Luận văn the effects of peer feedback on the first year students’ writing performance

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERKATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES DONG HOANG MINH THE EFFECTS OF PEER FEEDBACK ON THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS’

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERKATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

DONG HOANG MINH

THE EFFECTS OF PEER FEEDBACK ON THE FIRST YEAR

STUDENTS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE: AN ACTION RESEARCH

PROJECT AT HANOL LAW UNIVERSITY

Ảnh hưởng của phản hỏi từ bạn học đên kỹ năng viết tiếng Anh của sinh viên

năm thử nhất đại học Luật Hả Nội

MA MINOR THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodolugy

Code: 60140111

TIANOI 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

DONG HOANG MINH

THE EFFECTS OF PEER FEEDBACK ON THE FIRST YEAR

STUDENTS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE: AN ACTION RESEARCII

PROJECT AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

Ảnh hướng cua phan hồi tử bạn học đến kỹ năng viết tiếng Anh của sinh viên

năm thứ nhất đại học T.uật Hà Nội

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY

1 declare that this thesis submitted for the Master of Art degree at the

University of Languages and Tlernalional Stuchies is

a presenlation of my own

yesearch and has not been previously submitted at any other universities for any degrees Wherever contributions of other researches are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussion The work was done

under the guidance of Associate Professor Nguyen Van Trao, at ITanoi University

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘Yo complete this thesis, 1 owe profound indebtedness to many people who

have assisted me a lot when I carried out the research

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Van Trao for all the helpful support, guidance and encouragement he gave me while

T was conducling the research I am wuly grateful to him for his advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only on its formative

stage

I would like to send my sincere thanks to my colleagues and the first year

students at Hanoi Law University who have enthusiastically filled out my survey

questionnaire and provided me with their writing papers Without their assistance, it would have been really difficult for me to handle the task

1 own a great debt of gratitude to my family for all the support | received to finish this thesis

ABSTRACT

Peer feedback plays an essential part in enhancing students’ writing, skills The reality of the students’ writing performances at Hanoi Law University suggests

thai they still repeal common wriling mistakes afier their wriling products are

reviewed carefully by the teachers

This study is aimed at finding out students’ attitudes towards the use of peer feedback activities in Unglish writing classes and the extent peer feedback affects their writing performances An action rescarch project, realized by means of survey questionnaire and student writing analysis, was conducted in this study to achieve

the desired aims

The resuhs indicate that the students hold positive attitudes towards peer feedback activities in learning English writing and a large number of them will

continue Lo use peer feedback in the future The analysis of the students’ writing

papers show that the students made considerable improvement in writing Linglish under the application of peer feedback in learning process In addition, the number

of wriling mistakes im the students’ wriling papers sharply (ell aller the action research.

2.2 Objectives of the study, cá ceeee "¬

4 8oope of the SUổy, 022.21 1 2erce "¬

6 Significance of the Study .ccccscssseessseesssseensnisveeeseeetivee |

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical background to the teaching of writing 6

1.1.1 DeBnition of writing cccsuessesesses snes setsieenesta sansa

iv

1.1.2 Approaches to the teaching of writing: product versus process approaches

1.2.4 Definition nnd types 0Ÿ 6FEOES series

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Answer to the first research question: What are the students’ attitudes

towards peer feedback in Inglish writing skills leaming? 23

3.1.1 Data collected trom questionnaires

3.2 Answer to the second research question: To what extent does the use of peer

fecdback allect the siadents’ writing performance? 36

3.2.1 Data collected from first drafts and revised drafts of the writings 36 3.3, Sunamaiy SH HH HH H0 HH0 tái seseesoou.đĐ) PARTY C: CONCLUSION

1 Summary of the major fndings se eeereriese.4T

3 Limitations of the study .0.cccssceesssssssssusescrsseresesssneasserssensecssneteensarener AD

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LL: Linglish as a Foreign Language

