respondents 34

3.5 Research instruments 35

3.5.1 The pilot study 36

3.5.2 The main study 36

3.5.2.1 Questionnaire 36

3.5.2.2 Teaching diary 41

3.5.2.3 Interview 42

3.6 Data collection procedure 42

3.7 Data analysis procedure 46

3.7.1 Quantitative data analysis 46

3.7.1.1 Cronbach Alpha 46

3.7.1.2 Descriptive statistics 46

3.7.1.3 Independent sample t-test 47

3.7.1.4 ANOVA 47

3.7.2 Qualitative data analysis 48

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 49

4.1 Analysis of data 49

4.1.1 The learners’ attitudes towards the teacher-researcher’s application of formative feedback in writing 49

4.1.2 Comparing the mean difference in the learners’ attitudes towards formative feedback in terms of gender 57

4.1.3 Comparing the mean difference in the learners’ attitudes towards formative feedback in terms of majors 60

4.1.4 Challenges encountered by the learners towards the application of formative feedback in teaching English paragraph writing 62

4.2 Discussion of results 71

4.2.1 The learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in teaching English writing 71

4.2.2 Comparing the mean difference in the learners’ attitudes towards formative feedback in terms of gender and majors 76

4.2.3 Challenges encountered by the learners towards the application of formative feedback for the learners 77

4.3 Summary of major findings 78

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 80

5.1 Conclusions 80

5.2 Implications 82

5.3 Limitations and recommendations 83

REFERENCES 84

APPENDICES 96

Appendix 1: Questionnaire in the survey 96

Appendix 2: Interview protocol (semi-structured interview) 101

Appendix 3: Consent form to participate in this study 102

Appendix 4: Example of content for lesson plan 103

Appendix 5: Example of lesson plan 106

Appendix 6: Example of teaching diary 108

Appendix 7: Challenges the learners met when formative feedback was applied in

writing from semi-structured interview 110

Appendix 8: Suggestions for future improvement 115

Appendix 9: Coursebook 117

Appendix 10: Rubric 119

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

Abbreviation Explanation

CFL-HCMC USSH

HCMC USSH

Center for Foreign Languages – Ho Chi Minh City University

of Social Sciences and Humanities

Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Participants’ demographic information 34

Table 3.2 Factor loadings for the learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in terms of teacher feedback 37

Table 3.3 Factor loadings for the learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in terms of peer feedback 38

Table 3.4 Factor loadings for the learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in terms of self-feedback 39

Table 3.5 Summary of content in questionnaire 40

Table 3.6 Writing task content 44

Table 4.1 The learners’ feeling when they were given formative feedback 49

Table 4.2 The learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in terms of teacher feedback 52

Table 4.3 The learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in terms of peer feedback 54

Table 4.4 The learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in terms of self-feedback 55

Table 4.5 Levene’s test to check the homogeneity 58

Table 4.6 Independent t-test comparing the mean difference in the learners’ attitudes towards formative feedback in terms of gender 59

Table 4.7 Descriptives of the learners’ attitudes towards formative feedback in terms of gender 60

Table 4.8 One-way ANOVA comparing the mean difference in the learners’ attitudes towards formative feedback in terms of majors 61

Table 4.9 Challenges encountered by the learners towards the application of formative feedback in writing 62

Table 4.10 Challenges the learners encountered when formative feedback was applied from questionnaire 63

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Functions of feedback by Shute (2007) 21

Figure 2.2 Features of feedback by Shute (2007) 23

Figure 2.3 Conceptual framework about the learners’ attitudes towards teacher’s applying formative feedback in teaching English writing 30

Figure 3.1 Data collection procedure 43

Figure 3.2 Example of activities using formative feedback 45

Figure 4.1: The learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback 50

Figure 4.2 Types of formative feedback the learners prefer 50

Figure 4.3 The most important formative feedback in writing 51

ABSTRACT

This study explored the learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback

in teaching English writing to non-English major students at Center for Foreign Languages, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities The investigation used a mixed methods approach including quantitative approach with questionnaire and qualitative approach with teaching diary and interview There were

35 participants from a pre-intermediate class in this study The main purpose of quantitative research was to explore the learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in teaching English writing The findings revealed the majority of learners displayed their positive attitudes towards this application This study indicated there was a mean difference in the learners’ attitudes towards teacher feedback, self-feedback and overall feedback in terms of gender; however, no difference was found in the learners’ attitudes towards peer feedback Similar to peer feedback, the findings also pointed out there was no difference in the learners’ attitudes towards formative feedback

in terms of majors In the questionnaire and interview, the learners shared some challenges they encountered during this application and offered some constructive suggestions for improving this application, such as giving more opportunities for the learners to practice giving and receiving feedback, improving their capabilities and using web-based writing tools to support the use of formative feedback These findings and suggestions from this study can serve as a background for the integration of formative feedback in writing into the curriculum

Keywords: formative feedback, attitudes, English writing, non-English major students

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter will present an overview of this study including background to the study, research aims, research questions, significance of the study, scope of study, limitations and organization of the study

1.1 Background to the study

Nowadays English becomes a dominant language all over the world Therefore, there is a strong need for studying English with the various purposes Not only do learners want to achieve language knowledge, but learners desire to enhance skills Currently, assessment has been applied as an effective way to evaluate the learners’ learning process and progress in terms of knowledge and skills According

to Baehr (2005), assessment is defined as the process of measuring, analyzing and giving feedback on performance or product to enhance future learning outcomes and performance Assessment aims to not only help evaluate students’ learning progress and motivate them to learn, but help teachers recognize the weaknesses in their instructions based on students’ learning (Segers & Dochy, 2006) Thus, assessment plays a crucial role in education, which brings the advantages for both teachers and students

