VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES CHU THỊ THANH HUYỀN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPLICATION OF TEACHERS’ FEEDBACK STRATEGIES FOR THE SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ERRORS AT PEOPLE’S POLICE COLLEGE I (Nghiên cứu về việc áp dụng các chiến lược sửa lỗi của giảng viên đối với các lỗi nói của sinh viên năm thứ hai tại trường Cao Đẳng Cảnh Sát Nhân Dân I) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES CHU THỊ THANH HUYỀN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPLICATION OF TEACHERS’ FEEDBACK STRATEGIES FOR THE SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ERRORS AT PEOPLE’S POLICE COLLEGE I (Nghiên cứu về việc áp dụng các chiến lược sửa lỗi của giảng viên đối với các lỗi nói của sinh viên năm thứ hai tại trường Cao Đẳng Cảnh Sát Nhân Dân I) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dương Thu Mai , Ph.D Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that this thesis is entirely my own work. I have provided fully documented references to the others’ work. The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course. I also accept all the requirements of university relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library.
Hanoi, September 2014 Student’s signature Chu Thị Thanh Huyền i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of writing this thesis, I have been fortunate to receive supports and assistance from a variety of people. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Duong Thu Mai, PhD, for her enthusiastic encouragement and guidance throughout the research. Without her well-designed plan and meticulous review of the drafts, this thesis would not have been completed.
I also wish to thank all the professors for enriching my knowledge about English teaching methodology and research methodology. My great thanks are also sent to all the staff members of the faculty of Post graduate studies who gave me the best environment to fulfill my thesis. I would like to acknowledge and express my appreciation to my colleagues at People’s Police College I (PPC I) for their great supports and constructive suggestions in completing this research. Last but not least, my thanks are extended to the second-years students at PPC I who took part in this study, for it was their hard work that provided the useful raw data.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT English is regarded as a basic and important subject at People’s Police College I (PPC I) and students here are expected to achieve the pre-intermediate level in English as well as the ability to communicate in English in normal contexts after graduation. However, their speaking skills still have many limitations and need much more instruction from their teachers. The study aims at exploring teachers’ feedback strategies for the second- year students’ speaking errors at PPC I. Three instruments, including questionnaire for teachers and students, semi- structured interviews with teachers, and class observations were employed to achieve the purposes of the study.
The subjects involved in this study were 16 teachers, including 15 females and 1 male, who have at least 3 years experience in teaching English at PPC I and second- year students in four classes. They were invited to participate in the survey questionnaire, interviews and class observation. Other participants are the 256 students in four classes which were observed during eight speaking lessons. Among them, 38 students who received individual feedback and another 40 representative students who received feedback for the whole class were asked to evaluate their teachers’ feedback through questionnaire for students.
It was induced in the study that most teachers of English at PPC I used a variety of feedback strategies towards their students’ speaking errors and the way they applied those strategies was varied. As regards the students, they showed a strong need for teachers’ feedback as well as general satisfaction with the feedback they received. The findings suggest some suitable and effective ways for teachers in applying feedback strategies to make certain positive changes in their teaching methodology as well as to help students improve their English competence. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF FIGURE, TABLES AND CHARTS .viii PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Significance of the study. Design of the study.
6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Communicative language competence and second language acquisition 6 1. Communicative language competence. Second language acquisition.
Definitions of language errors. The role of errors in SLA. Classification of errors. Overview of feedback strategies.
Definitions of feedback. The importance of feedback. Teachers’ beliefs about feedback. Students’ attitudes towards feedback.
The definition of speaking errors. The classification of speaking errors. Feedback strategies for speaking errors.20 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Types of feedback strategies for speaking errors.
The selection of errors to give feedback. The selection of people who give correction. Review of the previous studies on feedback strategies for students’ speaking errors. Setting of the study.
Data collection instruments. Questionnaire for the teachers. Questionnaire for the students. Semi-structured interviews with teachers.
Data collection and analysis procedures. Data collection procedures. Data analysis procedures. 34 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.
Research question 1: Second- year students’ most frequent speaking errors. Findings from Teachers’ questionnaire. Findings from Teachers’ interviews. Findings from class observation.
Research question 2: Teachers’ beliefs and application of feedback strategies for students’ speaking errors. 38 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Teachers’ beliefs in feedback. Findings from Teachers’ questionnaire.
Teachers’ application of feedback strategies. Findings from Teachers’ questionnaire. Findings from Teachers’ interviews. Findings from class observation.