FSI: English as a Scoond Language

HU: Hanoi Law University

LI; First Language

1.2: Second Tamguage

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1: The students’ involvement in peer feeđback

before its application in elass s0 treo

Figure 2: The sludenks’ involvement in peer lecdback

Kigure 3: ‘The focuses of peer feedback per different aspects before its

Figure 4: The focuses of peer feedback per different aspects after its application

Figure 5: Reasons why students do not understand their peer feedback 3 3

Figure 6: Students’ reactions when they do uot understand peer feedback 28

Figure 7: The students’ attitudes towards the effect of peer feedback before its

Table 4: The scores for first draffs of the writng BS

Figure 10: The scores for first drafts of the writings 37 Table 5: The scores for revised drafts of the writings 37

Table 6: The results from the first drafts and revised drafts of the students’

WwritigS, S-HH HH 12 HH0 Hee ¬— Figure 11: Number of errors in different aspects in the students’ first drafts and

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Writing plays an important role in foreign language learning and students are often required to do a great deal of writing Among the four skills of Hnglish, writing is a very difficult skill because non-native speakers often think in their own

native language when they write Writing is therefore an intricate and complex task

and is affirmed to be “the most difficult of the language abilities to acquire” (Allen

& Corder, 1974, p.23), (cited in Abisamra, 2003)

The reality of teaching English writing at Hanoi Law University (HLU) has shown that the students face many problems with their academic writing After

some discussions with other Enghsh teachers of English Division al ALU, 7 feund

out that students’ writing performances in English classes were very poor and the results of their writing tests were fairly low The teachers of English at HLƯ

highlighted that the students [requently made basic errors in their wriling They also

stated that the students made little and slow improvement in writing even after lectures and tutorials in class Although their writing papers were often carefully cotrected by the teachers, they still repeated common mistakes Therefore, the students were afraid of learning writing

On ewefully considering the students’ problems of Fglish writing and the potential causes, I made an assumption that the traditional academic writing classes deter the students from performing excellently in their English writing classes Thus, the teachers need to motivate their students and create interest in English writing To do that, the teachers should offer the students chances to communicate

in fulfilling wriling tasks and make a friendly and comforlable learning atmosphere Furthermore, in order to enhance the students’ writing quality, the teachers are

likely to assign more writing practice tasks, which allow the studonts to do revision and exchange thew writmg papers with their pertners in class

It is important for both teachers and students to accept the fact that errors are

an inevitable part of the leaming process (Davies and Pearse, 2002) That is why errors are often a sign of leaming in language acquisition process In reality, feedback plays an integral part in students’ writing ability As a teacher of Linglish, 1 have been constantly searching for appropriate methads to help the students become more confident in wriling, T share a view with Hedge (2000) that “learners progress faster with meaningful language practice in a rich linguistic environment and with

an informed policy of error correction on the part of the teacher” (p.15)

dn the writing instruction in the HFL/ESL context, teachers meet some

difficulties in correctimg the students’ errors in wriling papers The leachers have lo

endure huge workload of correcting writing mistakes of all sorts duo to the large number of students Furthermore, the students nonnally pay attention to the marks they receive rather than the mistakes corrected by teachers Worst of all, if a student’s writing paper is full of red ink, he may be frustrated and his interest and

confidence in learning may be destroyed (Ilarmer, 2007, p 120) Therefore,

teachers should find out more effective ways to enhance their writing teaching and

improve the students’ writing ability

Besides the traditional teacher feedback, peer response has been proved to be

an effectrve type of feedback because it gives opportunitics for students to write for

an immediate audience apart from the teacher, familiarize themselves with actual readers who critically respond to their work, boost their confidence, and work collaboratively (Hairston & Keene, 2003), Because of the tendency of communicative language teaching and leamer-centered teaching, students are strongly encouraged to actively participate in language teaching As # resull, peer feedback has become increasingly popular among the practitioners Peer feedback is also regarded as a method to improve writing skill for the students at IILU This

wo

study is an attempt to cxamine the offects of peer feedback on the students’ writing

performance at this university

2 Aims and objectives of the study

2.1, Aims of the study

As the title suggests, the overarching aim of this thesis is to investigate the effects af peer feedback on the students’ writing performance at HLU

