Students attitudes towards teachers corrective feedback in writing at the boarding high school for ethnic minority students in tuyen quang

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES BAN THI KIM THANH STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHERS’ CORRECTIVE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-

GRADUATE STUDIES

BAN THI KIM THANH

STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHERS’ CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK IN WRITING AT THE BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL FOR ETHNIC MINORITY

STUDENTS IN TUYEN QUANG

THÁI ĐỘ CỦA HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI PHẢN HỒI

THÔNG TIN CHỮA LỖI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN

TRONG MÔN VIẾT Ở TRƯỜNG THPT DÂN TỘC

NỘI TRÚ TUYÊN QUANG

MA MINOR THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE 601401

HA NOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

BAN THI KIM THANH

STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHERS’ CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK IN WRITING AT THE BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL FOR ETHNIC

MINORITYSTUDENTS IN TUYEN QUANG

THÁI ĐỘ CỦA HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI PHẢN HỒI THÔNG TIN CHỮA LỖI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRONG MÔN VIẾT Ở TRƯỜNG THPT DÂN TỘC

NỘI TRÚ TUYÊN QUANG

MA MINOR THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY SUPERVISOR: HOANG THI HONG HAI, MA.

HA NOI - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certification……… i

Acknowledgements……… ……… ii

Abstract……….… iii

PART ONE - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 8

1.2 Aims of the study 10

1.3 Research questions 10

1.4 Scope of the study 10

1.5 Significance of the research 11

1.6 Methods of the study 11

1.7 Design of the study 11

Summary PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical backgrounds of feedback 1.1.1 Definitions of feedback 13

1.1.2 The importance of feedback in L2 writing 14

1.1.2 Types of feedback to students‟ writing 15

1.1.2.1 Self-editing 16

1.1.2.2 Peer feedback 16

1.1.2.3 Teacher‟s feedback 18

1.2 The focus of teacher feedback 19

1.2.1 Types of teacher feedback 19

1.2.1.1 Marginal versus end feedback 20

1.2.1.2 Positive versus negative feedback 20

1.2.1.3 Text – specific versus general feedback 21

1.2.1.4 Feedback focus on form versus on content 21

1.2.2 Forms of teacher feedback 22

1.2.3 Major issues in giving teacher‟s feedback 23

2.1 Context of the study 25

2.1.1 The setting of the study 25

2.1.2 The writing program 2.1.2.1 Overview of the textbooks 26

2.1.2.2 The teaching of writing skill 27

2.2 The study 2.2.1 Methodology 28

2.2.2 Data analysis 30

2.2.3 Findings and discussion 43

Summary CHAPTER THREE: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS 43

Summary PART THREE CONCLUSIONS 50

3.1 Summary 50

3.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 51 References

Appendices

8

PART ONE - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the

study

Today English is considered one of the most important factors

to the trend of globalization in all fields of life over the world Thus,

English as Second Language has been taught in many countries and

the demand to use English fluently as well as to acquire four basic

skills is becoming essential among all students As a result,

methodology has been studied for years to find out the most effective

ways of teaching and learning English

In Vietnam, high school students have to acquire four skills of English as reading, speaking, listening and writing when they study English Among them, writing is considered the most difficult skill Clearly, Vietnamese students are often much anxious about

writing and afraid of making errors in writing classrooms Nevertheless,

they need to be encouraged to see it as a means of learning, rather

than demonstrating learning In order to do this, students need to be

provided with opportunities to respond to constructive feedback on their

work

A review of the literature on writing reveals three major areas of

feedback as revision: peer feedback, self-editing and teachers‟ comments

as feedback Because of the importance of feedback, there have been a lot

of studies that focus on all aspects relating to feedback As clear,

concise feedback matched to standards will promote students‟

achievement, feedback plays a very important role in the teaching of

any language Through feedback, the writer learns where he or she has

misled and confused the reader by not supplying enough information,

illogical organization, lack of development ideas, or something simple like

inappropriate word-choice or tense In other words, the writers have

opportunities to identify their errors

and correct them to make better writing Also, the use of teacher

feedback in writing classrooms has been generally supported in the

literature review as a

Comment [P1]: Check the clarity in

meaning

Comment [P2]: A comma between

these two words?

Comment [P3]: students'???

