giving feedback strategies for english literature presentations of students of phuong dong university= chiến lược sử dụng hành động ngôn từ trong việc đưa ra thông tin phản hồi cho các bài thuyết trình

ĐẶNG THỊ KIM DUNG GIVING FEEDBACK STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH LITERATURE PRESENTATIONS OF STUDENTS OF PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY Chiến lược sử dụng hành động ngôn từ trong việc đưa ra thông ti

ĐẶNG THỊ KIM DUNG

GIVING FEEDBACK STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH LITERATURE PRESENTATIONS OF STUDENTS

OF PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY

(Chiến lược sử dụng hành động ngôn từ trong việc đưa ra thông tin phản hồi cho các bài thuyết trình môn Văn Học Anh của sinh viên trường Đại Học Phương Đông)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Linguistics Code: 602215

Hanoi-2010

****************************************

ĐẶNG THỊ KIM DUNG

GIVING FEEDBACK STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH LITERATURE PRESENTATIONS OF STUDENTS

OF PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY

(Chiến lược sử dụng hành động ngôn từ trong việc đưa ra thông tin phản hồi cho các bài thuyết trình môn Văn Học Anh của sinh viên trường Đại Học Phương Đông)

M.A Thesis – Program I

Linguistics Code: 602215 SUPERVISOR: Assoc.Prof Nguyễn Xuân Thơm, PhD

Hanoi-2010

TABLE OF CONTENT

Declaration

Acknowledgements

Abstract

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Objectives of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Methods 2

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

Chapter 1: Literature review 5

1.1 Teaching English Literature 5

1.1.1 Definition of English literature 5

1.1.2 Why teaching English Literature? 6

1.1.3 Motivating students in English literature lessons……… 7

1.2 Teacher feedback 8

1.2.1 Definition of feedback 8

1.2.2 Types of feedback 9

1.2.3 The importance of feedback to students’ improvement 11

1.3 Speech act theory 12

1.3.1 General concepts 12

1.3.2 Speech Act classifications by Austin and Searle 14

1.3.3 Some prominent speech acts used in giving feedback 15

1.3.3.1 The speech act of suggesting 15

1.3.3.2 The speech act of complaining 16

1.3.3.3 The speech act of criticizing……… 17

Chapter 2: The study 19

2 1 Situational analysis 19

2.1.1 Setting 19

2.2.2 The English literature course in Phuong Dong University 20

2.2.2.1 Teaching materials 21

2.2.2.2 Objectives of the course 21

2.2.2.3 Oral presentations by students 22

2.2.2.4 Requirements and assessments 22

2.2 The study 23

2.2.1 Methodology 23

2.2.1.1 Subjects 23

2.2.1.2 Instrumentations 23

2.2.2 Data collection 24

2.2.3 Data analysis 25

2.2.3.1 Data analysis of the questionnaire done by teachers 25

2.2.3.2 Data analysis of the questionnaire done by students 30

2.3 Findings 36

2.3.1 Research question 1 36

2.3.2 Research question 2 37

2.3.3 Research question 3 38

2.3.4 Research question 4 39

Chapter 3 – Recommendations 41

3.1 Teachers should balance their use of different types of feedback 41

3.2 Teachers should be more specific in giving feedback 41

3.3 Teachers should provide extra suggestions or guidance 41

PART III: CONCLUSION ……… ….42

References

Appendices

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

English literature is as diverse as the varieties and dialects of English spoken around the world To learners of English as a foreign language, English literature, though difficult, brings information about the cultural life of the country This subject can also facilitate oral discussions and exchanges of opinion among students, which can do a great deal to help students improve their language competence

To teachers of English, Literature is a very versatile subject and it has long been considered one of the most difficult subjects to teach There is no right or wrong way to teach Literature And the job of the teacher is, generally believed, not to teach the students but to lead them

The author of this study has involved in the English teaching career for over 6 years since

2004, among which the last 4 years are spent mostly for studying and teaching English literature for English majors of Phuong Dong University There is one thing that most teachers agree when teaching this subject: students will learn best when they freely and creatively read and prepare for an oral presentation on English literature themselves before the lessons are actually taught and explained by teachers However, the skill of students in designing and performing presentations is limited They are restrained by the lack of social and cultural knowledge, poor analyzing and organizing skill….Thus, teacher feedback is vital to help students avoid mistakes and enhance achievements

Despite the importance and necessity of teacher feedback, there has been rare research on this issue, even if it is the subject of any study; most of them deal with the matter of corrective feedback and written feedback in writing lessons Work on oral feedback and especially on immediate oral feedback is quite small in number In addition, the studies which have been done lack consensus and focus on how and what kind of feedback should teachers use, needless to mention the use of speech acts in feedback giving for literature oral presentation It appears that what teachers response to students’ oral presentation are based on his or her personal judgments and experience, not on any specific theoretical foundations

