VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI University of LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL studies FACULTY of postgraduate studies TrÞnh ThÞ Thanh Xu©n PEER- FEEDBACK IN IMPROVING WRITING SKILLS: PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHERS AND SECOND-YEAR NON- ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY Ng-êi häc ch÷a bµi cho ng-êi häc trong ph¸t triÓn kü n¨ng viÕt: NhËn thøc cña gi¸o viªn vµ sinh viªn n¨m thø hai kh«ng chuyªn tiÕng Anh t¹i tr-êng §¹i häc Kinh Doanh vµ C«ng NghÖ Hµ Néi MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 Course: K16 SUPERVISOR: Vò THóY QUúNH, M. HANOI - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement i Abstract ii Declaration iii Lists of tables, figures and appendices iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. The rationale of the study 1 1. Aims of the study and research questions 2 1.
Scope of the study 2 1. Significance of the study 3 1. Methods of the study 3 1. Organization of the thesis 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.
Definitions of feedback to students’ writing 5 2. Types of feedback to students’ writing 6 2. Advantages and disadvantages of doing peer written feedback in the teaching and learning of writing 8 2. Guiding principles for effective peer written feedback 11 2.
Summary 14 CHAPTER 3: THE METHODOLOGY 3. The current situation of teaching and learning writing at HUBT 15 3. Data collection procedure 18 3. Data analysis procedure 19 3.
Summary 19 CHAPTER 4: DATA PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION 4. Teachers’ perception on students’ written feedback 20 4. Teachers’ perception on the advantage of students’ written feedback 21 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Teachers’ perception on the disadvantage of students’ written feedback 22 4.
Students’ perception on peer written feedback 24 4. Students’ perceived difficulties in indicating the mistakes in their peers’ writing 25 4. Students’ perceived difficulties in providing suggestions for the mistakes in their peers’ writing 29 4. Students’ perception on the advantage of peer written feedback 34 4.
Students’ perception on the disadvantage of students’ written feedback 36 4. Improvement of students’ writing after receiving peer written feedback 37 4. Implications of using peer written feedback in improving teaching and learning writing skill 40 4. Summary 41 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.
Limitations of the study 43 5. Suggestions for further studies 43 References Appendices LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi LISTS OF TABLES Table 1: Students’ perceived difficulties in indicating the mistakes in their peers’ writings 25 Table 2: Students’ perceived difficulties in providing suggestions for the mistakes indicated in their peers’ writings 30 Table 3: Students’ improvement in grammar and vocabulary after receiving peer written feedback 39 Table 4: Students’ improvement in grammar after receiving peer written feedback 40 Table 5: Students’ improvement in vocabulary after receiving peer written feedback 41 LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 1: Teachers' perception on students’ written feedback 20 Figure 2: Teachers’ perception on the advantage of students’ written feedback 21 Figure3: Teachers’ perception on the disadvantage of students’ written feedback 22 Figure 4: Students’ perception on peer written feedback 24 Figure 5: Students’ perception on the advantage of peer written feedback 34 Figure 6: Students’ perception on the disadvantage of peer written feedback 36 LISTS OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire I Appendix 2: Checklists V Appendix 3: Symbols for correcting mistakes VI LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. The rationale of the study. Nowadays, English is considered to be one of the key factors that help our country make faster progress on the way of industrialization, modernization and integrate into the world.
Therefore, the demand to master English, that is to use the four language skills fluently, is becoming essential to students in general and students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) in particular. Of the four language skills, writing seems to be the most difficult but really important skill among the other three: listening, reading, and speaking, because it is especially necessary for students to acquire English for Specific Purpose (ESP) lessons in their academic program. Thus, one of the vital responsibilities of English teachers is to help students enhance their writing skills. With the effort to help students improve their writing skills, peer feedback is employed in the writing classes at HUBT.
The use of peer feedback especially peer written feedback can be regarded as one of the most significant applications in the writing classes. Feedback plays a very crucial role in motivating further learning as it informs learners about their level of English proficiency or their needs for improvement. Brown (1994) considers feedback as one of the keys to successful learning. Chiu (2008), Zhang (2008), Min (2006) and Paulus (1999) have also proved that feedback constitutes an important aspect of fostering the improvement of writing.
Paulus (1999) has found that peer feedback helps students discover whether they communicate successfully and encourages them to revise to improve their texts. Moreover, peer feedback is also regarded as a powerful way in improving critical thinking and evaluation of the real audience rather than the traditional teachers’ responses (Berg, 1999, Hyland, 2003, Topping, 1998, cited in Chiu, 2008). Furthermore, peer written feedback can reduce the heavy workload of marking for teachers when students get used to with this activity. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 However, still there has not much concern about this activity among teachers at HUBT.