There are two major kinds of assessments comprising summative and formative assessment Summative assessment is used to measure the content students have achieved, which occurs at the end of the course (Rust, 2002) while formative assessment refers to assessments of students’ understanding and progress during their learning process and aims at the adjustments of suitable teaching methods (Black & William, 2010) These kinds of assessment carry out various functions In specific, summative assessment focuses on the achievement of students while formative assessment is related to their progress Although two types of assessment perform function differently, they generally offer the benefits for learning and teaching

Summative assessment is used more frequently than formative assessment these days The previous studies provoked the arguments for the use of summative assessment in teaching and learning Summative assessment helps learners know

how well learners have accomplished the tasks The use of summative assessment

at the end of the course is easier and more time-saving; therefore, it is popularly applied in teaching and learning On the contrary, Huerta-Macias (2002) argued students are evaluated according to their final product rather than their process in summative assessment Corresponding to the former, Black and William (1998) also indicated marks and grading are overemphasized in summative assessment while given useful advice on learning process are underemphasized, which lent the negative impacts on low-achieving learners From these reasons, it is clearly seen that although summative assessment also provides learners with the considerable benefits, it mainly pays more attention to the results of final product, not the learning progress Therefore, it is not really an effective tool in teaching and learning process

if teachers would like to help learners enhance their progress like formative assessment

Asghar (2012) implied there were a large number of previous studies which have stressed the important role of formative assessment in higher education Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall and William (2004) emphasized that the purpose of formative assessment is to serve for promoting students’ learning, not for the sake

of accountability, ranking and certifying competence Formative assessment is considered as the major mechanism in the development and improvement of learning (Mutch, 2003) Therefore, if teachers desire to help learners improve their progress, the use of formative assessment should be more encouraged in class activities so that it can become a more effective way in assessing learners’ competence

Formative assessment is also classified into three common forms including teacher-assessment, peer-assessment and self-assessment The first form is teacher-assessment According to Gardner, Harlen and Hayward (2010), teacher-assessment

is the assessment by teachers to help students learn and to judge students’ progress and achievement Through teacher-assessment, students can know what well they achieved and what they need to improve for their learning result The second one is peer-assessment which is assessment to “consider and specify the level, value or quality of a product or performance of other learners” (Topping, 2003, p.20) In

other words, peer-assessment is the assessment among learners about their friends’ product, which can be their friends’ comments or feedback, etc The last one is self-assessment Self-assessment is “self-rating, self-report, self-appraisal, self-control, self-evaluation, self-estimate, or self-testing” which is considered as “an internal or self-directed activity” (Abbasian, Maryam & Mojtaba, 2017, p.5-6; Oscarson, 1989, p.1) Self-assessment is the process in which learners self-evaluate their performance and self-motivate their learning Three forms of assessment fulfill the certain functions and make the great contribution to learning and teaching process

In formative assessment, the most important element is giving feedback Feedback brings a lot of benefits for teaching and learning process The vital role of feedback is emphasized and considered as a crucial element to facilitate learning and performance (Bandura, 1991; Defor, 1991) In the line with the previous studies, Moreno (2004) stated feedback is regarded as an integral factor to enhance knowledge and acquire skills Feedback is also considered as the strongest single factor impacting on students’ learning process and achievement (Gibbs & Simpson, 2005)

There are many diverse kinds of feedback and among them, formative feedback is more highly appreciated thanks to their potential advantages Formative feedback is one type of feedback constantly occuring in the learning process which helps the learners promote their goal orientation in the learning process (Hoska, 1993) Shute (2007) also claimed offering formative feedback can help the learners enhance their knowledge, skills and understanding of content generally Similar to three aforementioned forms of formative assessment, there are three types of formative feedback comprising teacher feedback, peer feedback and self-feedback Each type of formative feedback performs various functions which are very necessary in teaching and learning, especially in writing

The previous studies emphasized that writing plays an absolutely vital role both in daily lives and learning language Particularly, Graves (1978) mentioned writing in our lives contributes to a person’s development despite their different backgrounds and talents He also indicated that writing, more than other subjects, can result in the learners’ breakthroughs in learning process and it also makes a

strong contribution to reading comprehension skills Writing is regarded as a communicative activity which ought to be applied in teaching language (Pincas, 1982) Some previous studies mentioned feedback is a very integral element in teaching writing skills, because it can enhance students’ skills and their motivation related to writing (Bruning & Horn, 2000; Hyland & Hyland, 2006; Kellogg & Whiteford, 2009) Parr and Timperly (2010) also pointed out feedback to writing by written or oral format which is regarded as an integral part of instruction Nevertheless, Tarnopolsky (2000) claimed that time for teaching English writing in the curricular is much less compared to time for teaching speaking, listening and reading skills and it is considered as the less important skill than others three The aforementioned studies showed it is not denied that the application of formative feedback in teaching English writing is very necessary in curricula because it is expected to provide the potential benefits for both teachers and learners; however, teaching writing is underestimated and takes up a less crucial role compared to teaching other skills Consequently, feedback to writing is also ignored during teaching and learning process

1.2 State of problems

In Vietnam’s education system, English is a compulsory subject in schools and higher education (Hoang, 2007; Mau, 2012) and English certificate is required for students’ graduation Particularly, Center for Foreign Languages of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities (CFL-HCMC USSH) has currently provided the English courses which aim to prepare learners for getting the certificate for Vietnam National University English Proficiency Test (VNU-EPT) for graduation The examinations assess learners all four skills including reading, writing, listening and speaking A lot of students find working with English an extremely demanding and challenging task; therefore, they encounter many difficulties in learning English as well as receiving the certificates

Mau (2012) mentioned although the learners at CFL-HCMC USSH try to pass the exam, the application of traditional teaching method is not appropriate for the purposes of teaching and learning at CFL-HCMC USSH Therefore, the question

about the improving the quality of teaching and learning at CFL-USSH captured the concerns It is clear that if teaching methods or assessments are suitably applied in pedagogy, which is beneficial to both teachers and learners As mentioned above, formative assessment is one of the effective ways to help not only students improve their progress but teachers adjust their instruction According to Bui (2015), formative assessment in second language writing gives learners opportunities to get comments on their learning performance which helps them know what and how to improve their writing However, this type of assessment has been neglected in Vietnam context’s second language pedagogy generally and at CFL-HCMC USSH particularly

