Luận văn practice of peer written feedback in paragraph writing skills among third year students of hanam college of education hce

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL TIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES AdARAAAA ARE EERE REE PHAM TH] HONG PRACTICE OF PEER WRITTEN FE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL TIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

AdARAAAA ARE EERE REE

PHAM TH] HONG

PRACTICE OF PEER WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN PARAGRAPH WRITING SKILLS AMONG THIRD- YEAR

STUDENTS OF HANAM COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (HCE)

Thực hành phản hỗi theo cặp trong kĩ năng viel doan cua sinh viên

năm thứ 3 trường Cao Đẳng Sư Phạm Hà Nam

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodolugy Cade: 60140111

HANOI, 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAT, UNIVERSITY, HANOT UIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

PHAM THI HONG

PRACTICE OF PEER WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN PARAGRAPII WRITING SKILLS AMONG TIIRD- YEAR

STUDENTS OF HANAM COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (HCE)

Thực hảnh phản hễi theo cặp trong kĩ năng viết đoạn của sinh viên

năm thứ 3 trưởng Cao Đăng Su Pham Ha Nam

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr HUYNH ANH TUAN

HANOL, 2016

ABSTRACT

The main aim of this minor thesis is to examine the way in which the third-

year students of HCE give feedback to their peer’s written paragraphs, the difficulties students might encounter when responding to their peer’s writing, to

find out whether the methad is effective

In order to get adequate information for the study, document analysis of students’ poor written fecdback and survey method were applied The participants involved in the study were 20 third- year students from 2 classes of LICLL

The data analyzing suggests that he studenis gave feedback on all arcas of the paragraph especially on grammar and vocabulary And, the study results also reveal that peer feedback is effective to the students’ learning of writing

Although the peer written feedback to students’ writing brings the certain

effectiveness, a large mumber of HCE still have difficulties in indicating the

mistakes in their pecr’s wriling and in giving suggestion to overcome those anistakes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On completing this thesis, I own profound indebtedness to so many people, wilhioul whose contribution and spiritual support T could not have accomplished i First of all, 1 would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr

Huynh Anh Tuan, for his scholarly instruction critical comments, great

encowagement and valuable materials, without which the thesis would not have

‘been completed

1 would like to send my heart-felt gratitude to the teachers at the loreign Language Department of Hanam College of Education (HCE) who have supported ame by giving useful advice and providing ine with their useful teaching materials

My sincere thanks also go to the third-year students of IICL for their patience and willingness to do my survey questionnaire Moreover, I would like to send my gratitude to my fauily and wy friends for encouraging me and supporling me during the time of the thesis Without them, I would not have been able to complete

this thesis

ni

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES

‘Table 1: Students’ giving feedback on grammar

Table 2: Examples of students’ giving feedback on grammar

Table 3: Students’ giving feedback on vocabulary

Table 4: Examples of students’ giving feedback on vocabulary

Table 5 Students’ difficulties in indicating the mistakes in their peers’ writings

Table 6 Students’ dilTicultics in providing suggestion the mistakes in the peers’

PART A: INTRODUCTION àà se creerererrereoeel

A, Significance of the Study .ccccccsssessssssueseesstiseeeneeeeivee 3

1.2 Types af feedback to students’ writing 7

1/2 LÀÄGTRLUTG TCVIGW cà HH tt HHHrrededrerdeerieereooeÐ

1.3 Different views of peer written feedback in the teaching and learning of writing 9

1.3.1 Arguments in favor of students’ peer wrillen feedback in the leaching

1.3.2, Argument against peer written feedback in teaching, and leaning of writing] 1 1.4 Different types of peer feedback in writmg 13

1.4.2 Using the checklists .c.cscusetsssnenensenaenenassie ¬—

vì

1.4.3 Written comments SH tt Hư 14 CHAPTER.2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY am

2.1 Rescarchi questions - - - 15 2.2, Research methods cj ssesieesssessenessesineteetsneeineteatinen 15 2.2L The participants ascccsosenseenctsenvtensenessenseet saeasraeaeoT5 2.2.2 Instramentation - - - - 15 2.2.3 Data vollection procedure .scsscsseisieenentsiensnnessinsint 18 2.2.4, Data analysis method - - - 19 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS - a 3.1, Student’s practice of giving peer written foodbaok ¬ 3.1.1 Feedback on paragreph organization 21 3.1.2 Fecdback ơn grammiar - - - 22 3.1.3 Feedback on vocabulary esciscsssssenstsinnessensnes "— 3.1.4 General comments feedback - - 26 3.1.5 Students” using the checklist when giving feedback 27

3.2, Students’ difficulties when giving written feedback to their peers’ writings 28 3.2.1 Students’ difficulties in indicating the mistakes in their peers’ writings 28

