TABLE OF CONTENTS Sub cover page Statement of authorship Acknowledgements CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION. Background of the research. Rationale of the study. Significance of the research.
Outline of the research. 11 CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW. The importance of English speaking skills. The importance of public speaking to third-year English majors.
Criteria of a good speech. Public speaking as a process. Overview of course outline and evaluation form currently used at HUCFL. Problems in public speaking commonly faced by English majors.
Definition and purposes of feedback. Definition of feedback. Purposes of feedback. The role of teacher feedback.
Components of teacher feedback. Kinds of feedback. Positive and negative feedback. Content feedback and form feedback.
Forms of teacher feedback: written vs. Teacher feedback in public speaking. Feedback on verbal language. Feedback on non-verbal language.
Errors and error correction. Definitions and causes of error. Causes of errors. Kinds of errors/mistakes.
Techniques for correcting mistakes in speaking. 39 CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Students‟ views towards teacher feedback on their performance in PS. Students‟ views towards the importance and necessity of TF on their performance in public speaking.
Students‟ views towards the procedure of teacher feedback. Students‟ views towards content of teacher feedback. Students‟ views towards the manner of teacher when giving feedback. Students‟ views toward the difficulties when receiving TF.
Students‟ views towards the improvements needed to be done on their TF. Components of teacher feedback in public speaking. Forms of teacher feedback. Content of teacher feedback in public speaking.
Kinds of teacher feedback:. Techniques that teachers use to correct mistakes in students presentation. Teacher feedback on verbal language:. Teacher feedback on non verbal language.
Manner of teacher in giving feedback. Difficulties teachers face when giving feedback:. Preferred form of performance for teacher to ease the feedback session. Teachers‟ suggestions on how to make TF effective in order to enhance students‟ speaking ability.
65 CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of the key findings. Third-year English majored students‟ views towards their TF. Components of teacher feedback on SPPS.
Suggestions of improving TF to enhance students‟ speaking ability. For EFL teachers. For policy makers. Suggestions for further studies.
Questionnaire for EFL students (English and Vietnamese version). Questionnaire for EFL teachers. Questions for semi –structured interview with EFL. Video Analysis – methodology.
Transcribed video recordings. Result from video analysis. Result from EFL teachers‟ questionnaire. Samples of evaluation sheet at Hue College of Foreign Languages 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA: Bachelor of Arts EFL: English as a second language HUCFL: Hue University College of Foreign Languages MA: Master of Arts PS: Public speaking SPPS: students‟ performance in public speaking TF: teacher feedback TFPS: teacher feedback in public speaking Vid.T3: Video Recording of the teacher 3 Vid.T5: Video Recording of the teacher 5 Vid.T7: Video Recording of the teacher 7 Vid.T10: Video Recording of the teacher 10 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 4.
The necessity of teacher feedback on students’ performance in PS Table 4. Preferred teacher feedback procedure Table 4. Students’ views towards the advantages of teacher feedback Table 4. Students’ views towards teacher’s manner of giving feedback Table 4.
Improvements should be made on teacher feedback Table 4. Difficulties in giving feedback Table 4. Teacher’s suggestions on their feedback on students’ performance in public speaking 5 LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1 Students’ views towards the importance of teacher feedback in PS Chart 4.2 Forms of teacher feedback Chart 4. Students’ views on the content of teacher feedback in PS Chart 4.
How students grasp their teacher feedback 6 ABSTRACT This study was carried out with the aim to investigate the current practice of teacher feedback on third-year English majors‟ performance in public speaking at Hue College of Foreign Languages (HUCFL). It particularly seeks to examine (1) students‟ views towards their teacher feedback, (2) the components of teacher feedback and (3) teachers‟ suggestions on how feedback can be improved to enhance speaking skills. The subjects for this study consisted of 80 third-year students majoring in English, and ten teachers of public speaking at HUCFL. The data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and video recordings, and then analyzed based on both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
The qualitative approach played the dominant role in this research. The findings of the research showed that, a vast majority of students acknowledged the vital role of teacher feedback on their performances in public speaking and hoped that their teachers listened carefully to their performances and spent more time giving them feedback. Regarding the components of teacher feedback, questions on the form of feedback, techniques of corrective feedback, feedback on verbal language and nonverbal language, and the preferred form of presenting a public speech were all employed in the public speaking sessions. Also, regarding the difficulties that teachers encountered when giving feedback, there were problems such as class size and time allocated for giving feedback.