These reasons above have urged the author, who has been involving in teaching English literature for English majors of Phuong Dong University for 4 years, to investigate this important but somewhat neglected area In the mean time, the author also hope to offer teachers, who are involving in teaching English literature for English majors of Phuong Dong University , ways to response to students’ oral presentation, especially ways in which speech acts can be used in feedback giving It is also hoped that this study will show the impacts of teacher feedback on students’ achievement

2 Objectives of the study

The study aims at investigating the use of speech acts by teachers in giving feedback for English Literature presentations of Phuong Dong University fourth year language students

It is directed to achieve these four purposes:

(i) To study the techniques used by teachers when giving feedback for literature oral presentations of fourth year English students in Phuong Dong University: their responding practices, feedback focus, language uses and especially the application of speech acts in feedback giving

(ii) To investigate students’ attitude and opinion on the way they are responded after having finished their presentations

(iii) To judge students’ enhancement after receiving feedback from teachers

(iv) To offer some recommendations and suggestions for teachers to improve their practice

so that their feedback will be effective and useful to students

(ii) What types of speech acts do teachers use when giving feedback?

(iii) What are the students’ opinions on the feedback they receive from their teachers? (iv) How do students assess their enhancement?

4 Methods

There are three sources of collecting the data:

(i) A survey questionnaire done on 120 fourth year students of 4 groups in English Division, Department of Foreign Languages, , Phuong Dong University to get their opinion

on the feedback they received and their judgment on their enhancement The questionnaire also aims at getting students’ recommendations and suggestions to make teacher feedback more effective and useful

(ii) A survey questionnaire done on 12 teachers who are currently involving in teaching English literature and Country studies of Phuong Dong University to explore the ways they give feedback for students’ oral presentations This questionnaire also aims at finding teachers’ difficulties in giving feedback, their use of speech acts in giving feedback, as well as their recommendations to overcome their difficulties

(iii) An interview with 10 students selected randomly from the survey population to get further information on the matter being studied

5 Scope of the study

The study is conducted within the following scope:

(i) Feedback is a broad issue and cannot be thoroughly discussed within the framework of this study Therefore, only one aspect of feedback is focused on: teacher oral feedback for oral presentations

(ii) Mentioning strategies used by teachers when giving feedback, there are lots of things

to be discussed However, this study is restricted to the use of speech acts, especially the acts of complaining, suggesting, praising, questioning…in giving feedback by teachers only

(iii) The subjects of this study are constrained to final year English majors of Phuong Dong University Even though feedback is vital for every student, this study does not aim at students of English in general but at final year English majors of Phuong Dong University, who are studying English as their second language

(iv) In Phuong Dong University, there are only two subjects that often require oral presentations from students: English Literature and country studies This study focuses on teachers’ techniques to give feedback for English Literature oral presentations as typical examples for oral presentations in general

6 Design of the study

This study consisted of three parts, namely: introduction, development and conclusion The introduction focuses on the rationale, objectives, research questions as well as the scope and design of the study

The development includes three chapters:

Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background of the study This includes reviews on the works done by linguistics, researchers…on feedback, speech acts and English literature teaching

Chapter 2 introduces more details about the setting, methods, data analysis and most importantly, the findings of the study

Chapter 3 attempts to give some recommendations to teachers, students and further study The conclusion aims at summarizing the main points of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter attempts to provide the theoretical background within which the study is conducted It includes three parts Part 1 reviews the key notions and aspects of speech act theory Part 2 and 3 will survey teacher feedback and teaching English Literature respectively

1.1 Teaching English Literature

1.1.1 Definition of English literature

As it was stated by Ronald Carter, a Professor of Modern English Language in The

University of Nottingham, the teaching of literature in foreign language classes is an

activity whose justification was ―assumed to be obvious‖ Before the eighties, there was

surprisingly little about the teaching of English literature This was partly due to the fact that in some places where literature continued to be taught for the old reasons, there was no need for justification, and in other places, it did not come to any significant degree at all However, during the eighties, the situation changed rapidly Literature in general and English Literature in particular underwent thorough consideration, which provoked

numerous articles and studies The question is what is English Literature? Even though

English Literature has been defined in a number of ways, there is a relative consensus among the definitions

The web page Wikipedia defines English Literature as ― the literature written in the English language‖ This obviously means the writers of English Literature are not

necessarily from England Joseph Conrad, for example, was polish-born and could not speak English very fluently until his twenties but was still considered to be one of the greatest novelists in English

Ronald Carter and Michael N Long in their book Teaching Literature(1991), on the other

hand, introduced a different way of using the term According to them, many teachers of

literature preferred the term literature in English to the term English literature because the term English literature carried very specific associations of literature written by authors of

English nationalities within the geographical confines of Great Britain They suggested that

the term English Literature was narrow and exclusive They provided a definition of literature in English as: ―the considerable diversity of literature produced in the English language not only in the more obvious context of American literature, but also literature in the following contexts: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa…”( p.156) In this

sense, Literature in English also includes a growing and important body of work produced

in countries where English is an institutionalized second language or where it is a foreign language but carries important social and cultural functions within the society Such countries as Nigeria, Kenya, and India…can be cited as examples