9

potentially valuable aid for its social cognitive, affective and

methodological benefits ( Merlin, (1986), Radecki and Swales (1988),

Hedge (2000), Ferris and Roberts (2001)) They all believe that teacher

feedback is very important and has a great influence on the success of

teaching and learning writing

As a teacher of English at the Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority

Students in Tuyen Quang, the researcher is constantly searching for ways to

help her students become more confident and effective writers During writing

lessons, she finds that her students often make a lot of errors that increase

students‟ anxiety

in writing lesson.With a view of language learning as a creative construction process, she shares an agreement with Hedge (2000) in the view that

error is an inevitable and positive part of that process (p.15) Hedge also

claimed 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) This means teacher-response is an essential step

in the writing process as he stated “getting feedback from the teacher and

from other students in the class enables learners to test hypotheses and refine

their developing knowledge of the language system” (p.13) That is why the

researcher focuses on teacher

corrective feedback, which she considers a complex troublesome, but

important issue in writing classrooms To have a quick view on this aspect, an

observation on the writing lessons of four teachers of English in the

researcher‟s school was conducted within a month The result showed that all

the four teachers applied mostly teacher corrective feedback to respond to the

students‟ writings She wondered if the teachers‟ present feedback matched

with students‟ preferences and how students reacted to the feedback they

received

All above encouraged the researcher to conduct a survey to explore

students‟ attitudes towards teacher corrective feedback and recommend

Comment [P4]:

teacher-respone

Comment [P5]: Reacted to??

10

teachers of English some suggested solutions to help their students

gain more achievement in writing skill

1.2 Aims of the study.

This research is designed to explore students‟ attitudes toward

their teachers‟ corrective feedback at The Boarding High School for

Ethnic MinorityStudents inTuyen Quang It

is expected toachieve thethree primaryaims:

(i) to investigate the teacher feedback-giving practice in writing

classes: their responding methods, their feedback focus as well as the

feedback types and forms

(ii) to investigate the students‟ perceptions of the feedback they

receive

and their recommendations for improving it

(iii) to find out students‟ preferences for teachers‟ corrective

feedback as well as to propose some recommendations and suggestions for

the teachers to improve their practice in order to respond to the students

writing more effectively

1.3 Research questions

In order to achieve the mentioned aims above, the following

research questions will be included in the study:

1 How do the teachers respond to the students‟ writing?

2 What are the students‟ opinions on the feedback they received?

3 What are EFL students‟ preferences for teachers‟ corrective

feedback techniques?

1.4 Scope of the study

Feedback in writing is such a broad topic that the researcher

cannot discuss all the aspects related Therefore, within the

framework of a minor

Comment [P6]: Not necessary to state

here

Comment [P7]: ditto

thesis, this study focuses only on the teacher corrective feedback in responding

to the students‟ writing at the Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority

Students in Tuyen Quang

Significance of the research

The research is carried out with the hope that the results of the study will

provide significant insights into both what teachers have actually done as they

respond and how the students react to these responses This may lead to

suggestions for improving teacher feedback and helping the students to utilize

it more successfully in their writing revision

Methods of the study

To realize the aims, the following methods for data collection were

employed in the study

Data were collected by means of survey questionnaires for 100 students at

The Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students in Tuyen Quang The

questionnaires included closed-ended questions, open-ended questions and

Likert scales

Other sources for data collection came from classroom observation, an

interview between the researcher and four teachers, and collection of the

teachers‟ written comments on the students‟ written work

Four sources to data collection will hopefully provide fresh insights into

teachers‟ feedback giving practice and the students‟ reactions towards the

feedback they received On this basis, some measures will be applied to

improve the teacher corrective feedback so that the teacher responds to the

students‟ writing more properly

Design of the study

This study has three main parts: introduction, development, and

& and

12

The introduction briefly states the rationale of the study, the aims, research

questions, scope, methods, the significance and the design of the study

The developmentconsists of threechapters: Chapter 1provides a review of

feedback in general

and teacher feedback in particular Chapter 2 contains the core part of the study

including the context of the study, the methodology, the collection and analysis

of the data for the research, the findings and implications Chapter 3 mentions

the author‟s recommendations and suggestions for improving teacher feedback

in a way that help students‟ to have better writing

The conclusion at the end gives a summary of the main issues that have been

discussed so far in the study and suggestions for further research

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter focuses on some of the

most important issues in the theories

of feedback in general and the teacher feedback in particular Two main

features will be concerned, namely, theoretical background of feedback and the

focus on teacher feedback.

Comment [P9]: Check the format and the

font size

Comment [P10]: Should be in italics

to define the term “feedback”.

According to Ur (1996) “feedback is information that is given to thelearner about his or her performance of a learning task, usually with theobjective of improving this performance” (p.242) He also distinctly pointedout two main distinguishable components of feedback: assessment andcorrection This significant definition mentions feedback as an essential step inteaching with an obvious aim at helping students to have better achievement inlearning

Similarly, Keh (1989) defined feedback as “any output from reader towriter that provides information for revision” (p.18) In other words, it is thecomments, questions, and suggestions a reader gives a writer to produce reader-based prose as opposed to writer prose As the writers receive all these, theywill discover that good writing involves “an interaction between their ideas, theexpressions of the ideas, and their reader‟s perceptions and reactions to theexpression” (Chaudron, 1984 p.2) This definition can be seen as one of themost comprehensive as feedback is considered as an effective means ofteacher‟s communication to the students about their writing in the final one.Some researchers (Ferris, 2003; Leki, 1990) also shared an agreement whennoting that feedback is most effective when it is delivered at intermediatestages of the writing process

