VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES HOÀNG THỊ DUYÊN IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY BY USING WRITTEN CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT TIEN PHONG HIGH SCHOOL, ME LINH, HA NOI (CẢI THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG VIẾT CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 BẰNG VIỆC CHỮA LỖI DƯỚI HÌNH THỨC VIẾT: NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT TIỀN PHONG, MÊ LINH, HÀ NỘI) Hanoi - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES HOÀNG THỊ DUYÊN IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY BY USING WRITTEN CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT TIEN PHONG HIGH SCHOOL, ME LINH, HA NOI (CẢI THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG VIẾT CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 BẰNG VIỆC CHỮA LỖI DƯỚI HÌNH THỨC VIẾT: NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT TIỀN PHONG, MÊ LINH, HÀ NỘI) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa.D Hanoi – 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF PROJECT REPORT I certify my authority of the Study Project Report submitted entitled Improving grade 10 students’ writing ability by using written corrective feedback: An action research project at Tien Phong high school, Me Linh, Ha Noi in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Hanoi, January 2017 Hoang Thi Duyen i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to register my profound gratitude to Ms. Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, my respected supervisor, for her invaluable instruction, contribution and great care to my research. I wish to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to the teachers of Department of Post - Graduate Studies who have supplied me with the good conditions to conduct this thesis and finish this M. My thanks go to my managers at Tien Phong high school, my colleagues for their assistance, encouragement during the time I participated in M.
Also, I owe my debt to my students who are the subjects of my thesis for their willingness to answer my questionnaires, interviews. Lastly, I am also grateful to my families for their kindly encouragement during the research’s finalization. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Many language educators and researchers (e., Nunan; 1987; Horwitz, 1988; Schulz, 2001) claim that matching the expectations of teachers and students is important for successful language learning. Therefore, it is important for teachers to be aware of the impact of their corrective feedback practices on students’ expectations and writing accuracy.
Accordingly, this study is an attempt to find ways to improve writing skill by investigating the effect of some types of written corrective feedback on writing performance and the students’ attitudes towards teachers’ corrective feedback at Tien Phong High school. The participants included 35 students from grade 10. The data were collected from survey questionnaires for students, the direct interview with nine students and students’ written work. The results show that teacher’s written corrective feedback helps improve students’ writing ability.
However, there is a slight mismatch between teachers’ beliefs and students’ preferences for teacher corrective feedback regarding feedback types and forms. On this basis, the study recommends a number of directions for teachers to help them improve their feedback practices more effectively. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF PROJECT REPORT. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Identification of the problem. Aims of the study and research questions. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Methods of the study. Organization of the paper. 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Major approaches to teaching writing. The product approach. The process writing approach. Definition of writing ability.
Writing ability implied in product/text-oriented approach. Writing ability implied in process/cognitive-oriented approach. Writing ability implied in reader/genre-oriented approach. Definition of corrective feedback.
Forms of feedback. Types of corrective feedback to students’ writing. Teachers' written corrective feedback strategies. Teacher direct corrective feedback.
Teacher indirect corrective feedback .15 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Teacher metalinguistic corrective feedback. Previous studies on teacher’s written corrective feedback. Different views about the roles of teacher written corrective feedback.
Arguments for the role of teacher written corrective feedback. Arguments against the role of teacher written corrective feedback. Factors affecting the effectiveness of written corrective feedback. Nature of errors .24 CHAPTER 3: METHOD AND PROCEDURE.
Overview of action research .1: Steps in the action research cycle. The research procedures. Data collection instruments. 34 CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Effects of three common types of feedback on students’ writing performance. Effects of three common types of feedback on students’ revised writing papers. The effects of three common types of feedback on students’ new writing exercises. Students’ opinions towards different types of corrective feedback and their preference each type of teacher corrective feedback.
Students’ opinions towards teacher corrective feedback in general.44 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Students’ preference for each type of teacher corrective feedback. Students’ expectations for better use of teacher corrective feedback. 49 For more effective use of teacher written corrective feedback, teachers and students should bear the following suggestions in mind.
Summary of the main findings. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further study.55 APPENDIX A vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 2.1: Ellis’ typology of feedback types (2009 p.1: Steps in the action research cycle .1: Timetable of the action implementation .1: Effects of three common types of feedback on students’ revised writing exercises .2: Taxonomy of errors and their frequency in Stage 1 .3: Taxonomy of errors and their frequency in Stage 2 .4: Taxonomy of errors and their frequency in Stage 3 .5: Students’ attitudes towards the use of teacher written corrective feedback. 45 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.