1.1.2 Why teaching English Literature?

Rodrigo Fernandez Carmona in his article How to Teach English Literature (2004) listed

many interesting reasons for teaching literature in general and teaching English literature in particular The reasons can be summarized as follow:

 English literature transmits information about cultural life of the country

 Literature provide authentic language-literary works that have not been written specifically for language students

 Literary offers a wide variety of language The literary text is one of the few contexts where different varieties of language can be used simultaneously

 Literature is interesting as it can be interpreted in many different ways This will facilitate oral discussions and the exchange of opinion among students

 English Literature can be a source of pleasure and stimulus towards the students’

Besides, Ronald Carter and Michael N Long in their book Teaching Literature also confirmed that “the study of certain classic pieces of English Literature is considered a sine qua non-a condition without which it could not be-for the truly educated person”(p.1)

They pointed out the three important models which were embraced by teachers as reasons

or purposes for the teaching of literature in general and of English literature in particular:

(i) The cultural model: literature expresses the most significant ideas and sentiments of

human beings and teaching literature represents a means by which students can be put in touch with a wide range of expression-often of universal value and validity-over a historical period or periods This means that teaching literature within a cultural model enables students to understand and appreciate cultures and ideologies different from their own in time and space and to come to perceive tradition of thought, feeling and artistic form within the heritage the literature of such cultures endows

(ii) The language model: teaching literature means putting students in touch with some of

the more subtle and varied creative uses of the language According to teachers of literature, the main impulse of language center literature teaching is to help students find ways into a text in a methodical way and for themselves The proponent of this model argue that language is the literary medium, that literature is made from language and that the more students can read in and through language, the better able they will be to come to terms with a literary text as literature

(iii) The personal growth model: for teachers who are committed to personal growth

model, the main goal of teaching literature in general and English literature in particular is

to help students to achieve an engagement with the reading of literary texts Teachers’ success in teaching this subject is the extent to which students carry with them beyond classroom an enjoyment and love for literature which is renewed as they continue to engage with literature throughout their lives Students’ personal growth in such cases is a lasting pleasure in reading and a deep satisfaction in continuing growth of understanding

To encourage personal growth, teachers has to stimulate students in literature class by selecting texts to which students can respond and in which they can participate, by promoting the kind of conditions for learning in the classroom which will make the reading

of literature a memorable, collective experience and, above all, by enthusiasm for and commitment to the teaching of literature as literature

1.1.3 Motivating students in English literature lessons

Motivating students is a challenge that almost all teachers face, not only in English literature subject but also in others Students need to be motivated in order to focus on the task they will accomplish According to Ronald Carter and Michael N Long, in English

literature, students must see the point to reading, particularly to reading extended texts(p.9) They suggested that the media tend to provide students with short term

satisfaction Topics are switched rapidly and they do not demand sustained concentration Reading literary works in general and English literary works in particular, however, requires concentration over a period of time It asks for a hard work from readers and it requires considerable patience Thus, many teachers of this subject immediately see the task of encouraging and motivating students as a difficult and demanding one

There are numerous techniques applied by teachers when dealing with the task of motivating students in English literature One important principle that they recognize is that students will be motivated to read and learn if the process of reading and learning is related to them as individuals This means that a good starting point for a lesson is to elicit

as many of students’ own ideas, predictions and feeling as possible before they begin reading This method is especially effective because it wakens students’ curiosity and imagination Preparing for an oral presentation is also a good idea that has been applied by many teachers By this way, students can actively and enthusiastically participate in the lesson and freely show off their competence and ability The lesson will therefore be easier

Although there have been numerous attempts to define the term feedback, most of them appear to reach a somewhat consensus of the nature and function of feedback

The most general definition of feedback can be found in the web Wikipedia: Feedback is

information about actions returned to the source of the actions According to this web page, the term feedback can be used in many different fields such as biology, climate

science, mechanical engineering……In education, there is a tendency that young students will look up to instructors as experts in the field and remember most of the things that they say Therefore, it is believed that for teachers to spend a fair amount of time and effort thinking about how to respond to students may be a worthwhile time investment

Longman Dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics defines feedback as

―any information which provides a report on the result of behavior” (p 137) In teaching, feedback is viewed as ―comments or information learners receive on the success of a learning task, either from the teacher or from other learners”

In foreign language teaching and learning, feedback from teachers plays a vital role in students’ enhancement Without proper feedback, learners can be confused and be at loss

of specifying their position in the process of learning language For long, feedback has been considered as a means of communication between teachers and students about their works

Showing his attention to the same field, Penny Ur in his A Course in Language Teaching stated that ―in the context of teaching in general, feedback is information that is given to the learner about his or her performance of a learning task, usually with the objective of improving this performance” (p.242) This means, the key function of feedback is to help

students make progress and avoid mistakes in their language learning The same view has

also been confirmed by Davies (2000): the purpose of giving feedback is to provide opportunities for the learner to make adjustments and improvements toward mastery of a specified standard