Dreham (1995) also had the same point of view in the case that feedback

is interestingly likened to a two-bullock cart His definition is based

on a famous saying that “in order for the cart to move in the right direction, its

two bullocks need to understand not only the purpose of their efforts but also

each other” (p.160) In other words, there should be a collaborative approach to

the monitoring and processing of feedback between the teacher and the students

so that the teacher feedback becomes an effective tool for student revision

Seow‟s (2002), in contrast, defined feedback as “the teacher‟s quick

initial reaction to the student‟s drafts” In this point of view, teacher response

should be given at preliminary or intermediate drafts, not the final one because

“things which are not clear or which could be improved upon can still be

changed” (p.317) This means students should have chances to rewrite their

drafts at least one more time If students write only one draft which is then

graded by the teacher, feedback on what is wrong in the composition comes too

late Added to this, Raimes (1983, p.139) noted, “Responding to students‟

writing is very much a part of the process of teaching writing” In other words,

feedback should be provided in the process of writing rather than in single act

of producing a text

1.1.2 The importance of feedback in L2 writing

Just as importantly, a great number of studies on this aspect have been

done and a debate about the value of providing feedback on L2 writing has

been prominent in recent years

According to Taylor (1997) “feedback is an area which causes students

considerable anxiety” (p.65) and there is a need for great care to be taken in

relation to issues as as timing, location, participation, attitudes, outcomes and

so on Also, both Huntley (1992) and Truscott (1996), based on their

15

respective reviews of the literature, stated that substantial research

evidence suggests that correction of surface level errors is futile and may

not be worth the instructor‟s time and effort Truscott even concluded that this type

of correction should be

abandoned in second language writing classes because it can have

harmful effect This point of view is shared by other studies in various

second language contexts investigating the effect of different types of

feedback on student writing skill in the case that explicit error correction

seems to be generally ineffective (Keper, 1991; Sheppard, 1992)

However, there have been number of the researchers who

support to the importance of feedback in teaching English as a

second language They believed in giving corrective feedback to

students to improve their written accuracy In Schulz (1996)

students‟ beliefs about what constitutes effective feedback on

writing and their expectations regarding teacher paper-making

techniques may influence the effectiveness of such feedback

Hedge (2000) shared an agreement in the case that “getting

feedback from the teacher and from other students in the class

enables learners to test hypothesis and refine their developing

knowledge of the language system.” (p.13) In this case, good

feedback not only stimulates students for revision but also

motivates them to maintain their interest in writing In addition,

provision of comments helps individualize writing instructions in

which students will be able to get individual attention to have their

own needs or problems rightfully addressed (Reid, 1993) In this

way, feedback is an important step towards the learner

centeredness

In conclusion, giving and receiving feedback helps students

to develop their sensitivity and their own writing style In other

words, feedback is a fundamental element of a writing approach

when it pushes the students through the writing process on to the

eventual end-product

1.1.2 Types of feedback to students’ writing.

Comment [P11]: Check the APA

documentation style

16

A review of literature on writing reveals three major areas of

feedback as revision They are self-editing, peer feedback, and

teacher feedback

1.1.2.1 Self-editing

Comment [P12]: A comma between

„feedback‟ and „and‟

Self-editing is an important aspect of re-writing It is the last

thing a writer does before sending the manuscript off to their agent

or an editor Raimes (1983) supported this when he stated that

“What students really need, more than anything else, is to develop

the ability to read their own writing and to examine it critically, to

learn how to express their meaning fluently, logically, and

accurately” (p.149) This means students need to be able to find and

correct their own mistakes Students‟ attempt in language learning

is one of the crucial factors towards their success If a learner was

aware of self-editing and tried to learn from his own failure, he

would receive more chances of overcoming difficulties in learning

than others who did not care why they failed

In order to help students to have success in self-editing their

writing, some techniques are designed to help them apply the same

critical skills to their own written products at the right stage in the

process as all the techniques of reading closely and analyzing the writing

help with critical reading In fact, students need to hold the critical skills

in check as the ideas

are forming at the beginning of the process They also have to

know not only how to edit their own writing but when is the right

time to do it

However, self editing involves an ability to look at one‟s work

with an impersonal eye For some this can be difficult; the best thing to

do is to let one‟s completed manuscript sit for a month, then go

back and do a final edit

In other words, self-editing is more time – consuming than the other

types of feedback Also, it is unsuitable way for students with low

English proficiency to revise their writing

1.1.2.2 Peer feedback

Comment [P13]: Check grammar

Comment [P14]: Punctuation

Peer feedback is a part of larger category of educational activities inwhich students work together in groups According to Bartels (2004), peerfeedback means feedback from your fellow students If students are working onthe same assignment together, peer feedback means exchanging drafts andcomments on each other‟s drafts Peer feedback broadens learners‟involvement by giving them the additional roles of reader and advisor to gowith that of writer This addition of roles, hopefully, increases learner‟s insightinto the writing process A related benefit proposed for peer work is that ithelps learners become more autonomous, thus preparing them to write withoutteacher there to correct their errors Further, structuring face-to-face discussioninto the feedback process provides students the opportunity to engage inconstructive controversy which may lead to insights and greater taskengagement (Johnson & Johnson, 1987)