I have currently been in the role of the teacher at CFL-HCMC USSH After more than two-year teaching at this center, I realized that the use of formative assessment is not highly emphasized here, especially in teaching English writing skills There are some reasons which could be deeply explained for the limit of formative assessment use at this center The first reason comes from the curriculum and coursebook On account of time constraints in the class, writing skill is not mainly focused, so the learners face many difficulties in their writing skills In addition, the exams mostly focus on the reading, listening, grammar; and writing task accounts for a small percentage of the whole test The coursebook primarily focuses on the reading, speaking and listening skills, which gives the learners a few opportunities to get exposed to writing

The second reason departs from the learners studying at this center Some learners do pay more attention to the score they achieve in the final exam because they would like to pass it and get certificate This led to the current situation in which the learners mainly focus on the summative assessment, not formative assessment They seem to ignore the vital value of formative assessment as well as feedback for the sake of improving their progress Also, all learners currently studying at this center are students majoring in social sciences at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, so they would prefer to communicate with other people or native speakers rather than studying writing because they think that writing is a difficult and boring course As a result, they are quite good at

communication skills while their writing skills, especially, paragraph writing skills, still have many limitations Furthermore, the study of formative feedback at this center is less investigated area Therefore, it is integral to investigate the use of formative feedback in teaching writing

Some previous studies also indicated that attitude plays an important role in foreign language learning As Gardner, Lanlonde and Moorcroft (1985) mentioned, attitude is regarded as one of the influential factors in foreign language learning because how much effort students make in language learning is partly dominated by attitude Gagne and Briggs (1974) illustrated that effective feedback is influenced not only by the feedback design but also by the learners’ conditions and one of which

is the learners’ perceptions and attitudes towards feedback The previous studies also indicated that there is the relationship between attitudes and feedback Particularly, Zacharias (2007) demonstrated the participants perform the positive attitudes which deprive from their high preference of teacher feedback The study of Pham (2000) pointed out that Vietnamese learners would be disappointed and confused if there is the absence of teacher explanations such as vocabulary, grammatical points in a writing lesson, so the teacher feedback will affect the learners’ attitudes In regard

to students receive peer review, Barak and Rafaeli (2004) mentioned they enhanced knowledge more deeply and perform a more positive attitude toward it (Katstra, Tollefson, & Gilbert, 1987)

Although there have been some previous studies undertaken on feedback, Storch and Wigglesworth (2010) indicated that affective elements making the important contribution to the process of uptake and retention of feedback are ignored

in research In Popham (2011)’s viewpoint, affective domain such as attitudes are very important because they can typically affect students’ future behavior of learning All the aforementioned studies affirm the importance of identifying learners’ attitudes as well as feedback Therefore, it is very integral to understand the learners’ reactions towards feedback when feedback is applied in teaching and learning

Realizing the limitations as well as the current situations at Center for Foreign Languages of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities

became the drive to foster to conduct the study about the application of formative feedback in teaching writing at this center As mentioned before, attitudes lend the impact on feedback, so it resulted in a need to conduct this study to investigate the learners’ attitudes towards teacher’s applying formative feedback in teaching English writing to non-English major students Thus, the attitudes of learners studying at Center for Foreign Languages at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities were examined when formative feedback was applied in teaching English paragraph writing

Some previous studies also demonstrated there are the gender differences in cognitive abilities (Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995) and language (Miller & Halpern, 2014) and even attitudes (Lee, 2013; Soleimani & Hanafi, 2013) Particularly, Lee (2013) indicated that there were the more prominent gender differences in attitudes related to writing Females have more negative attitudes towards writing compared

to males Apart from gender, major is also another factor affecting learners’ attitudes (Lin & Warden, 1998) Therefore, gender and major were investigated to identify whether there were any differences in learners’ attitudes towards feedback regarding gender and majors in this study

Currently, I have been the teacher at Center for Foreign Languages at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities I was the instructor who directly applied the formative feedback in teaching English writing skills to the learners studying at CFL-HCMC USSH Particularly, I instructed the learners how

to correct their writing product as well as how to give and receive formative feedback in writing, etc Then, I continued to carry out the study to investigate these learners’ attitudes towards this application Therefore, I played in the role of both teacher and researcher or teacher-researcher in this study

1.3 Research aims

Based on the aforementioned background, the study was in an attempt to:

1 Find out the learners’ attitudes towards the teacher-researcher’s applying formative feedback in teaching English paragraph writing at Center for

Foreign Languages at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities

2 Identify whether there was the significant difference in the learners’ attitudes towards the teacher-researcher’ applying formative feedback in teaching paragraph writing in terms of gender

3 Explore whether there was the significant difference in the learners’ attitudes towards the teacher-researcher’ applying formative feedback in teaching paragraph writing in terms of majors

4 Recognize the challenges the learners encountered when formative feedback was applied and reveal the suggestions for improvement of formative feedback application in teaching writing in the future

3 Is there any significant difference in the learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in teaching English paragraph writing in terms of majors?

4 What are the challenges the learners encounter when formative feedback

is applied in teaching English paragraph writing?

What are their suggestions for improvement?