3.3 Improvement of students’ writing after receiving peer written feedback 35

3.3.1 Students” improvement in paragraph organization after receiving peer

3.3.2 Students’ improvement ts grammar afler receiving peer wrillen feedback 37

3.3.3 Students’ improvement in vocabulary after receiving peer written focdback37 CUAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSEON _——

4.3, Lmplications for teavhing and leaning of writing using peer written feedback 41 413.1 Implications for teaching of writing using peer written feeđbaok 1l 43.2, Implication for leaming of writing using peer written feedback 42

— -2 Limitation of the stuẩy cà 2,10eeeerre

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale of the study

English is an infertalional language and considered lo be one of the key

factors which any county needs on the way of developing Students after graduating are the labor force of each country Therefore, the demand to use English frequenlly is very uecessary lo all students in general and students in Hanam College of Education (HCE) in particular

Among the four skills, writing seems to be the most difficult As an English teacher, I deeply feel the responsibilities to help students improve their skills, especially writing skill There are many ways which can be applied to improve the

students’ writing skills, and peer feedback is one of them

According 10 Hyland (1990), providing olleclive wrillon [ecdback is one of

the most important tasks for English writing teachers Ferris (1995) shares the same belief: teacher feedback has been indicated to be desirable for the development of

student, writing Bichener, Young & Cameron (2005) debate that writlen [eedback

should be provided as if is often neglected and misunderstood by students Other

linginsts such as Dochy, Segers, & Slunjsmans (1999) strongly hold it that studenks peer feedback has many pros over cons and peer learning and assessment help

students develop communication skills, the ability to collaborate, critical thinking,

and habits of life-long learning

In the peer feedback method, students write the first draft and exchange it with their peers Then, they read each other's papers and give feedback, usually

‘based on the checklist (rom the teacher The checklist focuses on some areas of the

writing such as organization, grammar and vocabulary, etc The selection of the areas to be inchided in each specific feedback method depends on the characteristics

peer written fecdback in the writing classroom Eist, pcer foedback has great influence on the success of teaching and learning In this method, students exchange (heir papers Lo their peers Ti means thal (here are more opporlunities for

collaboration, consideration and reflection than oral negotiation and debate This is very necessary to the progress of teaching and learning English Second, peer

focdback is essential 1o the teaching and learning wrilimg because peer readers can

provide useful feedback so that peer writers can do revision effectively on the basis

of the comments from peer readers Last, it is found that when students become

critical readers of others? writings, they will be more critical readers and revisers of

the own writings Llowever, using peer written feedback is not easy because students’ level of English proficiency is not always the same and this method also

takes a Jot of ime from Leachers and sluderits

Recently, every school and university in Vietnam has tried to apply the latest

methodology in teaching language skills in general and in teaching wnting skill in

particular in order to make language teaching and learning as olfeetive as possible

HCE is not an exception HCE was founded 50 years ago However, the faculty of

foreign languages has just heen founded far only 7 years Working in such a young faculty, the English teachers of the college have to cope with a lot of challenges To

overcome these, the teachers have tried their best to study and apply the latest and

amost effective method Lo their teaching the four skis in general and the writing

skill in particular, Many methods have been applied to teach the writing skills, One

of them is the peer written feedback This method has been applied for the third-

year students for one year This research was done to investigate how students give

feedback in paragraph writing skill among the third-year students of HCE; to examine the difficulties students might encounter when giving feedback; and to find

oul whether the method is effective From these, the author could have a clear idea

about the application of this method in teaching linglish and decide whether to use this method in teaching the writing skills in the future or not

bà

The text book named “Academie Writing” (By Liz and Roar Third edition)

is used to teach writing paragraph at LICL ‘Lhis textbook consists of 14 lessons with specific [forms of paragraph AL the end of cach lesson, students are usually asked to write a paragraph based on the specific form of paragraph (compare and contrast,

cause and effect, problem and solution, narrative, etc.) to revise what they have

learnt A huge amount of feedback from the teacher is required Tn order to vase the

teachers’ burden in giving feedback to students’ writing and make this process meaningful to students’ leaming, a new way of giving feedback, peer feedback was trlroduced

2 Aims and objectives of the study

This research aims at investigating students’ peer written feedback in paragraph

writing skills among the Ihird-year sludents of HCE to have a clear idea whether this

method is suitable with the students and could be used in the further or not This aim of

the research is specified by the following cbjectives The first is to examine the

sindonly’ current pructice of giving peor written feedback, the difficullics students

aight encounter when giving feedback, and to find out whether the method is effective

The second is to propose some tnplicalion for teaching and leaming using peer written feedback and provide some suggestions for further study,