1.2.2 Types of feedback

Teachers provide feedback to students in their classrooms every day When used properly, feedback is a powerful tool for improving academic and behavioral performance There are many ways of categorizing feedbacks, one of which is to divide feedback into oral and

written feedback Konold in his Using Teacher Feedback to Enhance Student Learning

(2004) stated that feedback can be provided verbally, nonverbally, or in written formats

and can be either reinforcing or punishing to the person who receives it Verbal feedback

is feedback presented in a form that is spoken or capable of being spoken concerns not only words used but also tone of voice, non-verbal feedback, on the other hand, refers to the one made in silence with cues like facial expressions There is one important thing to note here: non –verbal feedback does not mean written feedback Written feedback is the kind of feedback delivered to students in the form of notes

Another way of categorizing feedback and its purposes can be found in the article Effective Feedback (http://jabba.edb.utexas.edu/depts/se/projects/mainstep/ms/fb2-introduction-whatis.htm)

The category can be demonstrated as follow:

Corrective Feedback

 Corrective feedback is intended to correct an error

 The correction should be made in a direct and positive manner

These three types of feedback appear to take different names and functions but they all aim

at improving students’ learning and language competence

Besides, there are other names for feedback classification:

Positive and negative feedback

As their names imply, positive feedback shows teacher’s interest in student’s work The teacher, in this case, gives feedback to encourage the student and sometime, make some nice comments or praises on student’s work Negative feedback, in contrary, expresses teacher’s disagreement or discontent Sometimes this kind of feedback involves some correction or even punishment

Immediate and delayed feedback

Researchers believe that immediate feedback is often employed when the aim of the teacher is to promote accuracy, particularly during the guided practice Immediate feedback refers to teachers’ comments delivered on the spot when a mistake or a good point is made by students It enables teachers to give support or encouragement when students are confused about their making mistakes or in need of being motivated On the other hand, if the aim of the teacher is to promote fluency, not accuracy, immediate feedback is not recommended In this case, delayed feedback should take place because interruption may distract the student and make it difficult for him/ her to come back to the point he/ she stops before being interrupted Researchers believe that immediate feedback should be used for individual’s performance and delayed feedback should be used for group work

Explicit and implicit feedback

Explicit feedback means that teachers show an error and provides the correction, while implicit feedback refers to the situation when teachers point out an error without providing the correct form

1.2.3 The importance of feedback to students’ improvement

Many researchers and educators have agreed that for students to work without feedback is similar to setting out an important journey without a map or signposts because a great sense of direction may not be sufficient to keep one on track

In their article The Power of Feedback (2007), John Hattie and Helen Timperley asserted that though the impact of feedback can be either positive or negative, it is still one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement The two writers also stated that the

type of feedback and the way it is given can be effective in different ways although feedback in general is among the major influences

In language learning and teaching, the role of teacher feedback to students’ improvement can be seen from the fact that teachers’ feedback reflects to students what and how they

perform, showing them their strong points to strengthen as well as the weak points to improve More importantly, if teachers leave mistakes untreated, they might serve as an input model and therefore, may be acquired by other students in the class Besides, the

provision of corrective feedback ―can significantly speed up the process of language learning by providing information about rules and the limits of language use” (Hugh Moss- the correction of students’ oral errors-p 27)

In brief, if the person receiving the feedback is motivated, and the feedback is given in a useful way, it is obvious that feedback can be an effective way for students to draw conclusions on how to achieve a better knowledge of a second language As confirmed by

Tunstall and Gipps, teachers’ feedback is considered a prime requirement for progress in learning (1996); therefore, giving feedback is one of the key roles that teacher play in classroom (Al Fahdi, 2005)

Lastly, it is noticeable that feedback is not appropriate in all situations For example, when

a student is speaking, there is no use interrupting and giving feedback since the learner is focusing on his/her speech, and therefore not able to concentrate on any feedback given or

if he/ she does concentrate, he/ she may be distracted from what is being spoken

1.3 Speech act theory

1.3.1 General concepts

In language teaching and learning, the term speech act is not at all a new one and in fact, it

has become one of the most challenging but compelling concepts in the study of numerous linguistics and researchers John H Austin is considered to be the person who initiated the notion of speech act by stating that by saying something, one is actually doing something

in his series of lectures the William James Lectures at Harvard, which were later published

as a book entitled How to Do Things with words (1962) According to him, utterances can

be found, satisfying the conditions:

(i) They do not “describe” or “report” or constate anything at all, they are not

“true or false”; and

(ii) The uttering of a sentence is, or is part of, the doing of an action, which again would normally be described as, or “just”, saying something

(Page 5)