1.5 Significance of the study

Formative feedback has been proved to bring a large number of advantages and has presently been used in some language classes to help improve learners’ abilities Up to present, there have been a lot of studies which are carried out on the application of formative feedback; nevertheless, no previous study takes the

learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback at Center for Foreign Languages, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities into consideration Therefore, this reason became the incentive driving the teacher-researcher to conduct this study to investigate the learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in teaching English paragraph writing to non-English major students at this center

The results of this study will bring the practical significance for instructional design as well as research Firstly, it lends the positive impact on teaching and learning process This study revealed the learners’ attitudes towards the application

of formative feedback in writing; therefore, teachers can assess whether they like or

do not like this application, then teachers can adjust their classroom activities during the teaching process more effectively Besides, this study also explored whether there was the significant difference of the learners’ attitudes in terms of gender and majors or not The findings indicated the significant differences in the learners’ attitudes towards formative feedback in terms of gender Thus, if other teachers would like to apply formative feedback in teaching, the results of this study can be used as the consideration for their application

Furthermore, this study also made a contribution to indicating the challenges the learners met when formative feedback was applied in teaching, so they can be remedied and their suggestions are highly appreciated for the improvement of teaching and learning in the future Therefore, when designing a lesson plan to apply formative feedback in teaching, teachers have to care for these challenges the learners can face before the implementation

Last but not least, this study can bring the benefits for research The findings

of this study can be useful for conducting other ongoing researches related to the application of formative feedback in teaching For example, there may be some studies in the future to explore the effectiveness of application formative feedback

in teaching writing or other skills based on the results of this study Thus, the study can also bridge the research gap to some extent

1.6 The scope of the study and limitations

This study explored the learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in teaching paragraph writing at Center for Foreign Languages at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities There were 35 learners in

a pre-intermediate class participating in this study The scope of this study was based

on the responses of these learners in this class

In terms of limitations, the findings depended on the learners’ responses in one class, so it cannot reflect the representativeness of the whole learners of the center Because of the constraints of time and access, this study was delimited based

on 35 responses Moreover, the topic of this study only focused on the learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in teaching English paragraph writing; hence, the other types of writing and other skills will not be covered in this study

1.7 Organization of the study

The study consisted of five chapters comprising introduction, literature review, research methodology, findings and discussion, and conclusion In each chapter, the contents were briefly specified in the following parts

Chapter 1 gave an overview of the proposal in terms of background to the study, aims, research questions, significance, hypotheses, limitations and organization of the study

Chapter 2 concerned in literature review In this chapter, the vital terms were explained in depth Also, it reviewed the related literature and the previous studies conducted on these issues The conceptual framework of this study was covered in the last part in chapter 2 to guide for this study

Chapter 3 mentioned research methodology, particularly, research methods, the context of the study, participants and research instruments were represented In addition, the procedures of data collection and data analysis were also described in detail

Chapter 4 presented the analysis from the collected data and discussion deeply Furthermore, there was a summary which was indicated at the end of this chapter

Chapter 5 revealed the brief conclusion and suggested some implications of this study It also mentioned the limitations and gave the recommendations for future studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the operational definitions, the key terms as well as the previous studies in the relevant fields were clearly couched in At the end of this chapter, the conceptual framework was identified to systematize the content and shed light on this study

2.1 The theories related to assessment in teaching and learning

2.1.1 The definition of assessment

Assessment attracts the attention of many scholars and the term “assessment” has been used in previous studies with diverse ways of definitions Assessment is used to refer to the process of investigating and providing feedback on skills, knowledge to improve future learning outcomes and performance (Baehr, 2005) Anikweze (2013) defined assessment as the process to examine a standard of a learner or groups of learners’ achievement with outcomes specified as objectives Therefore, assessment is considered as one of the essential elements of education programs For examples, assessment is in the format of classroom quizzes or observations (Segers & Dochy, 2006) with the aim is to assist learners to monitor their progress

In some situations, assessment and evaluation are interchangeably utilized (Taras, 2005) According to Crossouard (2012), both terms are related to decisions about what evidence to use, how evidence to be systematically collected and its interpretation to produce judgment, communication and use Although assessment

is used to replace evaluation to some extent, there are still some arguments on distinctions between them Assessment is closely related to the process to enhance future performance qualities while evaluation mainly focuses on determination of the level of quality or outcome and facilitates decision making based on the quality level, which attributed to the current performance (Taras, 2005; Al Alhareth & Al Dighrir, 2014) Some other studies indicated one of differences between assessment and evaluation is feedback (Broadfoot & Black, 2004) Segers and Dochy (2006) implied feedback in assessment is based on observation and exploration of

weaknesses and strengths while feedback in evaluation depends on quality level Assessment and evaluation play a crucial role in learning and teaching because they support reciprocally

2.1.2 Types of assessment

Assessment is divided into two dominant kinds including summative and formative assessment based on the purposes of assessment Summative assessment refers to the content students attain at the end of the course (Rust, 2002) whereas formative assessment is not related to grade, but refers to students’ understanding and progress (Black & William, 2010) The purpose of summative assessment is to summarize and report their final result which is called “Assessment of Learning” (AoL) while formative assessment aims to help students’ learning which is namely

“Assessment for Learning” (AfL) (Iliya, 2014) Formative assessment is related to student-referenced and lesson goals while summative assessment refers to only criterion-referenced and longer-term goals From these above theories, each form of assessment performs various functions, which brings the potential benefits for learning and teaching In this study, formative assessment was investigated to explore about the learners’ learning progress

2.1.3 Formative assessment in teaching and learning

2.1.3.1 Definition of formative assessment

Formative assessment is mentioned as the interactive assessment frequently happened in class to measure students’ understanding and progress as well as help teachers adjust their classroom activities appropriately to provide the most effective learning environment (Black & William, 1998; Webber & Lupart, 2011) Therefore, formative assessment not only assesses students’ progress but is a potentially powerful process for instruction

2.1.3.2 The effect of formative assessment on teaching and learning

The importance of formative assessment has been obviously noted in many former studies Formative assessment can exert both positive and negative effects

on learning and teaching Carrillo-de-la-Pena et al (2009) mentioned formative

assessment can enhance and motivate learning, conversely, it can demotivate students in learning process (Wingate, 2010) When formative assessment is suitably applied in teaching and learning, it can bring the potential advantages to advance education and vice versa It mainly focuses on the process and progress to decide where the learners are and they need to go and how best to get there (Crossouard, 2012), so students can improve their learning thanks to formative assessment However, it can make students lose their motivation, interest or engagement when

it is inappropriately applied in teaching Especially, formative assessment is applied

in teaching, it cannot be irregularly applied Al Alhareth and Al Dighrir (2014) implied that formative assessment should be frequently integrated with activities organized in teaching Therefore, when formative assessment is suitably applied and frequently in teaching and learning, it cannot be denied that it gains the significant advantages