3 Scope of the study

Apparenlly, there are many various techniques of feedbavk in wriling such as

teachers’ written feedback, self-comection, peer feedback and oral conferences Within the framework of a minor thesis, this study only focuses on one type of

feedback, peer written feedback in writing paragraphs among the third- year

students of HCH

4, Significance of the study

Theoretically, wriling is the mos! prominent skills Urat language learners

need to leam as an essential component of their academic practice and later on in their professional life, which partially explains why teaching writing has prompted a good deal of research that overs various aspcels of ils broad instructional contexts

Therefore, this study mentions a method- peer written feedback and trics to find out whether feedback is crucial to the teaching and leaming of writing, Peer feedback

gives both the readsr and the writer more opportunities for collaboration,

consideration and reflection than oral negotiation and debate

Practically, using peer written feedback also relieves the teachers’ heavy

workload of marking the paper and makes this process meaningful to students’

learning And it also helps students improve their writing skills Obviously, when students read their peers’ writings, they not only help their peers recognize and

correct mslakes but also become more critical writers

2 What difficulties might the students encounter when giving feedback to

their peers’ writlen paragraphs?

3 To what extent do the students improve their writings after receiving

feedback from their peers?

4.2, Research methodology

In order to obtain adequate data to seek answers to the research questions, this study used two methods They were document analysis and questionnaire

Document analysis helps the author find out the data to answer research question

number } and number 3, and questionnaire provides information to help the author answer research question mumber 2

second drafs to sec wbether the peer written fecdback helps students improve their

writing or not

The questionnaire was done on 20 students who had given feedback Lo find

out the difficulties students might cope with when giving feedback to their peers’ writing,

6 Organization of the thesis

‘The paper consists of 3 main parts:

Part A: Introduction- briefly states the rationale of the study, the aims, research

questions, scope as well as the significance and organization of the study

Part 13: Development -his part consists of 4 chapters

Chapter 1: Theoretical background and literature review- discusses the literature

related 1o students’ writing’s [ecdback, different views and ways ol peer feedback wr

writing and the guiding principles for effective peer written feedback

Chapter 2: Research methodology- describes the methodology which deals with the

participants, mstrumeniation, data collection procedure and dala analysis procedure

Chapter 3: Data analysis - analyses the collected data

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion reports the final resulis and draws the unplication for the teaching and Iearnmg of writing using peer written fcodback

Part C: Conclusions- summarizes the major findings of the study, acknowledges its Limilation and provides suggestious (or [urther study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND

LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background

1.1.1, Definition

Various rescarchers deline the tenm “feedback” in difTerenl ways, among which the definition from Hyland & Hyland (2006) is one of the most comprehensive Iyland views feedback is crucial for both encouraging and consolidating learning and this significance has also been recognized in the area of second language writing Indeed, “feedback is a key component of second language

writing programs around the world, with product, process and genre approaches all

qmploying il as a central parl of their instructional repertoires” (Hyland & Hyland,

2006: 15)

According to Chaudron (1988:33), feedback which is contrasted with the

narrower notion ol correeliou is therefore “am evilable constituent of classroom

interaction” and “from the teacher's point of view, the provision of feedback is a

smajor means by which lo inform leamers of their accuracy of both their format targct language production of their classroom behavior and knowledge” It is a

significant concern of students and teachers alike and both feel it is an important

part of the wriling process (Cohen & Cavaleanti, 1990, Ferris, 2002) Tt is therefore

not surprising that much has been written about the issue both in teacher education and second language research literature

However, feedback on writing is most valuable lo students’ wriling development when it takes place at the beginning and middle stages of the writing process This is the time when students can use the feedback to revise and edit their

writing This means that, feedhack should be provided in the process of the writing

rather than in single act of producing a text as Raimes (1983:139) notes,

“Responding to students’ writing is very much a part of the process of teaching writing” Thal: means (cedback is very ne

ary for the success of the writing Lasks

1.1.2 Types of feedback to students’ writing,

‘There are three major types of feedback in the literature on writing They are

teacvher’s feedback, sel/-ediling and peer feedback

1.1.2.1 Teacher’s feedback

Teachers cerlainly see responding to their students’ written work as an

inherent and important part of the job (Casanave, 2004; Ferris, 1997; Hyland,

2003; ‘Truscott, 1996) ‘Teachers provide feedback on students writing to support

student’s writing development and nurture their confidence as writers ‘Teachers’

feedback offen takes the form of wrillen comments on their final grades

composition Received by students at the end of their writing process, these comments rarely have great impact on students’ writing development as teachers

intend’ (Peterson, 2010-1)

Furthermore, much of the research published often fails to find its way to

teachers (Hyland & Hyland, 2006) With not much information and consensus,

teachers have lo resori to Iheir experience and intuition, ax well as information ontained from their students to guide them through their giving written feedback