2.2 Objectives of the study

To achieve the above aim, the following, objectives are set for exploration:

a to investigate the students’ attitudes towards peer feedback

b to examine the extent the use of peer feedback affects the students’ writing performance

e to suggest some recommendations to enhance the quality of peer

4 Scope of the study

‘The researcher will deal with peer feedback on the first year students at

TH Moreover, within the framework of this minor thesis, the study examines only

peer writlen feedback bul not uther types of {cedback such as oral feedback

5 Methods of the study

The study adopts qualitative and quantitative method for data collection and data analysis, Document analysis of students’ peer feedback drafts with peer

feedback is done to find oul how the students provide peer feedback to their pacrs?

writing ‘Then, the students’ first drafts are compared with their second drafis to see

if peer feedback helps them improve their writing Furthermore, a survey queskionnaire was administered on dhe studenls to examine their attitudes towards

peer feedback in writing lessons

6 Significance of the study

The findings of the present study are hoped to contribute a new implication

{o teaching FFL writing, parlicularly lo the area of error treatment Tt peer feedback

is proven to be useful, it will be practiced as an alternative method to treat errors in

the students’ writing, and thus to improve the students’ writing performance

7 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three paris, namely Introduction, Devetopmisnl and Conclusion,

Part A: Intraduction

This pari presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methods and the

design of the study

Part B: Development

This part includes three chapters, namely Literature Review, Methodology

and Data analysis and Discussion

Chapter 1: Literature Review provides an overview of the writing leaching, errors

in general and poor feedback in particular

Chapter 2: Methodology prosonts the participants of the study, the rescarch instruments, the data collection procedure and the data analysis procedure from

which answers to the research questions could be found

Chapter 3: Data Analysis and Discussion analyze the data collected from the survey

questionnaire and document analysis and present discussions with regards to the

findings presented,

Part C: Conclusion

Tn this part, the major findings, some recommendations, limtations of the

Tosuarch as well as suggestions Cor [urther study are presented

The appendices are the last part of the study following the reference

symbols to translate our thoughts into language In the process of writing, we use

graphic symbols which can be a letter or combination of letters and relate to the sounds we make Byme (1982) also found that we did not write just one sentence or

even a number of unrelated sentences We made a sequence of sentences orgamzed

in a particular order and linked together in certain ways Writing is a process of discovery when the wnters try to find their way by managing to think, compose and

put their ideas together

In their study to examine the oognitive effort of students while writing, Olive, Favart and Beauvais (200%) found that the cognitive effort interacted with genres They showed that students’ cognitive writing effort decreased or increased when writing certain types of texts such as argumentative and narrative texts The wmters are likely to discover an idea which is new 1o bim and he has never thought

of before during the process of writing Zamel (1983) argued that writers discover and formulate ideas as they go through the process of writing For that reason, writers should be placed in wriling situalions that roqunre authentic use of language

to communicate

In short, writing is a complex process which involves a number of separate skills from the basics of handwriting and spelling to the nuances of tone and organization (Veit, Gould & Clifford, 2001) Thus, to produce a piece of writing,

we must usc a series of words and sentences which are grammatically and logically

linked

1.1.2 Approaches lo the teaching of writing: product versus process

approaches

Product approach is the traditional approach to teaching writing which

focuses on the final product, the coherent and the error-free text (Nuan, 1999) The writing teachers who subscribe to the product approach pay more attention to see a

final wriling paper and ovaluale it againsl criloria of voeabulary use, grammar usc,

and medical considerations such as spelling and punctuations, as well as content and

organization (Brown, 1994) Therefore, the teachers who favor product approach

typically provide their students with model essays and foster them to mimic these pieces of writing to produce a similar product Teacher feedback focuses on