Peer feedback on student writing has been advocated for secondlanguage learners Jacobs (1987) discussed the benefits for learners ofinteraction with others when pointing out that such interaction can be thesource of cognitive conflict which can lead learners to reexamine and adjust theframeworks through which they view the word In addition, Rollinson (2005)found that peer feedback gives both readers and writers more time forcollaboration, consideration, and reflection

In deed, calls for the use of peer feedback may become more commonfor two reasons First, the growing popularity of teaching writing as a processwith several dimensions has made peer feedback more appropriate becausethere is more emphasis on revision Second, these dimensions of the writingprocess – creating ideas, sharing those ideas into a piece of writing, and thenfixing the form of that writing – provide more points at which feedback can beoffered

However, some teachers and students, particularly in L2, are worriedabout the using peer feedback in writing class because they fear students‟comments will cause as many problems as they solve, due to students‟ lack oflanguage ability (Jacobs, 1987)

1.1.2.3 Teacher’s feedback

Clearly, as the teachers are engaged in the process of responding response is considered “an essential step in the writing process” (Hyland,1990) He claimed that diligent marking provides students with an idea of thecriteria by which their work is judged Also, useful information that will helpstudents avoid similar errors in the future should be offered

teacher-An increasing number of studies have suggested a positive role of indirectteacher feedback, when it incorporated with student self-revision 1, infacilitating accuracy in L2 wiring Ferris and Roberts (2001) examined thedifferential effect of teacher feedback among university ESL student writers interms of the percentage of errors they could revise when they self-edited theirtexts across three feedback conditions: (1) errors marked with codes; (2) errorsunderlined with no codes and (3) no feedback at all Results showed largebeneficial effects for feedback groups versus the non-feedback group.However, differences in terms of the proficiency level between the feedbackgroup and the non-feedback group might be a confounding factor in their study.Chandler (2003) examined whether teacher feedback in the form of underlingerrors could help East Asian college students improve their writing accuracyand whether the effects would last over one semester The results of this studydemonstrated that formal accuracy of student writing improved significantly ifthe participants were required to correct their errors than if they were not.Results also exhibited a gain in accuracy which was not accompanied by adecline in fluency over the semester Findings of the study signified theimportance of student correction or revision, and it might be

possible that “if students did not revise their writing based on feedback about

errors, having teachers mark errors was equivalent to giving no error feedback”

A number of researchers have also attempted to directly investigated L2

students‟ preferences and reactions to teacher making techniques and their

beliefs about what constitutes effective feedback to writing Radecki and

Swales (1988), based on a survey of 59 ESL students‟ attitude towards

feedback on their written work, conclude that ESL teachers might lose their

credibility among their students if they do not correct all surface errors since

findings revealed that students seem to need and expect correction of all errors

Nugrahenny, (2007) carried out a study to explore Indonesian students'

attitudes toward teacher feedback The findings show that generally teachers

and students have a marked preference for teacher feedback The high

preference for teacher feedback was mainly the result of the respondents'

positive attitudes towards teacher feedback Interestingly, student preferences

for teacher feedback also stemmed from their awareness that teachers control

grades Students also show a high preference for feedback which focused on

language Moreover, the interview data illustrated that teacher feedback

contributed greatly to students' emotional states particularly their motivation

and attitudes towards writing

Compared with this growing but far from the conclusion of studies on

the written feedback strategies of teachers, it seems that teacher feedback is a

prominent aspect of responding to students‟ works Since students‟ beliefs

about feedback on writing may influence the degree of effectiveness of teacher

feedback, it is crucial to identify students‟ attitudes towards error correction

and their expectations regarding teacher feedback on their writing

1.2 The focus of teacher feedback

1.2.1 Types of teacher feedback

20

In general, teacher feedback can be transmitted in a variety of ways: in dialog

journals, mini-conferences during class workshops, written comment on student

drafts and student-teacher conferences In the scope of the thesis, the author

mentioned teacher corrective feedback only

In this section,types of

teacher corrective feedback and how these types influence the student revision

will be examined 1.2.1.1 Marginal versus end feedback

Marginal feedback is a kind of feedback that is written in the margin or

between sentence lines of the student‟s paper It refers to the teacher‟s

immediate intervention in discrete parts of the student‟s draft By contrast,

summary at the end of the paper called end feedback is normally an

overview of more consideration in an essay

In Ferris and Hedgcock‟s view (1998), there is no conclusive evidence

that either marginal or end comments are preferable or more effective

However, in case teachers can only give one form of commentary given

overwhelming number of papers and severe time constraints, a

comprehensive and clear endnote is strongly recommended When time

permits, writing teachers should try to make a combination of both to give

students more chance to revise their writing

1.2.1.2 Positive versus negative feedback

As far as teacher feedback is concerned, a lot of studies have been done

into the effects of positive and negative comments on the student revision

(Gee, 1972; Ferris, 1995) All the studies come to an agreement that the

students remember and appreciate encouraging remarks made by their

teachers Gee has gone far to assert that the students would have better

attitudes towards writing if they receive positive feedback

However, Ferris noted that a significant majority of her participants

described critical comments as being positive since they all helped them

Comment [P15]: Sour ce?