However, it bas been suggested that there may be a mismatch between the written

feedback teachers provide and the feedback leamers would like to receive (Cohen & Cavalcanti, 1990; Lyland, 1998) In addition, it has also been suggested that even if

students and teachers are in agreomenl, feedback still has great potential for

sniscommunication and misunderstanding (Hyland, 1998) Providing feedback is certainly an important job for all teachers, a job that requires their daily dedication, their diligence, their enthusiasm, etc

1.1.2.2 Self-editing

Self-editing is a major part of the writing process Raimes (1992:149) notes

thal “What students really need more than anything else is to develop the abihty Lò

sead their own writing and to examine it critically, to learn how to express their meaning fluently, logically and accurately” He also believes that students need to

be able to find and correct their own mistakes Studenls go through aller they

complete a draft of their written work It is when they check for things like grammar mistakes, continuity, spelling errors, typos, missing words, repetition, awkward

senlences, passive voice, subjcct-verb agreement, clanty, misplaced modilicrs,

homonyms and the list goes on and on sf a learner was aware of self-editing and tried to learn from his own failure, he would receive more chance of overcoming

dilTicullies in Jearning than other who did uot care why they failed Unfortunately,

correcting mistakes in our own writing is very difficult, We can usually see other people's written mistakes without a problem, but it is a different story when we edit

our own work Therefore, in order to help students to revise their own writings

effectively, the teacher should provide students with correction codes to work with

1.1.2.3 Peer feedback

Peer feedback has been defined as “the usc of leamers as sources of

information in such a way that leamers assume roles and responsibilities

normally taken on by a formally trained teacher, tutor or editor in commenting on

and criliquing cach olhicr’s drafis in both written and oral formats in the process of

writing” (Lin & Hansen, 2002:1) In the literature on writing, peer feedback has been

refered to by many terms, for example, peer response, peer eciling, peer critiquing, and peer evaluation, Each tenn connotes a particular slant to the feedback, mainly in

terms of where along the continuum this feedback is given, and the focus of the

feedback Whatever [orn a may take, Us kind of feedback given studerits 4 chance to

xead each other’s papers and to provide feedback to the writer, possibly based on specific questions the teacher has provided These responses can be oral or/and written

Peer feedback has been supported as a potentially valuable aid for its social, cognitive, affective and methodological benefits (Mendonga and Johnson, 1994;

Villamil & de Guerrero, 1996) Peer feedback is seen as a way of giving more

control to students since it allows them to make active decisions about whether or not to use their peers’ comments as opposed to a passive reliance on teachers! focdback (Mendonga and Johnson, 1994; Mittan, 1989) In peer (eedback scssions

students not only compose their own texts but read the texts written by other students, adopt the role of interested readers and commentators, and help each

other im the elaboration of better Lexis This collaboration increases a range of social

and communication skills, including negotiation skills aud diplomacy, verbal communication skills, giving and accepting criticism, justifying one's position and

assessing suggestions objectively

1.2 Lileralure review

Despite the important role of peer written feedback especially its great effect on

students’ wriling revision, the number of studies on peer written (feedback is still

himited and outnumbered by studies on the teacher written feedback Moreover, there have been few researches including those in Vietnam such as “An investigation into

the use of pear writlon feedback in the firs year writing classes at the English

Department in College of Foreign Language, Vietnam University, Ilanoi (Trân Van

Phong, 2007), “Peer written feedback in writing portfolios by third year students in the

Fnglish Department in College of Forcign Language, Vielnum University, Hanoi

(Phan Thi Hao, 2008), “Students’ peer written feedback in writing skills among,

Titermediate students al Hanoi University of Industry” (Nguyễn Thị Lãi, 2008) These studics only present the current situation of using peer written feedback, students”

altitude, reaction as well as their expectation of peer written feedback but include no

discussion about the way their writing has becn affected by peer written fecdback and

whether this kind of feedback improve students’ writing revision as well as their writing skills or not These studies do not also discuss the difficulties students cope

with when giving feedback For these reasons and be motivated by previous studies,

the author wishes to conduct this research to gain more insight into cuent students’ practice of giving feedback, effectiveness of peer written feedback and the difficulties

students coped with when giving feedback

1.3 Different views of peer written feedback in the teaching and learning of writing

The literature on peer feedback mainly focuses on the advantages and

drawbacks of peer (ecdback While some of the studies show posilive elfects ol

peer review, others discuss its problematic arcas Therefore, some of these real concems will be discussed in this part