correcting forms of essays, paragraphs and sentences The major limitation of the

producl approach is thal learners might become passive and dependent on teachers and textbook in the 1970s, as a consequence of the limitations of this approach,

students were testricled in what they could write and how they could wrile it

(Jordan, 1997), the process approach began to develop

Process approach is concemed with the processes of writing that enable the

product to be achieved In this approach, writing is no longer regarded as a “linear and fragmented procedure” (Ilairston, 1982, p 78) with the mere target at an error

free product The aim of writing, as slaled by Stewart (1988, as ciled in Joe, 2006,

p.48), is a written communication with the writer himself, with his fellow leancrs, with his teacher and with his intended readers Thus, the key role of writing is the idea/the meaning rathor than the form Students are given instruetions on how to generate ideas for writing, identify the purpose and audience and write a series of

drafts so as to present written products that communicate their own ideas In this

way, studenis can gradually discover how to express their ideas efficiently Tn

addition, teacher feedback often focuses on the development of multiple drafts of a text and on quantity rather than on quality

in short, the process approach mutures learners’ creativity and motivation in

learning and students play an active role in learning process while the product

approach puts more emphasis on the final product, the coherent and the error-free

text tt can be evidently seen that the two approaches provide different perspectives

on peer feedback of students’ writing

1.2 Peer feedback in writing teaching

1.2.1 Definition of feedback

Keh (1990) defined feedback as “any input from a reader to a writer that provides information to the writer for revision” (p 294) In other words, it is the comments, questions, and suggestions a reader gives a writer in order to produce reader-based prose as opposed to writer prose

Tiyland and lyland (2001) considered feedback as “a formative development process thal gives wrilers the opporlurities to discuss their texls and discover

others’ interpretations of them” (p 6) According to Ur (1996, p, 242), feedback is

the process of giving information to the leamer about his or her performance of a

learning activity in order to improve this performance

The definition given by Liu and Ilansen (2002) is seen as the most comprehensive one According to them, feedback is the use of leamers as information sources and communications with each other In this way, learners are

in charge of roles normally taken on by teachers in giving comments on and

each other’s drafis m both wrillen and oral formats in the process of

writing” (p.75)

1.2.2, The impartance of corrective feedback

The aim of giving corrective fecdback ig to help the students find oul a problem with their production, thereby using the correct form following feedback According to Tyland (2004), students can enhance particular grammatical features through corrective feedback within communicative second language programs

Peer feedback is often considered as the process of giving students a chance

jo “read and constructively criticize cach other’s writimy.” (Jacobs, 1987, p.325)

Students can identity their own strengths and weaknesses through the comments, and later on will make students realize how to improve themselves Tsui and Ng’s

(2000) also affirmed that students are hkely to gel a genuine sense of audience, a

sense of ownership of the text, and awareness of the weaknesses of ther own

writing The significance of corrective feedback is also slressed by Cole and Chan

(1994) They said that feedback can be cither positive or negative and may function

as not only letting leamers know how well they have performed but also increasing encouragement and creating a supportive classroom atmosphere The objective of corrective feedback is to help the learners identify problems with their production

and they can use the correct form after feedback Ilyland (2004) claimed that

students can improve particular grammatical features through corrective feedback

within communicative second language programs With regard to the teachers”

benefit, corrective feedback can save teachers’ time, especially in large classes

Many researchers have given different definitions of feedback in language learning, In fact, almost all of these definitions state that “feedback is what leamers get about the qualily of their production on a given task, knowledge of results, comments on skill performance, notes on writing assignments, approving nod and forms of feedback that teachers often used with learners” Wlodkowski & Jaynes (1990, p93) Ta summary, providing fecdback helps sindents develop their

sensitivity and their writing style In other words, feedback is a significant factor of

a writing approach when it motivates the learners through the writing process on to

the final product

1.2.3 Types of feedback

1.2.3.1, Direct and Indirect feedback

Ferris (2002) suggest that several options are often used in teachers’