21

improve their papers This result suggested that students expect to

receive constructive criticism and are not necessarily offended by

this although they appear to enjoy and appreciate praises

1.2.1.3 Text – specific versus general feedback

Text-specific feedback is a kind of comment that directly

relates to the

text at hand; whereas; general feedback can be attached to any

paper

Many prominent scholars in the field argued that teacher

feedback is more helpful if it is a text-specific (Hillocks, 1986; Reid,

1993; Seow, 2002).Reid (1993, p.225)stated that “feedbackshould be informativeand detailed enough tohelp the studentswriters return to thetask of writing but not

so overwhelming thatthey cannot form arevision plan As they

response, and revise, students should be able to feel good about

what they have done well and realize that they can improve on what

they have not done effectively,” Seow (2002, p.317) show his

agreement that “text-specific responses, rather than rubber-stamped

comments by the teacher will help students rediscover meanings and

facilitate the revision of initial drafts” However, Ferris (1997)

argued that there is a role in teacher commentary for general

responses A general response of encouragement is no doubt better

than none This view has been well supported by Fathman and

Whalley‟s perspective that “general comment that do not refer to

specifics within a text can be effective …giving encouragements

helped improve the students‟ rewrites.” (1990, p 186)

1.2.1.4 Feedback focus on form versus on content

When responding to students‟ written work, teachers often face

with a big problem on choosing the best feedback to help their

students improve their writing This is difficult because there is a

little agreement among teachers or researchers about how teachers

should respond to student writing Much of the conflict over teacher

response to written work has been whether

Comment [P16]: Check punctuation

Comment [P17]: Fathman and

Whalley co mot bai bao rat hay ve chu de

nay day!

teacher feedback should focus on form (e , grammar, mechanics) or on content

(e.g., organization, amount of detail) Griffin (1982) has noted, “the major

question confronting any theory of responding to student writing is where we

should focus our attention” (p.299)

A small number of studies have focused on content alone Hillocks (1986)

concluded that “focused feedback can have an effect on certain aspects of

writing” (p.166) Additionally, Huntley (1992) maintained that feedback on

content should be provided to students while feedback on form should be

avoided, and she recommended that L2 teachers incorporate peer reviews and

student-teacher conferences in their teaching as two valuable alternative

feedback methods to traditional error correction These views led to the

suggestion that teachers should focus on content more than form and provide

content feedback between initial and final drafts of papers

However, some research findings have proved the teacher feedback focus

on form Enginarlar (1993), based on a survey of 47 EFL students‟ attitudes

towards the feedback procedure employed in their class, concluded that these

students perceive attention to linguistic errors as effective teacher feedback

Similarly, Ferris (1995) reached the same conclusion based on his respective

surveys of students‟ attitudes toward feedback in an EFL context Schulz

(1996) investigated Fl teacher and student beliefs about explicit grammar

instruction and error correction and also found that students preferred a focus

on form

1.2.2 Forms of teacher feedback

Ferris (1997) claimed that teacher feedback generally includes four basic

syntactic forms: question, statement, imperative, and exclamation They have

different pragmatic aims such as giving or asking for further information,

making requests for revision, giving positive feedback about what the students

has done well

23

In EFL writing classrooms, these forms can be used to provide

feedback to the students‟ works However, despite their advantages, each

form hasthepotentialproblemswhich

teacher should be aware of In terms of questions, Ferris warned that

“questions sometimes confuse students although they may stimulate

students‟ thinking process and help teachers avoid appropriating students‟

texts”; statements which give information are “not necessarily intended to

lead to specific changes” because they do not explicitly ask or tell the

student what to do, although many do contain important information that

teachers want the students to review while revising ; in terms of requests,

Ferris stated, “even though students appeared to understand from the

comment that something was required of them, they were less clear about

how to incorporate the requested changed successfully” (p.331) Therefore,

teachers should be careful in constructing their own feedback forms, in

explaining those feedback forms together with their pragmatic intents to the

students, and most importantly, in helping the students process the

comments and revise their drafts effectively

1.2.3 Major issues in giving teacher’s feedback

As far as teacher feedback in L2 writing classes is concerned, a number of

researchers have attempted to give an overview of issues involved in responding

to L2 writers‟ works (see, Leki, 1992; Ferri, 2003; Reid‟s, 1993…) In their

studies, major issues in responding to L1 writers seem to fall largely into three