1.3.1 Arguments in favor of students’ peer written feedhack in the teaching

and learning of writing

Peer feedback in many famous researchers’ point of view has a lot of

advantages that help to make the leaching and learning of writing more effective

One of key advantages of peer feedback is that both givers and receivers of feedback improved their writing ability and also enhanced their critical thinking skills Peer readers can provide useful feedback so that peer writers can and do revision effectively on the basis of comments from peer readers And when students become critical readers of others’ writing they will be more critical readers and

revisers of the own wrilings Tu addition, Lundstrom and Baker (2009) carned aul #

study in a similar context to investigate whether it is receivers or givers of peer

feedback who benefit most The authors pomt out that although the givers and

Teocivers o[ feedback benclited equally, students who gave lecdback surpassed

their peers in their writing abilities ‘his strongly implies that students are able to

look al their own writing in a more critical manner while they participate in the process of providing feedback

Seow (2002) states that peer feedback allows students to gain confidence

and reduce approhension by sceimg peers’ strengihs and weaknesses im writing

Therefore, more positive attitudes towards writing are generated In addition, providing their views in terms of contexts in which peer feedback takes place, Liu and Hansen (2002) assert that peer feedback not only increases an awareness of audience by creating a collaborative drafting process but also provides opportunities for students to practice English in a meaningful context

Peer wnilen feedback also gives the teacher a betler chance of closely following the progress of individuals and groups (Rollinson, 2005) lirst, peer written feedback helps teachers check if students are giving the proper type of feedback and can provide actual examples of posilive and negative feedback, which

is difficult to do with accuracy and depth in oral feedback Second, when writing, assignments are tumed in accompanied by the previous drofi(s) and the peers’

comments, it is casier [or leacher lo a slain which idsas originated with the student author and how well the student was able to respond to and incorporate the feedback and suggestions from peers, something that would not even be possible

wilh oral feedback

Kurthermore, peer written feedback also changes the students” role in the class Yang et al (2006) also suudied the effects of peer response in an ETL environmert, Their focus was on whether peer feedback could be introduced imo the traditional classroom where teacher feedback plays an important role while peer feedback plays an insignificant part The findings revealed that peer response could

sul be successfully insttuled in an EFL cnvirorment Therefore, Yang ci al

suggest that it is likely that peer response could also be successfully introduced into the ESL environments, as peer feedback is not affected by the dominant culture They also found that peer (ecdback, while not always inlegrated in later drafts, promotes better self-editing skills, therefore, displaying more autonomous writing skills

What is more, teacher’ tume may be saved by climinating certam editing task,

especially in large classes, thus freeing them for more helpful instructions and

guidance (Rollinson, 2005) Also, im large classes, teachers often do not have cnough:

time to write students with thorough feedback because peer reviewers will uotice different aspects of the paper

1.3.2 Argument against peer written feedback in teaching and learning of writing

While some of the above studies suggest positive aspects of peer feedback, other researchers point out that peer review is a diffioulk task According to them, this

is due to various reasons

A major problem with peer response is that students find it hard to identify problem areas and may even offer inaccurate or misleading advice (Horowitz, 1986) Sludents also find it difTicull to judge the validity of their peers? commons

(Leki, 1990) Aspects such as cultural and cducational backgrounds as well as a lack

of training are significant factors that can contribute to the success or failure of peer

feedback (T.cki, 1992: Nelson & Carson, 2006)

Another issue requiring some consideration is that student characteristics Rollinson (2005) also affirms that many students may not easy accept the idea that

their pocrs are qualified cnough lo evaluate their wriling, so they may uced a

significant amount of initial persuasion of the value of peer written feedback Besides, some students may feel uncomfortable to give critical comments either

because they want 1o maintain group harmony or because they were reluctant to

claim a degree of authority

1.4, Different types of peer feedback in writing

According 10 Shrum & Glsan (2002), responding to the writing simply

means that the teacher correct students” errors in grammar, vocabulary, and types of mistakes However, this narrow view of correction has been expanded in recent

years The teacher can consider the effect thal various kinds of feedback have on

improving the quality of students’ written work And peer feedback is an

oulstanding suggestion As argued by Keh (1990) and Mangeldor? (1992), there are

3 types of peer fecdback They are oral comments, using the checklist and written

comments, Certainly, the understanding of the different ways of peer feedback will

help teachers make the right decision about which kind of peer feedback to apply in

certain teaching situations

1.4.1 Oral comments

Oral peer response, as presented in Mittan(1989) calls for students to work

in groups of four or five Hach student gives one copy of her paper to every member

of the group Then usually out of class for homework, each group members reads

other students’ papers and prepares a response lo each of them, using focus

questions provided by the teacher In the following class, students give oral comments on each paper they have read, as well as ask and answer clarifying questions Bach student then uses this [sedback from the other group members to

xewrite the paper

Although oral comments can be time-consuming, a talk of just a few minutes

can be productive During a discussion, students can take notes of whal the ofher

students says (Raimes, 1983) [he students is then surprised at the ideas produced in

a few minutes The written notes then can be used as basis for further rewriting

activilics

With oral comments, students can decide together what comments to give and how to express them By working together, students often have more exact and

beter counnuents because they can discuss ideas with each other Collaboration also

enables student to feel more confidents about the feedback they are giving their classmates (Mangelsdorf, 1992) However, using oral comments has ane drawback