For example: By saying ―I name this ship Queen Elizabeth‖ (page 5), the speaker actually

names the ship, not just makes any kind of statement that the hearer(s) can regard as true or false This can be viewed as a breakthrough in linguistics as it indicates that through many everyday utterances, people perform certain linguistic actions like promising, requesting or

apologizing…This type of sentence or utterance is proposed the name performative Austin

categorized the acts as locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary, the acts that constitute

what people do with words

A locutionary act is the act of saying something Quite simply, it is the ordinary sense of

meaning of what is said of a speech act

An illocutionary act is the act performed in saying something It is its real, intended

meaning which is what the person really means The illocutionary act is not in one-to-one correspondence with the locution from which it is derived

A perlocutionary act is the act performed by saying something in a particular context It is

a speech act which gets someone to do or realize something following on from the illocutionary act It represents the change achieved each time, in a particular context

Speech act theorists after Austin, Generally speaking, focus on explaining illocutionary acts in a narrow sense John Searle, the prominent linguist, inherited his ideas from Austin and developed the theory in his own way (1969) He particularly paid attention to what we

call indirect speech acts The matter is which acts can be seen as indirect speech act? There

are some examples taken from Wikipedia:

(i) ―Can you open the window?‖

In this example, the speaker is asking the hearer whether he/ she will be able to open the window, but at the same time requesting that he /she do so Since the request is performed indirectly, by performing a question, it counts as an indirect speech act

(ii) - ―Would you like to meet me for coffee?‖

- ―I have class.‖

The second speaker used an indirect speech act to reject the proposal This is indirect because the literal meaning of ―I have class‖ does not entail any sort of rejection

Searle suggested that we are able to derive meaning out of indirect speech acts by means of

a cooperative process out of which we are able to derive multiple illocutions: ―In indirect speech acts the speaker communicates to the hearer more than he actually says by way of relying on their mutually shared background information, both linguistic and

nonlinguistic, together with the general powers of rationality and inference on the part of the hearer.‖(1979)

Concerning indirect speech acts, Searle also introduced the notions of ―primary‖ and

―secondary‖ illocutionary acts The primary illocutionary act is the indirect one, which is not literally performed The secondary illocutionary act is the direct one, performed in the literal utterance of the sentence (p.178)

Kent Bach in his Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1998) believes that making a statement may be the paradigmatic use of language, but there are all sorts of other things

we can do with words Some of the things that people can do with words, in his opinion,

are making requests, asking questions, giving orders, making promises, giving thanks, offering apologies, and so on Moreover, he also points out that almost any speech act is really the performance of several acts at once, which are distinguished by different aspects

of the speaker’s intention

1.3.2 Speech Act classifications by Austin and Searle

According to Ken Bach, the theory of speech acts is partly taxonomic and partly explanatory It must systematically classify types of speech acts and the ways in which

they can succeed or fail There are numerous linguists attempt to classify speech acts, most

of them, however, do not reach a kind of consensus

Despite feeling far from equally happy about all of the terms used, Austin classified

illocutionary force into five classes, namely verdictives, exercitives, commissives, behabitives and expositives ( page 150)

As explained by Austin himself, verdictives are typified by the giving of verdict by a jury, arbitrator or umpire They may be an estimate, reckoning or appraisal Exercitives are the

exercising of powers rights or influence Examples of this type can be voting, urging,

advising and warning….The third type, commissives are typified by promising or

otherwise undertaking They commit one to doing something but also include declarations

or announcements Behabitives do with attitudes and social behavior Examples of these are congratulating, commending, apologizing, cursing….Lastly, expositives make plain

how utterances fit into the course of an argument or conversation John Austin admitted that he found the last two classes behabitives and expositives the most troublesome and that

perhaps they are not clear or are cross-classified In fact, many researchers claim that Austin seemed to base on no clear principle to construct his classification Therefore, many

speech acts may fall into two different categories Besides, this category based on the performative verb, through which a speech act is expressed Many other linguists pointed out that the number of speech acts in every language exceeds the number of their corresponding performative verbs so this classification may exclude many speech acts Not feeling content and happy with the classification of Austin, Searle proposed another way of categorizing:

 Representatives: They commit the speaker to something being the case Some

types are: suggesting, swearing, boasting, concluding…

Example: “No one makes a better cake than me”

 Directives: They try to make the addressee perform an action( direct he/ she

towards doing something) The different kinds are: suggesting, asking, inviting, ordering, requesting, advising, begging……

Example: “Could you open the door?”