There have been some studies on giving feedback on writing, but they mainly focus on the ways teachers provide feedback. Moreover, the assessment of progress made by students in writing after receiving peer written feedback seems not to be highlighted. Thus, a study on “Peer- feedback in improving writing skills: Perceptions of teachers and second-year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology” should be carried on. Aims of the study and research questions This research is designed to investigate teachers and students’ perceptions on peer feedback in improving writing skills at Hanoi University of Business and Technology.
The aims of the study are to find out teachers’ and students’ perceptions of written feedback provided by peer students on their writings and the improvement of students’ writing after receiving peer written feedback. The thesis also hope to propose some implications for the teaching and learning writing using peer written feedback and provide some suggestions for the further studies. To gain these aims, the research questions are as follows: 1. What are teachers’ perceptions on students’ written feedback? 2.
What are students’ perceptions on peer written feedback? 3. How do students improve their writings after receiving peer written feedback? 1. Scope of the study In practice, students can provide peer feedback in both oral and written forms on their peer writings. However, within the framework of this minor thesis, the study only focuses on the peer written feedback in writing paragraph among second year non-major English students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Significance of the study Theoretically, the study proves that peer written feedback is very important to the teaching and learning of writing. Peer written feedback has a number of advantages. Peer written feedback is considered to give both readers and writers more chances for collaboration, consideration and reflection than oral negotiation.
Practically, the study indicates that using peer written feedback not only reduces the marking load of teachers but also improves students’ learning efficiency in writing. And when students spend time reading their peers’ writings, they may become more critical readers and efficient writers. Methods of the study In order to obtain adequate information for the study, two methods- document analysis and survey- were used. First, 100 students’ first drafts were analyzed to find out how students provide written feedback to their peers’ writings; then these drafts were compared to the second ones to see whether the peer written feedback helps students improve their writings.
Second, the survey questionnaire was done on 100 students and 30 teachers to find out their perceptions on students’ written feedback in the improvement of writing skills. Organization of the study The thesis consists of five chapters as follows: Chapter 1- Introduction- briefly presents the rationale, the aims, research questions, scope as well as the significance and organization of the study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 Chapter 2- Literature review- discusses the literature related to the feedback in writing, types of feedback to students’ writing, advantages and disadvantages of doing peer written feedback in the teaching and learning of writing as well as the guiding principles for effective peer written feedback. Chapter 3- The methodology- describes the current situation of the teaching and learning writing at HUBT and the methodology dealing with the participants, instrumentation, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure.
Chapter 4- Data Presentation and Discussion- analyzes and discusses the data then draws the implications for the teaching and learning of writing using peer written feedback. Chapter 5- Conclusion- summarizes the main findings of the study, states its limitations and offers suggestions for further study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Definitions of peer feedback The term “feedback” has been defined in various ways, among which the one by Liu and Hansen (2002) is one of the most comprehensive.
Liu and Hansen considers feedback as “the use of learners as sources of information and interactants for each in such a way that learners assume roles and responsibilities normally taken on by formally trained teacher, tutor, or editor in commenting on and critiquing each other’s drafts in both written and oral formats in the process in the process of writing” (p. Simply stated, peer feedback in writing involves sharing one’s writing with a group of peer readers who offer feedback and suggestions for improvement. Due to the great effect of peer feedback on students’ revision in particular and on students’ writing skill in general, teachers have increasingly required their students’ responsibility for not only their own writings but also for those of their peers. According to Keh, feedback is “any input from a reader to a writer with the effect of proving the information to the writer for revision” (1990, p.
In other words, after reading the others’ writing, the reader gives comments, questions and suggestions with a purpose to help him/her revise the writing. Second language writing research (Hedgcock and Lefkowitz, 1992 and Paulus, 1990) has found that peer feedback comments can lead to meaningful revisions, and that compared with the teacher feedback, revisions based on peer comment can be better in vocabulary, organization and content. Moreover, peer feedback was considered a necessary component in the process writing approach. As Raimes notes, “response to students’ writing is very much a part of the process of teaching writing” (1983, p.
If students write only one draft which is then graded by the teacher, feedback on what is wrong in the composition comes too late. Therefore, feedback should be provided in the process of writing. That means feedback is crucial for the success of the writing task. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Types of feedback to students’ writing Feedback to students’ writing consists of three major types. These types to writing texts are: teacher’s feedback, self-assessment and peer feedback. Teacher’s feedback It is no doubt that teacher written feedback “can not be ignored” in teaching and learning writing. However, concerning the matter of teacher’s written feedback, there exists a huge number of unfavorably understanding so far.
It raises the question of whether teacher’ kind of correction and comment match students’ expectations (Murphy, 1994) or still presents a mismatch (Charles, 1990). A factor that possibly leads to the failure of the teachers’ feedback is the mismatch between students and teachers’ preferences for comments. Cohen (1987) and Cohen and Cavalcanti (1990) reported that students preferred to receive more feedback on content but were getting more feedback on grammar and mechanics.