When students listen to ther fnend, they may nol wrile down all the information, or

they may misunderstand their friend’s ideas And the result is they could not revise

their writing correctly

1.4.2 Using the checklists

Another way to help students approach the feedback task is to provide them

with a sel af yes‘no questions to be answered while they read and analyze each other’s paper, An cducation specialist, Dr Kathicon Dudden Rowlands belicves

checklists are more than just a way for students to stay organized and on task

Cheeklisis help students feel in control and hold them accountable by removing

obstacles to success such as “1 didn’t know we were supposed to do that” or “I

forgot to do that part.”

According to Raimes (1983), checklists should be short, easy to understand

and should be used furst by students to check a piece of writing then by the teacher

to evaluate in The teacher should prepare a new checklist to be suitable to the

features of each particular wriling task as well as the objective of the lesson

‘The checklist is used to identify the problems in the writing and is designed

to give the writer some ideas about areas which should be improved The checklist

can contain questions aboul manuscript form, instructions boul grammar, tasks to

analyze content and organization Students can use the checklist to answer questions conceming the draft’s topic, unity, development, focus and whatever the teacher

wants (o emphasize for Uhal lesson

1.4.3 Writlen comments

In the written comments method, students, after reading their peers’ writings,

give comments by writing down their notes or ideas on those Wrillen comments

that take the form of a paraphrase of the ideas, expresses, praises, questions, or suggestions are more productive than an end comment like “Good”, “Not Bad”,

“Well done”

An effective way for students to provide feedback to their peers is written comments on assignments and assessments Written feedback is concrete and

permanent Their peers can read and reread the feedback bo beller understand and

then improve their writing sheets better Shepherd (2005) and Black et al (2004)

point out that students are more likely to meet their learning goals when

commenting focus on the specifics of Ihe learning task and the sludent’s learning

issues The best comments help the student think about what he is doimg weil,

identify whal he needs to do to improve and understand how to improve

Keb (1990) suggests five useful recommendations for writing written

comments

1 Conneet comments Lo lesson objectives

2 Note improvements: “good”, plus reasons why

3 Refer to a specific problem, plus strategy for revision

4 Write questions with enough information for students ta answer

5 Write summative comment of strengtlis and weakness

In this study, the researcher focuses on IICL students’ practice of giving

wrilten ppeer-[eedback, the difficulties they might encouder, and whether the praclice

is effective in improving their writing skill All the above five recommendations by Keh (1990) have been incorporated into the checklist for peer written feedback

given lo sludents prior to their practice,

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

‘This chapter covers two main parts: research questions and research taethods Tn the research methods section, discussions were made concerning the selection of the participants, instrumentation, data collection procedure, and data analysis procedure

2.1 Research questions

‘As mentioned in the imoduction part, this study aims to investigate how the third-year students of HCE give feedback to their peers’ written paragraphs, the difficulties students might encounter when givmg feedback, and whether the inethod is effective ‘This aim is guided by the following research questions:

1 Low do the third-year students of LICL give feedback to their peers’

written paragraphs?

2 Whai difficulties might the studenix encounter when giving feedback to

their peers "written paragraph?

3 To what extent do the students improve their writings after receiving

feedback from their peers?

2.2 Research methods

This section presenis the parlicipanis, instrumentation, data collection

procedure, and data analysis procedure

2.2.1 The participants

20 third-year students of the Foreign Language Facully of HCE parlicipaled

in this study These students were mixed in their levels of Hnglish proficiency The students had to do 2 terms of writing in one academic year Zach term lasted 30

periods including 3 types of paragraph writing: narralive, pro ind descriptive

In order to obtain adequate information, this study used two methods They

were document analysis of sludenis’ poor wntien feedback and survey questionnaire

15

for students Document analysis helps the author find out the data to answer research question number 1: “JJow do the third-year students of LICL give feedback

to their peers’ wrillen paragraphs?” and resvarch question number 3: “To what

extent do student improve their writings after receiving feedback from their peers?”, and the questionnaire provides information to help the author answer research

question number 2 “What difficulties might students encounter when giving

feedback to their peers ‘written paragraph?”