comrective feedback, such as direct versus indirect, error location versus error

identification, larger versus smaller categories of emors, codes versus symbols

versus verbal comments, textual corrections versus end notes and sa on Direct

feedback is explicit correction im response lo errors when the teacher finds oul an error and provides the correct form, while indirect feedback might take various forms like omitting a redundant word or phrase: inserting a missing ward or adding, the correct form near the wreng one With indirect feedback, the teacher points out that an error has been made but does not provide a correction lor direct feedback,

what students need ta do is ta transcribe their peers’ corrections into the texts On

the other hand, indirect feedback give students the opportunity to fix errors

themselves (Ferris, 2002)

According to Lalande (1982), indirect fecdback is greatly offective in students’ writing than direct feedback Indirect feedback often leads to better cognilive engagement, reflection, guided learning and problem-solving Tl provides feedback on errors, advising students about the location of errors but forcing them

to figure out the way to correct the mistakes on their own In the long mun, it helps

encourage slndenis’ critical thinking and the ability to sell-cdil their writing products, Besides, students will remember the mistakes better if they have to correct these errors by themselves As a result, the students are likely to avoid them in the Culure

However, some researchers have stated that students did not perceive recasis

as vorreclive feedback: instead, they regarded diree! fecdback as simple tepelitions

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of their utterances due to their implicitness and ambiguity (Lyster & Ranta, 1997) Inspite of that limitation, many teachers prefer recasts as corrective feedback in the

1.2 classroom becauss of the benefits of providing reeasls The direct feedback

should be provided for complicated mistakes so that learners of low level of language proficiency find it easier Furthermore, recasts can provide correct forms without risking embarrassing the leamers (Ellis & Sheen, 2006; Lyster, 2004)

1.2.3.2 Text-specific feedback versus general feedback

Text-specific feedback refers to the feedback which has close relation to the text at hand while general feedback adheres to any paper Regarding the issue of exI-apeeille feedback or genvral feedback, most researchers agree thal text-specific feedback is of greater benefits to students than general feedback According to Seow (2002), text-specific response will facilitate students reclaiming meanings and imake the revision of initial drafts casior As text-spovific feedback accurately states the kinds of mistakes students make, the causes of these mistakes and also makes some recommendations for improvement, it is more likely that the errors are corrected properly According to Reid (1993), the feedback should be “detailed enough to allow students to act, to commit to change their writings” (p 218) On the other hand, general feedback is also necessary in order for students to have a general view of their writing, ‘Iherefore, text-specific and general feedback should

be combined together to enhance the quality of students’ writings

1.2.3.3 Feedback focus on form versus on content

The problem of how teachers should respond to students’ writings is controversial and there is little agreement among researchers about the type of feedback to help students improve their writing skill Much of the conflict over teacher response has been whether feedback should focus on form (o.g grammar, mechanics) or on content (¢.g., organization, amount of detail)

A few studics have concentrated on content alone, Huntley (1992) affirmed that feedback on content should be provided to students while feedback on form should be limited and she suggesis that peer feedback and student-teacher conferences need to be incorporated in teaching as two important feedback methods

to traditional errar correction In other words, these views imply that there should be more content feedbavk than form feedback belwecn first and final drafts of writing

products

Ta contrast, some findings have found thal the leacher should pay more

atiention to focus on form rather than focus on content linginarlar (1993), after a

survey of 47 EFL students’ attitudes towards the feedback procedure process in their class, found out thal the students perceive altention lo linguistic mistakes as

effective teacher feedback Ferris (1995) conducted surveys of students’ attitudes

towards feedback in an EFT context and also reached the same conclusion that

students preferred [ccdback foeusing on form

1.2.4 Definition and types of errors

A number of experts in linguistics have given various definitions of errors

Norrish (1983) considers errors as a systematic deviation, when a learner has not

learn something and consistently gels il wrong According lo Norrish, errors can be categorized into three types, namely the error, the mistake and the lapse After a