2.1.3.3 Three forms of formative assessment

In formative assessment, there are three main forms comprising assessment, peer-assessment and self-assessment The first one is teacher-assessment which is the assessment by teachers to help students learn and to judge students’ progress and achievement (Gardner, Harlen & Hayward, 2010) The second one is peer-assessment Topping (1998, p.250) also gave the definition of peer assessment as “an arrangement in which individuals consider the amount, level, value, worth, quality, or success of the products or outcomes of learning of peers of similar status” Through peer-assessment, students give feedback to their peers’ product based on the criteria of excellence for that product (Boud & Falchikov, 2007) which can help them learn how to make the judgment when they give comments on their friends’ work

teacher-The last one is assessment which is the “rating, report, appraisal, self-control, self-evaluation, self-estimate, or self-testing is a good example of formative assessment or learning” (Abbasian, Maryam & Mojtaba,

self-2017, p.5-6) Self-assessment is the process in which learners self-evaluate their performance and self-motivate their learning Abolfazli Khonbi and Sadeghi (2013)

mentioned the students’ attitudes about assessment are based on how instructors introduce and plan peer-assessment and self-assessment, so there are the relationships among these forms of assessment

In formative assessment, feedback is considered as an integral factor Black and William (1998) explained formative assessment as the activities carried out by teacher to provide feedback to build and develop activities with both teacher and students’ engagement Similar to the previous study, Chen, Kettle, Klenowski and May (2013) claimed that both teacher and students are active to participate in the learning evaluation as well as engagement in giving and receiving feedback in the formative assessment process Therefore, feedback refers to teacher and students’ engagement Also, feedback also reveals the gap between the actual level and the reference level (Webber & Lupart, 2011) Feedback helps students realize their gap

in their learning and find the way to bridge it Thus, it is important to explore more about feedback in teaching and learning process that led to the investigation of feedback in this study

2.2 The theories related to feedback in teaching English writing

2.2.1 The definition of feedback

Feedback is considered as one of the most crucial aspects arousing considerable attention of scholars in formative assessment The term of feedback is defined in various ways Feedback is defined as procedures in which learners clarify

an instructional response as right or wrong (Kulhavy, 1977) This definition is too general which does not give the real purpose of giving feedback which is to help students improve their learning Ramaprasad (1983) indicated feedback is the information utilized for the modification of the gap between the real stage and reference stage in a system parameter

Ramaprasad (1983) also gave another definition of feedback but paid more attention to its purpose Feedback is defined as the information about the gap between actual level and reference level and is used to change the gap in some ways Feedback is defined as a vital means resulting in learning gains which can help learners to have the improvement and acceleration in learning (Sadler, 1989)

Sharing the similarity with former study, Webster (2001) considered feedback as a process in which there are the modification, revision, correction of elements leading

to outcome improvement Race (2001) mentioned feedback as information communicated to the learners resulting from an action oriented to learning

The above theories give the overall definition of feedback in formative assessment Among these above definitions, Webster’ definition is clearer and more understandable and this definition is also applied more frequently in many studies related to feedback Therefore, this definition was used in this study In other words, feedback is the information from which the learners can recognize their actual level and find the ways to bridge the gap between their actual level and the reference level with the aim of enhancing their skills in this study

2.2.2 The vital role of feedback in teaching writing

In the aspect of assessment, feedback plays a key role in presenting how successfully the learners have done Feedback helps compare the actual performance with standard of performance (Johnson & Johnson, 1993) In the line with the previous study, Sardareh (2018) also claimed that the primary purpose of formative feedback is to give students and teachers feedback about the targets for learning and ways to bridge the gaps in learning Some other studies also mentioned the role of feedback in terms of indicating their good or not good work and how to improve it Particularly, Brown (2004) strongly indicated the learners need feedback so that they can understand what is good for their work and how they can build on it and have further development Feedback precisely supports students with what they were expected to learn and explores what they learnt well and what they need to continue

to learn better (Guskey, 2005) Thanks to feedback, the learners not only know where they are wrong, but they reflect their deep understanding of what they should

do in order that they can narrow the gap in their learning

Sadler (1989) presented there are two main audiences of feedback, teacher and learner Teachers use feedback to decide programs related to issues of readiness, diagnosis and remediation Feedback is used as an effective means of adjustment for the lesson if teachers realize something inappropriate in their lesson Learners use

feedback to deeply understand the strengths and weaknesses of their performances

so that they can reinforce their strengths as well as modify or improve their weaknesses Coffin et al (2005) also made a claim that feedback is given to students’ writing which is regarded as a central teaching practice From the above reasons, it is clearly concluded that feedback plays an integral role in teaching writing When feedback is applied in pedagogy, it can bring significant advantages such as helping the learners understand their strengths and weaknesses in writing as well as improve their writing products

2.2.3 Factors affecting feedback

Gagne and Briggs (1974) illustrated that feedback is influenced by both feedback design and learners’ conditions such as perceptions, attitudes Human factor or humanistic approach also plays a vital role in feedback in writing (Warrschauer & Meskill, 2000; Macbeth, 2006) Hyland and Hyland (2006) acknowledged feedback ought to be interpersonal The incorporation of humanistic approach into feedback opportunities will provide better and closer relationship for teacher-learner as well as among learners, which can displayed the positive effect

on their affect (Hamp-Lyons, 2006) Humanistic approach focuses on the interactions between teacher and learner as well as learner and learner Therefore, when feedback is applied in teaching, attitudes should be a certainly integral factor considered This study focusing on learners’ attitudes helped find out how the learners feel about feedback applied in teaching and learning