Interview and observation could have been used ta answer question 3

However, due to the limitation of time and abihty, these instruments were decided

not to be utilized

Documents analysis of students’ peer written feedback

Data analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical and/or

logical techniques to describe and illustrate, condense and recap, and evaluate data

According to Shamoo and Resnik (2003) various analytic procedures provide a way

of drawing inductive inferences from dala and distinguishing the signal (Ihe

phenomenon of interest) from the noise (statistical fluctuations) present in the data

While data analysis in qualitative research can include statistical procedures,

auany tunes analysis becomes an ongoing iterative process where data are

confinuously collecied and analyzed almost simuliancously Indeed, researchers:

generally analyze for patterns in observations through the entire data collection phase (Robinson, 2004), The fonm of the analysis is delermied by the specilic qualitative approach taken (field study, ethnography content analysis, oral history, biography, unobtrusive research) and the form of the data (field notes, documents,

There are three primary types of documents

+ Public Records: The ollicial, ongoing records of an organization’s aclivitics

Examples include student tanscnpts, mission statements, annual reports, policy

muamuals, student handbooks, strategic plans, and syllabi

* Personal Documents First-person accounts of an individual’s actions,

experiences, and beliefs Examples include calendars, e-mails, scrapbooks, blogs, Facebook posts, duty logs, incident reports, reflections/journals, and newspapers.

* Physival Evidence: Physical objects found within the study sctting (often called artifacts}, Examples include flyers, posters, agendas, handbooks, and training snaterials

In the light of these discussions, the data of this study is personal documents

‘because itis the studenty’ 5

‘The data analysis of this study was done as follows Ihe author collected 40 writing sheets with peer written feedback provided by the students themselves in

onal wriling

two writing tasks (20 writing sheets per task) The presentation and analysis of the written feedback provided by the students were carried out to obtain the most truthful information which helps answer the question about the current practice of

peer writen feedback of students al HCE and whether the method is effective

The following features conceming students’ practice of giving peer written

feedback are analysed:

- The areas they gave Iecdback to (paragraph organization, grammar, or vooahnlary)

— Their tendency to provide suggestions and general comments

Questionnaire for students (Appendix 1, p 1)

McDonough (1997) believe that questionnaires are very popular among

educational researchers int general There are some factors as to why a researcher

chooses questionnaires to collect data from students The questionnaires have some advantages over other data collecting methods (e.g interviews): a) questionnaires tend to be more reliable as they are anonymous b) they cncournge grealor honesty

from respondents, c) they save the researchers and participants’ time and effort

Gnore ceonomival), and d) they can be used in small-scale issucs and large scale

issues

In the questionnaire, there are two parts Part 1 includes questions conceming

difficulties the students encountered when giving their peers writlen feedback Part

2 is questions concerning difficulties the students coped with when providing suggestion to improve their peers’ writing In each part, the students were asked to

show their level of agreement for the given problems by choosing one of the five

options given: SA= Strongly agree, A= Agree, N= Neutral, D= Disagree; SD=

Strongly disagree

The desire of the author is to find out all the difficulties which students might encounter when giving feedback and to be honest, questionnaire only gives the

author the level of agreements of students [or the given problems, not the reat

problem which students are encountering And the best way to help the author find the data to answer the research question number 2 about the difficulties students

might encourler is inlerview and observation However, due la the imited ability

and kmowledge, only some aspects can be surveyed and discussed That is the reason why the questionnaire is designed to collect the information to answer the

second research question: “What difficulties might students encounter when giving

feedback to their peers ‘written paragraph?”

2.2.3 Data collection procedure

The author divided the process of the data collection ilo 2 slages At the

first stage, students were asked to write a paragraph based on a given topic as homework afler having furished the lesson in the class In the followimg class, the

teacher asked students to give the feedback to thei peers’ writing However, before

students could do that, teacher had to train them the way to give peer written

feedback by using a checklist (sce appondix 2, p TTT) which covered such arcas as

paragraph organization, grammar, and vocabulary ‘Ihe checklist also included students’ general comments on their peers’ writing, First, the teacher explained to

help students understand all the questions in the checklist Then, the teacher told

students how to give comments, how to provide suggestions to cotrect their peers’

writing The teacher also provided students a list of commonly used symbols for

common mistakes (appendix 3, p TV) The students based on these lo give the

symbols above to the mistakes they underlined After that, students were encouraged to provide suggestions to correct the mistakes they underlined Finally, the teacher asked students lo take noles and give feedback lo their peers’ writing,