learner is Laugh the language fora, he or she may be able to use il appropriately or

not The inconsistent deviation is termed mustake The type of wrong usage which is neither an error nor a mistake is a lapse The reasons for a lapse might be lack of

concettralion, shorlngss of memory, (atigue and so on However, many tcachers

also name a similar type of mistake caused by the learner’s inattentiveness in class a

careless slip

Chomsky (1965) categorized errors into two types, competence errors and performance errors Competence errors are systematic errors in the linguistic

system of the leamer, while performance errors are just an imperfect reflection of the leamer’s linguistic competence ‘Ihe oecurrence of performance errors does not raean (hal the learner does nol know the language In faol, errors oeeur due lo such

factors as tiredness, drunkenness or external distraction

Errors can alsa be classified into another two types in relation to

comprehensibility (3urt and Kiparsky, 1972) ‘The two types are “global” and

“local” errors, which are also known as communicative and non-communicative

errors respectively (Hendrickson, 1978) The global or communicative errors are the

mistakes affecting the interpretation of the whole sentence, while the local or non-

communicative ones are just a part of it, a clause or a phrase Errors that cause

imitation but do net prevent comprehension are recommended to receive a Tower priority of treatment than those hindering comprehension or deceiving the listeners

Therefore, the “global” errors, rather than the “local” ones deserve most attention

and vonection On the other hand, there remains a risk (hat wlien a [oreign language

leamer could be well understood by well-meaning native speakers in spite of the errors, the errors will become an enduring, component of the leamer’s competence 1.2.5 The training section

Training the respondents on this technique is necessary so that they have a clear understanding of what peer feedback is and how to carry it out In the first

lesson, there was a training stage for learners so thal they have an idea of what peer

correction is and how to do it According to Raimes (1983, p 147), training leamers

on this technique is vital because it directs students’ attention to the elements which

should be focused on Stanley (1992, p 230) also slated that iis unfair to require

students to be able to carry cut these challenging tasks without being offered organized practice with and discussion of the skills involved Thus, the theory and

the results of this study strongly support lhe ramming Lo Ihe students in the process of

applying peer feedback in writing class One class-time period training was spent to equip students with the technique of peer correction and facilitate the action

13

research, Conuuon crror correction codes were used for both teacher and students

during the training as well as the weatment period ‘The teacher always cares about

clearly explaining and giving cxamples to make sure thal, they were all explicit to the students

First, the students were trained how to correct their peers’ writings using

correction codes by a checklist which is demonstrated in the table below:

Table 1: Error cades

sv Subject — Verb agreement He do the job every morning

Sp Spelling mistake ‘We sometime get lost

R Redundant words Tam keen on for listening to music

W Number There are 40 worker in the factory

Art Article A book is on the table

WΠWrong use of word Mary ollen helps his mother

watching T'V

^ Word missing 1 am interested ^ jaZz nusie

Ps Part of speech That is an interest movie

Frep Preposition ‘Mark is in school now

Cap Capitalization Thave lived in london far two years

Frag, Fragment sentence Because it snowed

TRun-o TRim-on serdcrtcc The ship was enormaus, its mast was

almost 40 feet high

Cs Comma splices She is a teacher, she teachers

this unwanted feeling

‘Zhang (2008) suggested that teachers should help students to know what to

do and how la do in the peer correction avtivilies He recommends lo supply students with a passage or a paragraph as a model and instruct them how to give feedback It is vital at this stage to state that peer feedback is not only to correct

grammar mistakes but also to think from several perspectives such as the content,

the organization, vocabulary, mechanic and Ihe granumar

Afler thai, the teacher provided students with a model checklist in order to

introduce what to comment on The tcachor delivered copics of a writing test in which errors were corrected with correetion codes by the teacher The students read all these copies carefully and discuss together to understand clearly how to give peer feedback appropriately Afterwards, all the participants taking part were

provided with a short paragraph with errors on it They were to proofread the

paragraph and corrcet all the mistakes using ihe correction codes provided in 15 sninutes ‘hen, the teacher collected all the papers to review and give comments to the students The sample paragraph and sample correction are presented below:

Jaime * been applying for full-time jobs for several months TheRlast week he receved a call from the Human Resources director at a computer software companyRun-on the LR director asked Jaime “ he could fly to Chicago for a job interview The company offered to pay for Jaime’s plane ticket to Chicago, so that he will not have fo pay for il hinsetl Jamie agreed to come for the interview Sinee then, Jaime has been busy collecting informatonSpabout the company [le also went shopping for a new suileSpJaime and his wife have been rehearsing answers to possible mtervicw questions, so that Jaime will be good and ready his best WC Jaime 1s nervous about the interview, buthisWClooking forward to working at a new place

Jaime has been applying for full-time jobs for several months Last week, he received The improved version of this paragraph will be like this

a call from the Human Resources director at a computer software company The HR director asked Jaime if he could fly to Chicago for a job interview The company offered to pay for Jaime’s plane ticket to Chicago, so that he will not have to pay for it himself Jamie agreed to come for the interview Since then Jaime has been busy collecting information about ihe company He also went shopping for a now suil Jaime and his wife have been rehearsing answers to possible interview questions, so that Jaime will be prepared Jaime is nervous about the interview, but he’s looking forward to working al anew place

new ideas (Pine, 1981)

Within all the definitions of action research, there are four basic themes empowerment of participants, collaboration through participation, acquisition of knowledge and social change In order to conduct an action research project, we structure routines for continuous controntation with data on the health of a school community ‘hese routines are loosely guided by movements through five phases of inquiry namely identification of problem area, collection and organization of dala,

interpretation of data, action based on data and reflection

The first phase is identifying a problem area TL is necessary for teachers to limit the questions which they want to investigate to one that is meaningful and achievable in the confines of their daily work Careful planning is vital to avoid

falsc starts and frustrations, The question must be a high-order, concise, meaningful question and stated in common language Also, it has not already had an answer and

an important guideline when choosing a question is to ask il it is something over

which the teacher has influence ‘Ihe second step is to gather data by using various sources of data to better understand the scope of happenings in the classroom or

school Then, the researcher must select the suitable data for the research issue and

organize the data in a logical way to identify trends and themes ‘he next phase is interpreting data to analyze and identify major themes The researcher may use

different kinds of dala from classroom dala, individual data to subgroup dala Quantifiable data can be analyzed without the use of statistics or technical

assistance while data that is not quantifiable can be reviewed holistically and key

elements and themes can be highlighted The slage after that is an act on evidence,

in which the researcher uses the information from the data collection and review of

current literature to design a plan of action, make a change and study that change It

is vital that only one variable be alered Finally, the resulls are ovalualed by

assessing the effects of the intervention to decide whether improvement has been

made Furthermore, the researcher must determine if the data clearly provide the supporting evidence when unprevement is made and what changes can be made to

the actions to get better results

‘he action research was conducted during the period of 10 weeks ‘The first stage of the action research is to deliver the pre-questionnaires to the students The

students spent about twenty minutes completing the questionnaires The post-

questionnaires were administered to the students after the use of peer feedback activities in their classes in order to identify the changes in their attitudes towards

peer feedback method aller ils application in wriling classes Another stage is lo

evaluate the students’ writing performance In the first weck of the rescarch, the

researcher spent one class period training the respondents what peer feedback is and

how they can use peer feedback The teacher also introduced useful correction codes and expressions that the students could use to review their peers’ writings