Identification of the problem Nowadays, English is considered to be one of the key factors that help our country make faster progress on the way of industrialization and modernization. As a result, the English language has rapidly become the most popular first foreign language among Vietnamese people, especially at schools, colleges and universities. For learners of English, the English language surely brings about a better career prospect, so the demand to use English fluently as well as to master the four basic skills is becoming essential among all students. Of the four main skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing, writing is the most difficult and least preferable skill to be learnt, because it needs hard thinking in producing words, sentences, and paragraph at the same time.
According to Richards, J. (2002), “writing is the most difficult skill for second language learners to master. The difficulty lies not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating these ideas into readable text.” Writing, undeniably, is amongst the most prominent skills that language learners need to learn as an essential component of their academic practice and later on in their professional life. Therefore, helping students enhance their writing skills is one of the teachers’ responsibilities and desirability.
This partially explains why teaching writing has prompted a great deal of research that covers various aspects of its broad instructional contexts. The literature review reveals that the effects of teacher written corrective feedback on students’ writing remain to be inconclusive. However, numerous studies on the use of corrective feedback in writing classes have shown that written corrective feedback can be applied in writing classes to improve students’ writing accuracy (Liu, 2008; Kaweera, 2008; Ferris, 2000; Ferris et al. It is obvious that one of the most meaningful and important methods of teaching writing is the use of written corrective feedback because it allows teacher-to-student 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com interaction in the second language writing class (Ferris, Pezone, Tade, & Tinti, 1997).
Many L2 writing teachers feel that written corrective feedback is influential in the improvement of their students' L2 writing accuracy (Brown, 2007; Hyland & Hyland, 2006).139) also notes, “Responding to students’ writing is very much a part of the process of teaching writing”. That means corrective feedback is very necessary for the success of the writing tasks. In my own teaching experience, I have found out that most students find themselves uncomfortable during the writing lessons and they are unsatisfied with their writing ability. As a result, they are reluctant to write and always find themselves unprepared for the task of writing.
Aware of the importance of teaching writing skill, I, myself, always try my best to make the writing lessons more interesting by applying various teaching approaches, adapting textbooks to make the lessons more suitable for the students to learn. However, my efforts seem not effective at all, the student cannot improve their writing competence. For all the aforementioned reasons, I think that it would be necessary to have an investigation into teacher’s written corrective feedback and students’ perception of those corrective feedback so I wish to conduct a study entitled “Improving grade 10 students’ writing ability by using written corrective feedback: An action research project at Tien Phong high school, Me Linh, Ha Noi” 1. Aims of the study and research questions This research is designed to investigate the effectiveness of written corrective feedback on improving students’ writing performance.
It also investigates the students’ opinions of the types of written corrective feedback they get from their teachers. In order to achieve those aims, the research attempts to answer the following questions: 1. To what extent do students improve their writing ability after receiving written corrective feedback? 2. What are the students’ opinions about their teacher’s feedback types? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Scope of the study Corrective feedback in writing can be provided by any reader of a composition such as peers, friends or instructors and can be given in both oral and written forms. However, within the framework of a minor thesis, this study focuses only on the types of written feedback provided by teachers in language classrooms. In addition, due to the limited scope of this study, the participants selected are only students from the class that I directly teach. Significance of the study The study proves that written corrective feedback is crucial to the teaching and learning of writing.
Written corrective feedback offers a number of advantages. It gives both the readers and the writers more opportunities for collaboration, consideration and reflection than oral negotiation and debate. It also gives the teacher a better chance of closely following the progress of individuals and groups, both in terms of the feedback offered and revisions made. Methods of the study This study was implemented with the hope to improve the students’ English writing skills, two methods were used in order to obtain adequate information for the study.
They were document analysis and action research which is aimed at improving a situation. After carrying out a preliminary investigation, a writing instruction course was designed, and different types of teacher written corrective feedback were applied. The data were collected by the analysis of students’ writing and students’ survey questionnaires, interviews. Students’ writings were collected and analyzed before, during and after treatment period (i.
the delivery of feedback) to measure the students’ progress in their writing performance. In addition, students’ survey questionnaires, interviews were collected and analyzed at the end of the research to find out their attitudes towards each feedback type and its effects. Organization of the paper The paper consists of five chapters as follows: Chapter 1 – Introduction – briefly states the rationale of the study, the aims, research questions, scope as well as the significance and organization of the study.