After receiving writing shects with the written feedback from their pecrs, students rewrote their text before handing it to the teacher ‘'hen, the teacher collected 20

students” [irst drafts and the

econd drafl, When collecting students’ writing shcots,

the researcher had to ensure the students that their names would uct be identified in the discussion of the data The first drafts with written feedback from their peers

and the sacond drafis were examined, analyzed and comparad

In the second stage, a questionnaire was distributed to 20 third-year students The researcher had to give explanations to make sure that all students understood

the questions clearly

2.2.4, Data analysis method

2.2.4.1 Data analysis procedure

Firstly, the analysis of the per writen feedback was done on 20 writing

papers with feedback to investigate the current practice of giving peer written

feedback among the third-year students of HCE The analysis mainly focuses on the

area in which studerts gave feedback (paragraph, organization, grammar, and

vocabulary) to find out which area students tend to give feedback, their tendency to

provide suggestions and general comments

Secondly, the copies of the tirst drafts containing written feedback provided

by their peers and the second drafts were examined, analyzed and compared to see

whether ihe peor wrilten fecdback helps studeris improve their writings The

analysis focuses on the changes students made after receiving feedback from their peers (paragraph, organization, grammar, and vocabulary)

Finally, the analysis of the survey questionnaire was also done to find out the

difficulties students might encounter when giving written feedback to their peers” writing The analysis focuses on the amount students ticked on each level of

agreement Lo find out which difficully students suppose is the most dificult, and

which is the least

2.2.4.2 Data analytical framework

Thore are 3 research questions in this thesis The data analysis is to answer these 3 questions

With the first question: “How do the third-year students of HCF give

feedback to their peers’ written paragraphs?” the data analysis focuses on the areas the students gave feedback (organization, grammar, vocabulary) The collected data

were analyzed as the [ramework below:

- The percentage of students who gave feedback on paragraph organization

- The percentage of students who gave feedback on grammar

~ The percentage of students who gave feedback on vocabulary

- The percentage of students who gave general comments

Besides, the researcher also wanted to find out whether or not and how the

students followed the checklist when giving {eedback Analysis of this is based on

students’ feedbacks on the first draft of their peers’ writings Students’ names as

appearing in the analysis are their psendo-names for ethical reasons

Wilh the second rescarch question: “What difficulfies might siudenis

encounter when giving feedback to their peers ‘written paragraph?” the data

analysis focuses on the amount the sluderits ticked on the level of agreements for the given problems to find out which difficulty is the most difficult and which is the

least ‘The collected data were analyzed as framework the percentage of students

who strongly agrec; agrec; neutral: disagree, strongly disagree with ihe given

problems

With the third research question: “To what extent do students improve their

writings after receiving feedback from their peers?” the data analysis focuses on the

changes students made after receiving their peers’ feedback ‘he data collected were analyzed as framework below:

-The percentage of sludents’ improvernerd, in paragraph organizalicn,

~The percentage of students’ improvement in grammar

~The percentage of students” improvement in vocabulary

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS

‘This chapter serves two functions (1) giving a presentation on the data

collected by anal

yg studomis’ wrilten feedback and the survey queslionnaire and

(2) making interpretation based on the data analysis

3.1 Student’s practice of giving peer written feedback

Analysis of Ihis section is lo answer question 1 aud is based on the students’

aiving feedback to their peers’ first drafts

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the three areas of their peers’ writing

the students were asked lo give feedback (o be paragraph organization, grammar,

and vocabulary ‘[hey were also expected to give some general written comments

To help them with their giving feedback, a checklist (appendix 2, p III) was given

to them prior to their task assignment

3.1.1 Feedback on paragraph organization

The four main points in paragraph organization the students were expected to

give [eedback to are the topic senlence, supporting ideas, the conclusion and the

coherence of the whole paragraph Students were informed to focus on these four

tiain poils when giving feedback to their peers The data analysis shows that not anany students focused on the mistakes related to the paragraph organization as

revealed in figure 1 below

50%

489, 20%

This chart shows that the percentage of students who gave feedback on

coherence is the least (only 20%) Coming after is conclusion (30 %) The

percentage of students who gave feedback on supporting ideas was higher but not much It is only 35% And the highest percentage of area students gave feedback on

was topic sentence It makes up 45%

And among 9 students gave feedback on paragraph organization, there is 3 students (30%) providing suggestions for their peers to correct the mistakes while

the rest did not,

3.1.2 Feedback on grammar

In contrast to paragraph organization, all students paid attention to grammar

when they gave feedback to their peers They indicated the mistakes for their peers

by underlining the mistakes and using the symbols to call out the name of mistakes

@ Students

provided the suggestions

@ Students did not

provide the suggestions

Figure 2: The percentage of students who provided suggestions for the grammatical mistakes

Although all students indicated the mistakes of grammar, not all of them provided suggestion for correcting mistakes This is shown in the chart 2 55% the students provided suggestion while 45% of them did not

The most common mistakes related to grammar that students made were use

22