18

Then, they were provided with a short paragraph with crrors on it They were to proofread the paragraph and correct all the mistakes using correction codes provided The rescarcher finally supplied a sample correction Tn the next weeks of the research, the respondents were administered to a test They were asked to finish the writing test in one class period for about 60 minutes and all of their first draft writings were collecied The researcher marked all the writings and courted the aumber of mistakes on them Afterwards, the first drafts were delivered to another student in class for peer feedback and comments The students received their first drafl writings back and made necessary changes inlo the revised versions of the writings, After that, the revised versions were collected by the researcher to compare the resuilts of the two versions to find out if the students made any improvement in their wriling The researcher also marked the revised versions and counted the mistakes caused by the respondents after getting peer feedback for their

large amount of information from a wide range of individuals Then, questionnaires

give researchers a chance to find the answers (o the questions they want to know

Furthermore, questionnaires are clearly one of the most objective means of collecting data because students are likely to express their own opinions without

foar to be embarrassed or punished and they are nol obliged to disclose their names

when filling in the questionnaires Ihe questionnaire consists of a variety of questions of different types such as multiple choice questions, ranking questions,

yes/no questions and open ended questions.

This present study uscd a pro-questionnaire and a post-questionnaire The pre-questionnaires and post-questionnaires were admirnstered to the students in

order to find out the students’ attitudes towards peer feedback in writing lessons

The pre-questionnaire investigates the extent of using peer feedback and the

opinions of the students about that kind of feedhack Furthermore, the students were

asked to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of peer feedback in writing ‘The post-questionnaire has the same format and content with the pre-questionnaire,

which evaluates the change in the students’ altitudes Lowards pecr feedback afler

peer feedback is applied ‘the pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire include 10

Question 8 is to find out the reasons why the students think that peor feedback is useful

Question 9 investigates the reasons why the students think that peer feedback is not

useful

Question 10 examines the students’ attitudes towards their future use of peer feedback

2.2.2 Students? wriling analysis

The students were administered to a test The test was conducted in order to investigate the students’ writing ability ‘then, the writing papers of the students were delivered to their partners for peer feedback and the students would receive the writing products back to revise Their pieces of writing, including the first drafts as well as the second drafts were then collected by the researcher The copies of the test papers would be kept by the researcher as evidence for data analysis process

By analyzing the students’ writings with their pecr feedback and the revised versions, the research is likely ta obtain the information about the students’ attitudes towards peer feedback in wriling and the extent peer feedback can improve the

students’ writing performance

2.3 Participants of the study

The research was conducted on 60 first year students in class NOL and class N02 al Hanoi Law Universily Their ages are from 19 to 20 and their Ievels of English vary from pre-intermediate, intermediate to upper-intermediate ‘Ihey are from different areas of Vietnam and all of them leamed English from seven to eight

years at school There are 47 females and 13 males m class NOT and N02 and ther

amajor at university is English Most of the respondents did not Icarn English writing skill at secondary and high school before starting their study at university All of them learned English grammar and reading in order lo revise for lhe entrance oxar

to the university Despite the fact that a great number of students had very good or excellent English grammar knowledge, they could not write an English paragraph or assay which is grammatically accurate Some of them ware likely lo write full sentences, but they did not know how to connect separate sentences into a whole passage logically It tumed out that the respondents lacked necessary skills in

wnibng such as brainstorming ideas, makiry an oulhne, orgarizing and structuring

an essay and editing the writing papers ‘Therefore, they had a lot of troubles in learning writing skill and their writing products were often difficult for the readers

to understand.

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1, Answer to the first research question: What are the students’ attitudes

towards peer feedback in English writing skills learning?

3.1.1 Data collected from questionnaires

3.1.1.1 The students’ involvement in peer feedback before and after its application

in class

m Never mSometimes

Figure 1: The students’ involvement in peer feedback

before its application in class

The first question was to find out how often students received peer feedback

in their writing paper As could be seen from Figure 1, a large percentage of 61.7%

of the respondents stated that they sometimes received peer feedback, while merely 8.3% and 6.7 % of them agreed they never and always got peer feedback from their partners respectively The remaining 23.3% of the students stated that they often received peer feedback It proves that peer feedback was not used widely by the

students before its application in class

It is clear from Figure 2 that the proportion of the students’ participation in

peer feedback activities witnessed considerable changes after its application The