2.3 The theories related to attitudes towards giving and receiving feedback in English writing

2.3.1 The definition of attitudes

“Attitude” is variously defined in many contexts An attitude is the concept

to express one’s feelings towards a person, place, thing or event There are many definitions of attitudes from different perspectives which are taken into consideration in the aspect of language learning (Abidin, Pour-Mohammadi & Alzwari (2012)

Wenden (1991) gave a broader definition of attitude which is classified into three components comprising cognitive, affective and behavioral factor Among them, cognitive component includes person’s ideas, belief or viewpoint towards the object of attitude The second component is affective regarding “the person’s feelings or emotions towards the object of attitude” The last one namely behavioral refers “the person’s behavioral intention towards the object of attitude” In the line with the previous study, Edwards (2013) mentioned the definition of attitude as favorable or unfavorable reaction to something which consists of three factors namely feeling (affective element), thoughts (cognitive element) and action in a certain way (behavioral element) Corresponding to the previous studies, Bui and Intaraprasert (2013) pointed out attitude towards speaking English is related to students’ thought, feeling and emotion towards speaking English In other words, the term of learners’ attitude towards language learning is their behaviors, cognitions and feelings towards language learning

Ajzen (2001, p.28) proposed another specific definition of attitude as the evaluation of psychological objects based on four attribute dimensions including good-bad, harmful-beneficial, pleasant-unpleasant, and likeable-dislikeable This definition is more comprehensive, which is also applied in many previous studies,

so it was used as an operational definition in this study Attitudes are displayed positively or negatively based on these four attribute dimensions

2.3.2 The importance of attitudes in language learning

Many studies suggested that studies in regards to attitudes be a vital component of second language learning pedagogy While discussing the importance

of investigating learners’ attitudes, Gürsoy (2011) reported that positive attitudes towards the target language and learning and teaching help improve students’ motivation while negative attitudes leading decreased motivation make this process more challenging Weinburgh (1998) claimed it is integral to explore learners’ attitudes because they can have the impact on their behaviors towards learning a language and attitudes also take the responsibility for increased motivation Therefore, it is integral to explore the learners’ attitudes

2.3.3 The learners’ attitudes towards feedback in writing

Up to now, there have been some studies conducted in the learners’ attitudes towards feedback in teaching writing Kumar and Stracke (2007) demonstrated opinions and perspectives displayed in written feedback are very helpful in building membership, community as well as developing skills In contrast, the negative emotions can be deprived from the low quality or contradictory feedback (Caffarellar & Barnett, 2000)

Zacharias (2007) conducted the study about the teachers and students’ attitudes towards teacher feedback The findings of the study indicated that a large number of students preferred specific teacher feedback and teacher feedback greatly exerted the impact on students’ emotions in terms of their motivation towards writing Thus, based on the given feedback, the learners will display the different attitudes comprising the positive and negative ones

2.4 The theories related to formative feedback in teaching English writing

2.4.1 The definition of formative feedback

Formative feedback is one type of feedback and there are a lot of various ways of defining formative feedback Formative feedback is defined as

“multidimentional, nonevaluative, supportive, learner-controlled, timely, specific, credible, infrequent, contingent and genuine” (Brophy, 1981; Schwartz & White, 2000; Shute, 2007, p.2) This definition mainly focuses on the aim of formative feedback, which demonstrates the support for learners to improve their competence

in their learning process Halverson (2010) gave another definition related to teaching and learning Formative feedback refers the information used to guide both teaching and learning process

According to Shute (2007, p.1), formative feedback is defined as

“information communicated to the learner is intended to modify his or her thinking

or behavior for the purpose of improving learning” In other words, formative feedback is the information or comments which can help accelerate students’ learning Among these definitions, Shute’s definition is more comprehensive which has currently been used in many studies because it expresses the purpose of feedback

as learning improvements; therefore, it is used as the operational definition in this study

2.4.2 Three levels of formative feedback

Black and Wiliam’s (1998) study emphasized formative feedback has three levels such as teacher, student and teacher-student interaction For teacher level, teachers need “accurate information about the specific processes and outcomes of student learning” to adjust teaching effectively For student level, they need self-assessment to monitor their learning process At the last level, there are two subcategories including teacher-student and student-student interaction to address their learning gaps through discussions Their study fully illustrates the learning achievements in the classroom

Similar to formative assessment, formative feedback also has three major forms including teacher-feedback, peer-feedback and self-feedback The first form

is teacher-feedback Teacher-feedback is feedback given to the learners by teachers

or instructors with the aim of helping them improve their learning performance The second one is peer-feedback Peer-feedback is mentioned as a communication process in which learners participate in dialogues referring performance and standards (Liu & Carless, 2006) Peer-feedback is detailed comments or feedback given to their friends but without formal grade or scores The last one is self-feedback Saito (1994) referred self-feedback as self-correction and non-teacher feedback Self-feedback is students employ the techniques to “develop their communicative competence, skills to criticize their own writing by themselves and cope with error without depending on teachers” Self-feedback or self-directed feedback is their self-report, self-control and self-evaluation and self-correction

From the previous studies, formative feedback plays a very important role in assessing students’ progress and teachers’ classroom activities Formative feedback

is considered as a very powerful and potentially constructive tools for teaching and learning (Clark, 2012) When formative feedback is applied in teaching, it results in the changes in the learners’ behavior

2.4.3 The functions of formative feedback in teaching writing

According to Black and William (1998), there are two main functions of formative feedback, which are directive and facilitative feedback In the line with the previous study, Boramy (2010) also indicated that directive and facilitative feedback are regarded as two interactive strategies to improve students’ writing Each type performs the different functions, which is briefly described in the following parts

Figure 2.1 Functions of feedback by Shute (2007)