 Commisives: They commit the speaker to doing something in the future The

different kinds are: vowing, promising, planning, betting, opposing

Example: “I will return it to you tomorrow”

 Expressives: They express how the speaker feels about the situation (psychological

state) The different kinds are: thanking, apologizing, welcoming, deploring…

Example: “I am sorry for being late”

 Declaratives: They change the state of the world in an immediate way In this type,

no psychological state is expressed and any proposition can occur

Examples: “You are fired”

However, Jacob L Mey in his book Pragmatic: An Introduction (1993) pointed out that

searle’s classification is more or less similar to that of Austin He believes that even though Searle’s classification mainly rests on features of ―meaning‖, some of them are rather close

to what traditional syntax would refer to as ―mood‖ such as indicatives ( representatives) or imperatives ( directives) (p.105)

1.3.3 Some prominent speech acts used in giving feedback

1.3.3.1 The speech act of suggesting

Suggestions belong to the group of directive speech acts which, according to Searle (1976), are those in which the speaker’s purpose is to get the hearer to commit him/herself to some

future course of action Bach and Harnish (1979) when proposing their definition of directives also implied that the speaker’s attitude and intention when performing an utterance must be taken as a reason for the hearer’s action

Schmidt and Richards (1980) claimed that directives contain speech acts such as requests, commands and suggestions… They pointed out that the main goal of these speech acts was

to get the hearer to do something, although the force of the attempt could differ from one speech act to another Haverkate (1984) distinguished between impositive and nonimpositive directives The impositives include more threatening acts, such as requesting, pleading and ordering, whereas non-impositive directives refer to suggestions and instructions The main difference between these two groups lies in the fact that the

benefits obtained by carrying out an impositive speech act are exclusively for the speaker (the teacher), whereas the objective of the non-impositive speech acts is to benefit the hearer ( the student)

However, although suggestions are made in the best interest of the student, Brown and Levinson (1987) regarded this speech act as a facethreatening act since the teacher is in some way intruding into the student’s world by performing an act that concerns what the latter should do Banerjee and Carrell (1988) believed that, in this sense, suggestions are regarded as an imposition upon the student by affronting his/her negative face As these authors claimed, if a speaker decides to make a suggestion, there are some factors to take into consideration: the urgency of the suggestion, the degree of embarrassment in the situation, and the social distance and power between the speaker and the hearer For this reason, and depending on these factors and the extent to which the situation can be more or less threatening, the teacher might try to soften this speech act through the use of specific politeness strategies in order to minimize, as far as possible, the chances of the student’s being offended

Suggestions have often been believed, by many authors and linguists, to be termed as advisement by Searle

1.3.3.2 The speech act of complaining

Complaint is an expression of a psychological state of being dissatisfied or unhappy about

something According to Tanck (2002), the speech act of complaint occurs when a speaker reacts with displeasure or annoyance to an action that has affected him/her in an unfavorable manner

Olshtain and Weinback (1987) specify the necessary preconditions for the speech act of complaint as follows:

- The speaker expects a favorable event to occur, or an unfavorable event to be prevented from occurring, the action results, therefore, in the violation of speaker's expectations by either having enabled or failed to prevent the offensive event

- The speaker sees an action as having unfavorable consequences for him/her-self The action is therefore the offensive act

- The speaker holds the hearer responsible for the action

- The speaker chooses to express his/her dissatisfaction and frustration verbally

Some researchers stated that the speech act of complaint is facethreatening to the student When the teacher makes direct complaints, he/she is more likely to threat the student’s face

1.3.3.3 The speech act of criticizing

Similar to complaining and suggesting, criticizing also has a high potential of threatening

the face According to Thuy Minh, Nguyen in her learing to give and respond to feedback in the L2: the case of EFL criticisms and responses to criticisms(2007) ,

peer-criticizing may be composed of different acts, each of which carries a different illocutionary force and none of which is the head act She believed that neither of the taxonomies given by Austin or Searle may apply to this type of speech act Instead, criticism could be better described in terms of speech act sets which were made up by multiple components

Tracy, et all (1987) explored the characteristics of good and bad criticism and found out five characteristics to distinguish between good and bed criticisms

 A good criticism needs to display a positive language and manner

 The changes suggested in a good criticism must be specific enough and the critic must offer to help make them possible

 The reason for criticizing must be justified and made explicit

 A good criticism is compensated for by being placed in a larger positive message

 A good criticism does not violate the relationship between interlocutors

In short, researchers have reached an agreement that criticisms should be simple, specific and well-grounded in the lesson They should be for the purposes of student’ improvement and need to be softened The softening strategies include ―measuring words‖ to avoid

being too negative, ―soft-pedaling‖ to lessen the harshness of criticism, ― using affirmative language to depersonalize the criticism and ― using negotiating language‖ to avoid imposing on the addressee

Chapter 2: THE STUDY

2 1 Situational analysis

2.1.1 Setting

As the title suggests, this study is conducted at English Division, Foreign Languages department, Phuong Dong University, which is a multi-disciplinary institution Phuong Dong University receives about 1.800 students each year for various fields such as building and construction, accounting, banking…and foreign language studies Among 1500 freshmen, about 200 to 250 choose to major in foreign languages The English Division is often seen as the biggest section in the Department of Foreign Languages with about 140 newly enrolled students annually divided equally into classes