categories: class goals, teacher role(s), and strategies of teacher feedback

In terms of class goals, Leki (1992) explored the problematic nature

of teacher feedback and then discussed how an ESL writing teacher‟s goal

for her students as writers might influence how, when, and what she

respond to She claimed that “we may resist the idea, our responses to the

writing of ESL students and our goals for them in our writing courses, are,

in fact, laden with

Comment [P18]: Check this

24

political context” (p.125) With regard to teacher‟s roles in Ls writing

classes, Raimes (1984) discussed the difficulty of composing in a

second language and of how teacher response can shape and potentially

get in the way of that process The main purpose of the researcher is to

suggest that ESL writing teachers need to pay more attention to the act

of writing and less to ESL She claimed that “one remedy for the aguish

of composing is to concentrate on the making of meaning, to

concentrate

on the act ofcomposinginstead ofperipherals”(p.92) Sheoffered three

which teacher

can do this: generating assignments for the class, giving feedback, and

providing readings In terms of providing feedback, Raimes suggested

that corrections are not the only kind of feedback teacher can give and

that working on developing grammatical forms should be a parallel

activity to composing

In regard to strategies of teacher feedback, Reid (1993) stated “in

teachers‟ attempt to evade the evils of appropriation taking over their

students‟ work, many ESL writing teachers have stopped working with

their students‟ texts altogether” (p.275) Though this withdrawal may

stem from

the best of intentions, Reid argued that teachers need to “accept their

responsibilities as cultural informants and as facilitators for creating social

discourse community in the ESL classroom” (p.275)

Summary

In summary, this chapter has so far touched upon issues relating

to the topic of the study It has mentioned the definition and the

importance of feedback, types of feedback and the focuses on teacher

feedback as well as major issues in giving teacher’s feedback in ESL

writing classroom The following chapter will focus on the study - its

methodology and findings – under the light of the above discussed

theories.

Comment [P19]: Check the

wording

25

CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY

This chapter focuses on the context of the study and the study The context

includes information about the setting and the writing program The study

concentrat

es on the methodolo

gy, data analysis, and findings and discussion.

2.1 Context of the study

2.1.1 The setting of the study

Thestudy was

carried out at the Boarding and High school for Ethnic Minority Students

in Tuyen Quang The school is located in Tuyen Quang Town It was

founded 50 years ago and is for ethnic minority students from all parts of

Tuyen Quang Province The purpose of the school is to train ethnic

minority students as good people who will greatly contribute to the

development of the province That is why the school is investigated

largely every year with good equipment and good working condition

There are about five hundred ethnic minority students studying at school

each year The total classes are fourteen and not very large size ones (about 30 –

35 students in each) There are thirty-eight teachers and most of them are

well-trained They are considered the most hard-working and enthusiastic

teachers of all in the province There are five teachers of the English Group at

the school Most of them are not very high-educated, but

Comment [P20]: thirty-eight

Comment [P21]:

high-educated

26

experienced teachers They spend a lot of their concerns about teaching

and improving students‟ English level However, they lack appropriate

teachingmethods andtechniques,especiallygiving

feedback They do not have an adequate knowledge about many fields

of language teaching; in other words, they need to be retrained

All the students are ethnic minorities groups They mostly come from

remote or mountainous areas of the province They are hard-working and

well-behaved students However, most of them have low ability in learning

Many of them have low English proficiency and their utterances are in words

or short prefabricated phrases Their grammar is mostly inaccurate and their

pronunciation requires concentrated listening As a result, they often have a

great anxiety in English classrooms Among four skills of English, they find

writing much more difficult than the others and often participate in writing

lessons unsuccessfully Despite their low ability, many of them are

continuously paying much more concerns about English as a core subject

and hope that their English level will be improved by their great

efforts Thus, they ask for help in writing skill

2.1.2 The writing program

2.1.2.1 Overview of the textbooks

The textbooks which are required to teach English in high

schools are English Basic 10, 11 and 12 They were developed based

on the new national curriculum The methodologies that the books

follow are “learner-centered approach and the communicative approach

with task-based teaching being the central teaching method” (English

10, Teacher‟s Manual: 12)

Each book includes 16 teaching units and six review units Each

teaching unit covers a topic and is sub-divided into five sections:

Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus Each part

is supposed to be taught in a period of 45 minutes

Comment [P22]: much more

difficult

Comment [P23]: check the

meaning!!!