Directive feedback is used to give teachers’ and classmates’ recommendations and comments about errors related to grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary (Boramy, 2010) Directive feedback specifically informs students about what errors need to be fixed and revised (Shute, 2007) Through directive feedback, teachers can use corrective symbols to help learners identify the linguistic errors as well as to improve them For example: after writing a paragraph, learners submit their writing product to teacher Teacher uses directive feedback to point out the specific linguistic errors in their paragraph and asks them to correct these errors Thanks to teacher’s directive feedback, the learners can clearly identify their errors they made and correct them more easily

Different from directive feedback, facilitative feedback does not indicate the errors It seems to be a more effective way regarding ideas and content Facilitative feedback is used to instruct students in their own revision and conceptualization (Shute, 2007) Also, Boramy (2010) presented that facilitative feedback focuses on teachers and classmates’ questions or comments about the development of ideas and

content For example: after reading students’ writing product, teacher can ask them some questions related to ideas and content or give some suggestions before asking them to improve it Based on teacher’s feedback, learners can have deep understanding of what parts need revising

When directive and facilitative feedback are given in teaching writing, it causes the controversy which feedback is the most appropriate one that should be guided to the learners Some scholars mentioned directive feedback as the most appropriate one while others agreed with facilitative feedback Sharing the different perspective with other scholars, Ellis (2009) did not mention which feedback is the most vital one applied in teaching writing According to Ellis (2009), teachers can apply directive or facilitative feedback as the appropriate one in pedagogy based on different purposes and different times For instance, directive feedback will be helpful when students would like to correct specific errors while facilitative feedback is necessary for revising organization and content Particularly, after helping learners indicate the errors through directive feedback, teachers can provide them with correct forms and examples to help them improve their product Thanks

to facilitative feedback, they are given supportive questions and suggestions, it can result in motivation for learners and they can express the positive attitudes about improving their writing Through facilitative feedback, teachers do understand learners’ strong and weak points and appreciate their work before asking them to improve some parts of their writing, which makes them take pride in what they can write

In short, directive and facilitative feedback perform the different functions; therefore, it is difficult to claim which feedback is the most appropriate one in teaching English writing Depending on the various aims and contexts, teachers should know how to give learners directive or facilitative feedback suitably so that

it can lead to their positive attitudes and they are willing to receive formative feedback to improve their writing product

2.4.4 The features of formative feedback in teaching writing

Kulhavy and Stock (1989) presented the effective feedback providing the learners with two types of information including verification and elaboration Similar to the formers, the effective feedback should comprise two elements, verification and elaboration (Mason & Bruning, 2001; Shute, 2007)

Figure 2.2 Features of feedback by Shute (2007)

Verification is the confirmation whether an answer is correct or not while elaboration refers to the information providing learners with clues to guide them towards a correct answer (Shute, 2007) Verification is called the knowledge of results because it provides learners with the correctness of their responses For example, when students submit their product, verification will help students identify their errors in their writing such as their grammatical mistakes, word choices, collocations, etc

Elaboration includes two categories, which can be more specific and directive

as well as general and facilitative For example, it can indicate the topic, answer, particular errors and guided examples Not only does elaboration indicate the correct answer but gives the explanation of why the answer is correct Based on these features, teachers can identify what is the effective feedback in writing, when and how to provide it for learners

2.4.5 Factors affecting learners’ giving and receiving feedback

The previous studies provide the overall opinions about factors affecting the learners in terms of feedback giving and receiving Particularly, Goodman, Wood and Hendrickx (2004) also indicated some factors having influences in feedback such as feedback specificity, feedback complexity and feedback consistency Feedback specificity defined as the level of information displayed in feedback William (1997) mentioned the lack of feedback specificity may cause students to view feedback as useless and/or frustrating Therefore, if learners are not given the specific feedback, they are not sure about how to respond it as well as understand the intended message from the feedback, then they seem to refuse it

In addition to feedback specificity, feedback complexity also affects learners

to receive feedback Feedback complexity or feedback length refers to the feedback messages revealing how much and what information (Shute, 2007) She also mentioned when teachers give feedback which is too long or too complicated, many learners will not pay attention to it simply and feedback is regarded as useless one Also, she described another element affecting feedback which is timing of giving feedback Timing concerns whether teachers deliver feedback immediately or delayed it Immediate delivery means feedback will be immediately given to students after they have responded a writing task while delayed delivery refers to feedback which may occur after students have the task completion, maybe in the next lesson Immediate feedback refers to feedback given to learners right after they

do a writing task in the classroom Different from immediate feedback, delayed feedback is based on teacher and students’ time which can be given in the next lesson

or later Furthermore, Hyland (2003) pointed consistency of teacher feedback on students’ understanding For instance, when teacher gives feedback inconsistently, students cannot catch the main message or even misunderstand teacher’s comments

or suggestions; therefore, they are not willing to receive or refuse it

Furthermore, there are some environmental elements having the influences

on the learners’ giving and receiving formative feedback such as lack of training sessions or opportunities to practice Aljaafresh and Lantolf (1994) found that learners may not be ready to self-correct Zacharias (2007) mentioned students asked

teachers whether their friends’ corrections or comments were correct or not Therefore, it is well noted students do not determine whether their peer feedback is right or wrong Therefore, they need training sessions to help them understand and give feedback better Many previous studies mentioned training plays an essential role in peer feedback However, Zhao (2010) implied students did not get step-to-step training in how to provide peer feedback because teachers thought learning was

a self-discovery journey and students learn after a time This leads to their limit in capabilities to give and receive feedback Therefore, to help students improve their abilities, teachers should give students step-to step training sessions to instruct them how to give and receive feedback

In addition to lack of training sessions, the lack of opportunities to practice

feedback is also another issue affecting students’ capabilities to give and receive feedback Guénette (2007) also mentioned the participants in his study are lack of motivation for writing as well as feedback They seem to write for passing the exam

or pleasing teacher, not for the real sake of improving their writing product Therefore, teachers need to give them more opportunities so that they can the motivation to practice feedback which will help them stimulate their interest and improve their ability to give and receive feedback