In Phuong Dong University, English is taught according to two distinctive syllabuses: majored and non-majored The non-majored syllabus is for students of other departments like accounting or banking…and for students of other divisions in Foreign Language Department like Chinese and Japanese…The majored syllabus is obviously for students who choose to specialize in English For these students, English is taught in a setting with two stages, each of which lasts for two years In the first stage, students learn general English ( in Phuong Dong it is named GE) which centers students into four basic skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing This stage, by no means, causes students any big trouble for most of them have been familiar with the subjects at high school already By finishing this stage, students are considered to be of intermediate level The second stage is believed to be much more challenging for students In this stage, students have to study difficult subjects such as translation, interpretation, phonetics, grammar, country studies ….and English literature The biggest obstacle in this stage, according to students, is not only that they have to study much more complicated and difficult subjects but they also have to study several of them at the same time

Regarding the language competence of English majors of Phuong Dong University, students’ level of English proficiency is generally various and not as high as that of their counterparts from other public universities of foreign languages There are many reasons to explain for this reality, but the most obvious one must be students’ low academic results at the entrance examinations

2.2.2 The English literature course in Phuong Dong University

English Literature has been adopted to teach in Phuong Dong University for 8 years Since being adopted, it has always been one of the indispensable components for the four-year-training program When this subject was first introduced, it was taught for third year students but two years later, for some reasons, one of which was to best benefit students, it was taught in the 7th semester, for final year students In Phuong Dong University, the subject consists of 45 class periods divided equally into 15 meetings for 15 lessons The teacher and students meet each other once a week in 15 weeks Normally, the first week is for orientation and the first part of lesson 1: History of English Literature The following weeks are designed the same with the first period for students’ oral presentations and the last two periods are for teacher’s feedback and lesson explanations The last week is often for revision Students have to take a writing test immediately after 15 weeks of learning Here is the English Literature syllabus applied in Phuong Dong University:

1 Orientation

2 History of English Literature

3 Oscar Wilde

4 The nightingale and the rose

5 The picture of Dorian Gray

6 William Summersets Maugham

7 The moon and sixpence

In order to explore the course in more detail, some of its important elements need to be taken into consideration: the teaching materials, the course objectives, student’s oral presentations and ways of assessments

2.2.2.1 Teaching materials

The major material currently used to teach English Literature for final year students in

Phuong Dong University is the book English Literature (2001) Published by Vietnam

National University Press The book was compiled by teachers of Vietnam National University, Hanoi-College of Foreign Languages, who have been involving in teaching English Literature for many years and based themselves on authentic resources and relevant materials when designing this book The book introduces five major authors namely Oscar Wilde, William Summerset Maugham, John Galsworthy, William

Wordsworth and George Bernard Shaw together with their most outstanding works like the nightingale and the rose and The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the moon and sixpence by Maugham, the man of property by Galsworthy, the daffodils by Wordsworth and widower’s house by Bernard Shaw The students have to study information not only

about the novels or poems but also have to learn the most prominent features in the authors’ life as well as techniques and writing style Most importantly, students have to read and understand the works cited in the book then analyze them and write compositions base on things they have found out with the help of teachers

Beside the main course book, students are also advised to read some other references such

as a course in English Literature by Quang Phu, Truong and History of American and English literature by Xuan Thom,Nguyen

2.2.2.2 Objectives of the course

In the detailed planning for English Literature course, the objectives of the course have been clearly stated:

By the end of the course, students will be able to read and understand literary texts and analyze the literary works in a systematic and logical way Students are also hoped to be able to write complete polished essays

Teachers of this subject in Phuong Dong University also hope that when finishing this course, students will find true pleasure in reading and understanding literary texts Also, students are expected to foster their enthusiasm with literature and this subject can promote

students’ ability in designing oral presentations as well as their creativeness and activeness

in learning

2.2.2.3 Oral presentations by students

Students in a class are divided in to 6 groups in correspondent with 12 topics given (this means each group has 2 presentations) There is 1 presentation every meeting, except for

week 1, 2 and 15 Week 1 is for orientation, week 2 is for history of English Literature and

the last one is for revision The presentations have to be prepared in advanced and sent to the teacher for confirmation via email at least 2 days before the day it is performed

The presentation should take part within 45 minutes, in which 30 minutes are for students’ speech and the other 15 minutes are for Q & A (questions and answers) There are some certain criteria for teachers’ assessments, which will be cited in appendix 1

2.2.2.4 Requirements and assessments

In order to best achieve the objectives of the course, there are some certain requirements for students which are clearly stated at the beginning of the course:

 Students have to come to class regularly, if a students misses more than 20% of the lessons, he/ she will not be allowed to take the final examination Being late for more than 15 minutes is counted as absence

 Students have to read and even translate the extracts carefully before each meeting (if students do not read in advance, they cannot catch up with the lesson because there are only 3 class periods each meeting)

 Students have to do their best for the presentations because the marks for their presentations are counted as mid-term marks

 Students have to follow the teacher’s instructions and requirements Sometimes, they have to write a report or do a piece of writing to analyze some certain characters or details in the extracts