27

The Writing section may begin with a model, followed by activities

that guide students through the writing process such as model analysis,

language work, and guided writing In this part, students are required to

produce various text types such as personal and formal letters, narratives,

chart, graph and table description, and expository essays The general and

specific objectives are set clearly in the books (Table 1, 2)

2.1.2.2 The teaching of writing skill.

Table 3:

Distribution of writing activitiesEngl

Engl

Engl

Tota

ish 10 ish 11 ish 12

The types of the texts that students are taught and made to practice in three

books are quite varied, ranging from forms, postcards, letters, and announcements

to mini-biographies, narratives, table descriptions, and expository essays A

glance at this variety seems to guide students to follow the process of writing than

the product However, according to Thuy Minh (20?, p.43) “the writing

approached adopted in the books seems to be product-oriented in the nature

emphasis seems to be placed on the end-result of writing rather than the

process of writing itself” She found that the writing section “normally begins

with some preparation work in which students are

Comment [P24]: end-result

28

required to analyze task requirements, work on models, or generate

ideas Then, it may proceed with one or two controlled or / and

guided writing activities and end with a freer writing activities” (p

43) This fact leads students to engage in imitating copying and

transforming models of correct language texts to the new writing

task There seems to be no explicit emphasis on the process of

planning, drafting,revision, and editing

Moreover, thetextbooks do not offermuch chance for freewriting practice Ascan be seen from the

table 3, among the 183 writing activities, 66 are for free writing

practice, account for 36% In other words, there is an average of only

0.5 free writing activity per unit This is quite far from the given goal

of teaching writing in CLT that is to enable learners to become more

independent and effective writers Also, Thuy Minh, based on a text

book evaluation, claimed that “writing involves more than putting

ideas into sentences and without adequate prior preparation (e.g

instruction about paragraph writing, working on models, controlled

and guided practice…” (p 45) She concluded that writing task in the

three textbooks would probably be too challenging and perhaps even

beyond students‟ ability As a result, the teachers have to adapt

writing tasks to match them with students‟ ability Also, the teachers

should know students‟ preferences for the feedback they receive to

give good responses to their students‟ written work

2.2 The study

2.2.1 Methodology

2.2.1.1 The subjects.

The subjects involved in the study include 100 students and 4

teachers from the Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority

Students in Tuyen Quang It may be very difficult to select a random

sample of individuals due to a large number of the students in the

department (more than 500 students)

Comment [P25]: Check the format of

questionnaires in class Moreover, these classes have been assigned with a

relative equal proportion of good, average, and poor English proficiency

students by the Department of English in each high school and there were

both males and females ineach class.The 4teachers areteachingEnglish in theclasses fromwhich thestudents arechosen to beinvolved in

the research They are both experienced and inexperienced teachers of the

Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students They are willing to

participate in the survey with the hope that the results of the study will help

them to have better understanding on students‟ preferences for teacher

feedback

2.2.1.2 The instruments:

Four instruments were used to collect the data for the study

Classroom observation was conducted within a month to get a quick

view on teachers‟ feedback-giving practice

A direct interview between the researcher and four teachers was

designed to examine more about the purpose of providing feedback, the types

and forms of feedback as well as the practice of error correction teachers

often use to give comments on the students‟ writings The interview was

formed in semi-structured questions

A questionnaire for the students examined students‟ attitudes toward

their teacher corrective feedback, the problems they often face up with in

writing classes as well as their preferred feedback type and form It consists

of nine questions and is divided into three parts Part I includes some short

questions on personal information of the participants Part II consists of

close-ended questions, open-ended questions and 3 Likert scales to explore

Comment [P26]: males Comment [P27]: females

30

students‟ opinions on the feedback they received Part III has three

open-ended questions to examine students‟ preferences for their teacher

corrective feedback on writing

The teachers‟ written comments on the students‟ drafts were done with

a view to obtaining the most truthful information about the teachers‟ current

practice of giving feedback

2.2.1.3 Data collection methods

The whole process was divided into four stages

At the first stage, the researcher carried out an observation on writing

lessons of four teachers The researcher attended eight periods of writing

lesson She observed teachers‟ feedback-giving practice carefully and took

notes all necessary information for the study

At the second stage, the researcher had a direct interview with each of

four teachers She interviewed each of them one by one All the talks were

inVietnamese

Duringtheinterview, theresearche

nearbytheinterview

ers, taking notes all the information which was then transcribed into

English

Then, the questionnaire was transcribed into Vietnamese and

distributed to 100 students The transcription of the questionnaire was done

to make sure that all the students understood all the questions The

researcher was also present to give any explanation if any confusion or

problem arises as the respondents are working on the questions

Finally, the writing drafts of the eight students on which there were

the teacher comments were collected at the beginning and the end of the

school year and analyzed

2.2.2 Data analysis

This part of the thesis concerns with the treatment of all the data

collected from classroom observation, direct interview between the

researcher

Comment [P28]: obtaining

and four teachers, the survey questionnaires conducted on 100 students, and theanalysis of the teacher commentary on the students‟ sample drafts