Research question 3: Students’ attitudes towards teachers’ use of feedback strategies for their speaking errors. Findings from Students’ questionnaire. Limitations and suggestions for further research. IX vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PPC I: People’s Police College I L2: Second Language SLA: Second Language Acquisition ESL: English as Second Language EFL: English as Foreign Language CLT: Communicative Language Teaching vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURE, TABLES AND CHARTS Chart 3.
Students’ most frequent speaking errors from teachers’ questionnaire. Students’ speaking errors from class observation. Teachers’ beliefs about feedback strategies for students’ speaking errors. Comparison of types of errors teachers give feedback for individuals and for the whole class.
Characteristics of errors for teachers to base on to give feedback. Teachers’ frequency of giving feedback. Time of giving feedback for individual and the whole class. Types of feedback from Teachers’ questionnaire.
Error corrector for individual and the whole class. Time of giving feedback from class observation. Teachers’ use of feedback types from class observation. The selection of correctors from class observation.
Questionaire for students receiving individual feedback. Questionaire for students receiving feedback for the whole class. Illustration of 8 class observations of students’ speaking errors and teachers’ feedback. ix viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION This part presents the rationale of the study, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methods, the significance, and the design of the study.
Rationale of the study Theoretically, many researches and journals about language learning and teaching reveal that students’ errors in general and speaking errors in particular are commonly seen in any English class, including such non- native contexts as in Vietnam. Numerous researchers in linguistic field have shown their viewpoints about errors in language learning process. Dulay, Burt and Krashen (1982, p.138) state that “people cannot learn language without first systematically committing errors”.14) points out that learner errors are “learning steps”. Similarly, some researchers such as Bartram and Walton (1991), and Widdowson (1990) affirm that errors are evidence of how much learners achieve their goals in the target language.
From these points, it can be said that language errors play an important role in language learning and in assessing learners’ performance. The issue of language errors is closely related to teacher’s feedback in English class because feedback “has the properties of informing, regulating, strengthening, sustaining, and error eliminating” (Han, 2001, p. Although students’ speaking errors are inevitable and the feedback for their errors is not required explicitly in any book, it is crucial that students’ speaking errors should be paid attention carefully and seriously by the teachers of English. It is believed that teachers’ application of feedback will have certain effects on students’ progress.
However, it can have both negative and positive effects on students’ learning. Consequently, it is worth doing research on teachers’ feedback strategies for students’ speaking errors in order to enhance students’learning success and achievement. Practically, numerable studies have been conducted on language errors or written error correction and some on oral correction in classroom environments. After all the studies, the application of feedback strategies for speaking errors has still been a controversial issue for many researchers.
Some reseachers show negative viewpoints on error corrections: Pienemann (1985, p37) states that “The teachability hypothesis predicts that instruction can only promote language LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download 1 : add luanvanchat@agmail.com acquisition if the interlanguage is close to the point when the structure to be taught is acquired in the natural setting”, which means that if teachers point out and correct the errors that the learners are not yet ready to learn, this error correction has little value. Similarly, Clampitt (2001) asserts that no matter how many times a certain grammatical structure is corrected, until the learners are ready to learn and internalise the structure, they will not be able to use it properly on a regular basis. Furthermore, in terms of effect of error correction, Truscott (1996) insists that grammar correction has negative and harmful effects, because it discourages and demotivates learners. However, it is felt that the negative standpoints on error correction do not come from itself, but the unexpected consequences are resulted from the way correction or feedback is delivered.
Meanwhile, the supporters of feedback or error correction prove their viewpoints persuasively. The results of Carroll and Swain’s study (1993) claim that various types of feedback, including explicit and implicit corrections are helpful for L2 learners to acquire abstract linguistic generalisations. They assert that negative feedback can help the learners “narrow the range of possible hypotheses that can account for the data” (p. Moreover, Nunan and Lamb (1996, p.68) assert that making errors and subsequent teacher corrections “can provide the learners with valuable information in the target language”.
Specifically, at People’s Police College I, English is taught as one of the compulsory subjects like other colleges or universities in Vietnam. The aim of the English course in this college is to provide students with basic knowledge of English language and the ability to communicate in English. However, it is a matter of fact that students at PPC I have a lot of difficulties in speaking skill because of some reasons: lack of vocabulary, low motivation, large- scale class, and fear of speaking errors. Consequently, students here make many speaking errors and find it hard to express their ideas in English.
These errors were commonly and repeatedly seen in all classes. The real situation leads to a hypothesis that the way teachers of English at PPC I deal with students’ speaking errors may have great effect on students’ speaking ability.