 Students have to actively take part in the oral discussions after each lesson

In terms of assessments, there are three types of assessment: the presentations count for 30 percents (15% each), final examinations count for 60% and the other 10% are for attendance and participations The final examination is a writing one It consists of two parts: part 1 includes 10 multiple choice questions about the authors and their works In

part 2, students have to write an essay analyzing or giving comments on the characters or details in the extracts taken from the course book The sample test is cited in appendix 2

2.2 The study

2.2.1 Methodology

2.2.1.1 Subjects

The study was undertaken with the participation of 120 final year students of 4 classes and

12 teachers who are currently teaching or have taught English Literature in English Division, Foreign Language Department, Phuong Dong University

The 120 students enrolled in the university at the same time (2006) and were divided into 4 classes according to their English proficiency In order to guarantee the objectivity of the research, all 120 final year students were selected This method of collecting data has some certain advantages Firstly, the 120 students are in 4 distinctive classes so it is very convenient for the author of this research to observe the students completing the questionnaire Secondly, the students in each class are of a relatively equal proficiency of English and the classes include both male and female students, even though female students far outnumber male ones

The 10 students who take part in the interview are selected randomly from 4 classes There are 4 from class A, where students are of the best English proficiency and 6 from class B,

C, D

Among the 12 teachers taking part in the survey, there are 4 teachers currently teaching English Literature this semester, they have 3 to 6 periods each week The other 8, despite not currently teaching this subject, have all had chances teaching it in the past 8 years

2.2.1.2 Instrumentations

There are 3 instruments used to get data for the research:

2.2.1.2.1 Questionnaire done by teaches

This survey questionnaire is done on 12 teachers who are currently involving in or have involved in teaching English literature and Country studies of Phuong Dong University This questionnaire aims at exploring the method that teachers use to give feedback to oral English Literature presentations of final year students It is also intended to find out

teachers’ difficulties in giving feedback, their strategies and especially, their use of speech act when giving feedback to students

The questionnaire includes two parts:

Part 1 is designed to find out some personal information of teachers: their gender, their age, their teaching experience and specifically, the number of years they have been involving in teaching English Literature

Part 2 investigates teachers’ giving feedback practice: their purpose(s) of giving feedback, the types and form of feedback they often use, and most importantly, the types and pattern

of speech act that are most frequently applied by them This part also intends to find out the difficulties that teachers encounter when giving feedback

2.2.1.2.2 Questionnaire done by students

This survey questionnaire is done on 120 final year students of 4 groups in English Division, Department of Foreign Language, Phuong Dong University to get their opinion

on the feedback they receive and their judgment on their enhancement The questionnaire

is also designed to ask for students’ expectations about teachers’ feedback

The questionnaire has two parts

Part 1 aims at getting students’ personal information: their gender, age, their place of residents, the number of year they have been learning English and, especially their general academic results in the previous year

Part 2 aims at exploring students’ opinion about the feedback they receive, the types of feedback they are most happy to receive, the pattern of feedback they like and whether or not they satisfy with the feedback given

2.2.1.2.3 Interviews with 10 students picked up randomly

This is an interview with 10 students selected randomly from the survey population to get further information on the matter being studied In general, the questions for the survey are based on the questionnaire together with some more sub questions to get more detailed information The students are interviewed separately, and each interview last for about 10

Firstly, 62 sets of questionnaire were delivered to students of class A and B, who have classes in the morning, later; the other 58 sets were delivered to students of class C and D, who come to university in the afternoon It takes about 30 minutes altogether for each class to complete the questionnaire; 5 minutes to explain what students have to do and the other 25 minutes for students to answer all the questions in the survey questionnaire Students can answer the questions either in English or in Vietnamese, their mother tongue All the 120 sets of questionnaire were delivered and then receive back in full While the students are focusing on the questionnaire, the investigator was in the same place with them and ready to provide any explanation needed

The 12 sets of questionnaire delivered to the teachers were not completed at the same time because the teachers do not have the same timetable and, therefore, it was impossible for the investigator to meet all of them at the same time On the first day, the questionnaire was delivered to 4 teachers, and the other 5 and 3 teachers completed the questionnaire on day 2 and day 3 respectively While the questionnaire was completed, the investigator was

at presence and ready to provide any explanation needed The teachers must answer the questions in English

The interviews with the students take place at different times and in a quiet place Before starting, the students are explained why this interview was taking place and how they could

be of help Each interview lasts for 10 minutes and the answers of the students were shorthanded by the investigator herself The students were also explained that what they tell the investigator was for the purposes of the study only and that they needn’t have to worry about being identified

2.2.3 Data analysis

This part of the study includes the analysis of all the data collected from the questionnaire done by 120 final year students and 12 teachers taking part in the survey The result received from the interviews with 10 students is also introduced in this part

2.2.3.1 Data analysis of the questionnaire done by teachers

2.2.3.1.1 Teachers’ personal information

There are 12 teachers taking part in the survey, among them, there are only two male teachers, the other 10 teachers are female Their age ranges between 25 and 53 with the maximum number of years teaching English of 28 and minimum of approximately 2 These 12 teachers all have experience teaching English Literature in Phuong Dong