2.2.2.1 Data analysis of classroom observation

As a teacher of English Group, the researcher often attended differentEnglish classes at her school To collect data for this study, the researcherattended totally eight writing classes of four teachers She observed the waysfour teachers gave feedback to their students She found that despite differentteaching experience, all teachers seemed to apply the same feedbacktechniques All of them seemed to use corrective feedback quite often Thismeans they tended to focus their feedback on pointing out and correctingerrors Besides, most of them used both oral and written comments to givefeedback Interestingly, they rarely collected all students‟ papers They oftenshowed the students a sample in the end or applied teacher-student conferencewhen their students nearly finished their writing Three of them sometimescollected some papers to give written feedback at home, returning them to thestudents next period and asking the students to rewrite the drafts in exercisenotebook Obviously, all students are required to have an exercise notebook inwhich they write their homework Those notebooks will be collected randomlyduring the school year buy the teachers to assess students‟ learning effort.Also, they tended to focus on correcting errors on form and spelling Only oneteacher paid her attention to the content and organization of students‟ papers.Surprisingly, none of them applied other types of feedback such as peerfeedback or student self-monitoring in writing classes

2.2.2.2 Data analysis of direct interview between the researcher and

four teachers

2.2.2.2.1 Teachers’ demographic information

There were only one male and three female teachers taking part in thestudy The teacher‟s ages ranged from 28 to 50 Their experience in teachingEnglish quite varied from 5 years to 28 years during which they all have spent

4 years teaching writing to high school students since the writing section wasseparated from others in new English text books

2.2.2.2.2 Analysis of the interview

Firstly, all teachers were asked about their beliefs on the importance offeedback to teaching and learning writing skill Most of them agreed that

feedback played a very important role in writing lesson when stating that “We cannot ignore feedback when teaching writing because it is necessary to show out students’ errors so that they can improve their papers.” However, one teacher had a neutral view to the importance of feedback She said, “It is not necessary to give feedback to student quite often The writing task is not very difficult for the students when they are asked to write something similar to the sample” That is the reason why most of the teachers often respond to students‟

written work and only one of them sometimes gives feedback to her students

When being asked about purpose of giving feedback, all of the teachers

said that they wanted to help the students to improve their writing “I want my students to have a positive attitude towards writing and that is why I try to give feedback as clearly as possible so that they will not make the same mistake again and rewrite better paper”, one of them said Also, the majority

considered feedback as a good way to justify the grade given students‟ writing

They stated that “we often give mark to students’ paper so that they will know how they write and what level they are in”.

In terms of feedback types, teachers seemed to have different choices fordifferent types of feedback Most of the teachers tended to locate theircomments in the margin of students‟ papers The same number of teachers

sometimes gave comments at the end of the papers Regarding the teachers‟provision of general or specific feedback, all the teachers utilized specificcomments than the general ones Moreover, teachers tended to use morepositive feedback to raise students‟ strength Most of the teachers never gavenegative feedback to their students What they said are as follows:

“I like to write my comments in the margin of students’ paper because I want to show specific comments to my students.”

“Students will be confused a lot if we write our comment in general at the end of the paper.”

“Writing comments at the end of the paper takes a lot of time when we have to overview all the errors and categorize them.”

“I often write such comments “Quite good, very good or try harder” in

my students’ paper because I want to encourage them to write more and more”.

“I avoid giving negative comment to my students because they are ethnic minority students who feel embarrassed quite easily When they are not encouraged, they will keep silence and write something invaluable That’s too bad.”

In terms of feedback forms, all teachers said that they often usedstatement and imperative when responding to students‟ papers They thought itwas easy for them to write short, clear comments with such feedback forms

They said, “My students do not like to receive a question or an exclamation in their paper They want some things in detail How can I write something clear enough with a question?”

When being asked about the focus of teacher feedback on differentfeatures of writing such as grammar, punctuation, spelling, vocabulary choice,the organization, and the ideas expressed in the paper… teachers seemed tohighly concentrate on pointing out errors in grammar and

punctuation In terms of spelling and vocabulary choice, half of them agreedthat they often pointed out errors in these two features However, not many ofthem focused on the organization of the paper and the ideas expressed in thepaper Their opinions are as follows:

“My students often make a lot of errors in grammar such as verb tenses, article use, subject and verb agreement…etc and spelling They rarely have errors in organization of the paper and sometimes errors in ideas expressed This does not mean they have high level of English, but they follow a sample which guides them the organization of the paper.”

“Students do not have to write any essay in English current tests, so it is not necessary to focus much on the organization of the paper and the ideas expressed.”

“I try to focus my feedback in pointing out errors in grammar, spelling, and vocabulary choice because students need to improve their knowledge about these features to complete successfully the English current test which focus much on form”.

Regarding error indication, most of the teachers often indicate students‟errors by crossing what is incorrect and writing the correct word or structure.They sometimes showed the location of the error is and gave clue about how

to correct it They never ignored errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation…etc,and only paying attention to the ideas expressed If there were many errors in apaper, they said they tried to correct all errors as many as possible What theysaid are as follows:

“I often indicate students’ errors by underlining the errors and write the correct ones”

“I think most of the students have low English proficiency, so they want

to have all errors corrected.”