In regards to personal factors, there are some elements affecting giving and receiving feedback such as their proficiency, differences and goal-orientation Hyland (2003) indicated the learners’ level of proficiency is one of the important elements in this ability Gaynor (1981) presented that low achieving students may get more benefits from immediate feedback while high achieving students prefer delayed feedback Conrad and Goldstein (1999) found that after receiving feedback, the advanced students could understand feedback well and were excited to correct them

In addition to learners’ proficiency, learner differences and goal orientation also influences feedback In terms of learner differences, some students are willing

to receive both positive and negative feedback while others seem to refuse when they get negative ones Some students having the goal orientation are active to give and receive feedback because they can help them realize that practice and effort to

correct can increase or develop ability and skills (Hoska, 2003) However, Dempsey

et al (1993) suggested goal orientation should be carefully considered when feedback can encourage or discourage learners’ effort When students set the goal orientation for writing and they find feedback good or positive, it will encourage them to put their more effort to revise it and vice versa

It is concluded giving and receiving feedback of students can be affected by many factors including personal factors as well as situational factors Therefore, teacher needs to consider these factors when they would like to apply formative feedback in teaching so that it can bring the highest effect for teaching and learning process

2.4.6 The benefits of applying formative feedback in teaching writing

The application of formative feedback in pedagogy produces considerable benefits The finding of Fathman and Whalley’s study (1990) about the positive effects of feedback is the most cited one in a lot of studies Similar to the formers, Truscott (1996) also gave the benefits of feedback He indicated that the students could produce better compositions with their teacher’s help Moreover, the study of Chandler (2003) also found the significant positive effects for feedback on accuracy Clearly, Ashwell (2000) made a conclusion of his study that all groups had the achievements in formal accuracy after they were provided with feedback Similarly, Ferris and Robers (2001) also presented the significantly positive effects for feedback groups versus the non-feedback group

Furthermore, formative feedback not only relieves the learners’ learning burden, but it gives them benefits by giving advice and instructions to deal with a task (Moreno, 2004) Shute (2007) gave the summary of the positive formative feedback results which can help learners overcome the gap between the actual learning performance of learners and the desired performance Using formative activities in teaching not only stimulates students to actively involve in their learning and be responsible for it, but provides them with chances for practicing self-assessment (Assessment Reform Group, 1999; Irons, 2007) It also helps students enhance their knowledge, skills and understanding to some extent These above

findings pointed formative feedback is really useful in helping students improve their performance, bridge the gap between the actual performance and the desired performance as well as enhance instruction and create a productive classroom activities focusing on learning more than grading

2.4.7 The problems of applying formative feedback in teaching writing

Although a lot of studies clearly indicated that formative feedback can enhance learning and achievement, applying it in teaching writing still has some drawbacks Black and William (1998) claimed most of students get little informative feedback on their work, which influences the students’ result Carless (2006) gave the summary of the problems on feedback, which is inadequate in helpfulness, timeliness, consistency, specificity and clarity It is the problems on feedback that affects the quality of feedback and the learners’ attitudes towards receiving feedback Digging deeper into consistency, Cohen and Robbins (1976) also explored that feedback was partly ineffective because it was inconsistently provided by teachers For example: teachers are inconsistent in giving feedback, which leads to the learners’ confusion or misunderstanding and they encounter many difficulties in improving their writing product

Applying formative feedback in teaching writing is controversial in regard to its effect Formative feedback brings the negative effect such as over workload issues spent on the activities for using it Hyland and Hyland (2001) presented that when the praise was offered, students often perceived it as a way not to encourage

to keep trying to write, but to soften criticism which can result in more fluency and accuracy or not Truscott (1996) made a claim that though they could enhance their product, it did not mean that they would continue to have improvement in the future

or it is not concluded that feedback has lasting effects on improvements in accuracy (Guénette, 2007) Clearly, feedback can be proved to be effective in short-term process under teachers’ instruction If teachers want to apply formative feedback effectively in long-term process, teachers should carefully consider the factors affecting formative feedback and have the suitable strategies to apply it better in teaching writing

2.5 Summaries of formative feedback

The above studies show formative feedback is an interesting topic and there are many factors affecting feedback such as specificity, consistency, training, goal orientation, etc The aim of this study was to investigate the learners’ attitudes towards applying formative feedback in teaching English writing, so their attitudes were explored based these factors affecting feedback Feedback will be categorized into teacher feedback, peer feedback and self-feedback

In teacher feedback, specificity, complexity, consistency and timing are named for two main factors including teacher’s ways of giving feedback and timing

of giving feedback These factors have influence on the learners’ attitudes towards formative feedback Regarding teacher specificity, when teachers give students details of how to improve their writing product, it lends the impact on the students’ attitudes towards formative feedback in writing For instance, when evaluating specific teacher feedback as good or beneficial, they display the positive attitudes and are willing to revise it and vice versa

In regard to teacher complexity, the learners’ attitudes are also influenced by this factor When teachers give the learners feedback which is too long or too complicated, many learners seem to ignore it and feedback is regarded as useless one This leads to their negative attitudes towards the given feedback and they seem

to refuse it In terms of teacher consistency, if teachers give inconsistent feedback, students can feel confused when receiving teacher feedback and display the negative attitudes towards it Therefore, when the learners are given with the appropriate teacher feedback, they are willing to accept it and revise for improvement

Regarding timing, giving feedback provided by teacher concerns whether teachers delivered feedback immediately or delayed it Therefore, teachers should decide the suitable time for giving feedback so that it lends the positive impact on the learners’ attitudes When the learners receive the feedback in suitable time and meet their needs, they can display the positive attitudes

In peer feedback, there are two main factors including training to give and receive feedback; and the provision of classroom activities to motivate feedback The previous studies mentioned students do not clearly trust their friends’