Many valuable ideas were suggested by teachers, especially the time reserved for teacher feedback and providing opportunities for self - evaluation of students. Based on these findings, some pedagogical implications were made at the end of the research concerning students, teachers and administrators, with the objective of improving the teaching and learning experience of English speaking at HUCFL. Background of the research Nowadays, due to globalization, English is widely used in every part of the world. In Vietnam, since the doi moi policy was implemented in 1986, along with the open door economic and education policies and especially for greater opportunities to go abroad, English has become a more important language compared to other foreign languages.
In the scheme for foreign language education at the national level, English is considered the most important foreign language (MOET, 2006). English is now taught not only in schools and universities but also in most foreign language centers across the country in order to meet the increasing needs and requirements of international communication. Gone are the days when learners of English just wanted to be good at grammar; to acquire as much vocabulary as possible so that they could read, understand and even write documents in English. Nowadays, as there are more opportunities to directly contact non-Vietnamese people, more people need English for daily communication than ever before.
For this reason, it is very important for every learner of English to develop good English speaking skills. To become a competent user of any language, especially English, a successful learner needs to possess both receptive skills (reading and listening) and productive skills (speaking and writing). Of the four skills, speaking may be the most challenging for learning as well as teaching. Teachers have found it is difficult to develop their students‟ speaking skills after reading and writing (Forseth, et al, 1995:35).
Teaching speaking skills is not easy because the learners share a mother tongue and there is little chance for them to be in contact with English outside classroom (Baresnihan & Stoops, 1996; Nguyen, 2004). In an academic setting, especially at a college of foreign languages, students are encouraged to develop their critical thinking and learn how to present it in front of many people. In other words, they should be trained to develop their communication skills. One of the best ways to achieve this goal is teaching students 8 how to speak in public.
As students are now required to have more and more oral presentations in many subjects, there is a real need for them to learn public speaking. At Hue College of Foreign Languages (HUCFL), public speaking is taught for third-year English - majored students in the first semester. This subject awards three credits and is taught over 45 periods. In this course, the students are required to present one chosen and prepared topic in front of the whole class.
Typically, the students will rely on the theory of public speaking presented in course outline and apply it to their presentations. The students are familiar with the evaluation sheet provided at the end of their course book, from which they know the criteria of a good speech. However, only when teachers show their feedback (both in written and spoken) on students‟ real performances, will students know their good points as well as their bad points. These comments will guide them in bettering their skills of speaking in public for English as well as for other subjects in the future.
Thus, teacher feedback on students‟ presentations plays an important role in teaching the speaking skill in general and public speaking in particular. Rationale of the study Rivers and Temperly (1978, p.3) stated that “…being able to understand a language but not speak it can have specialized utility (for the employment of foreign language films, broadcasts, plays and songs, or for professional monitoring purposes) but is very frustrating in normal communication situations”. This comment shows the importance of speaking skills in communication. Actually, every language learner when studying a language wants to be good at speaking.
Giving feedback is one of the most important factors in helping learners achieve the goal. According to Gower et al.163), giving feedback is one of the most important responsibilities of a teacher. By providing ongoing feedback, you can help your students evaluate their success and progress. Besides, Dörnyei (2001) emphasizes that the most effective means towards promoting effort attributions is the feedback teachers give to students.
By giving correction feedback, teachers can help students recognize their errors and/or mistakes so that they will not make them again. As a whole, if teachers give feedback in the correct way, they will help better students‟ performances. 9 One concern of Vietnamese teachers is how to give students sufficient feedback in order to help students recognize their ability in speaking and what they have to do to better their performance in not only English but also in oral presentations of other subjects. The researcher has decided to conduct a study on teacher feedback.
While many researchers have studied teacher feedback on English writing skill (e., Zacharias, 2007; Tran, 2007; Van, 2007), or if they did on speaking skills, they focused only on errors and corrective feedback (Ancker, 2000). For example, Tran (1999) studied teacher feedback on students‟ spoken English; however, at the project was focused on the high-school level, which, at that time, did not have a real “speaking class” as students did not have a separated teacher feedback session due to the limited time of the syllabus. A recent study done by Thai (2007) follows this research‟s approach; however, it focused on teacher written feedback on academic writing. This means, there is still a gap in research on teacher feedback in teaching speaking skill.
Therefore, a study on teacher feedback on students‟ speaking performance is imperative. Research aims This research aims to investigate actual teacher feedback on students‟ performances in public speaking and students‟ perceptions about it. It particularly attempts to answer the following questions: 1. What are third-year English majors‟ views towards the teacher feedback on their performance in public speaking at Hue College of Foreign Languages? 2.
What are the components of teacher feedback on students‟ performance in public speaking? 3. How can teacher feedback be improved to enhance students‟ speaking abilities? 1. Significance of the research The research is set out to investigate teacher feedback on students‟ performances in public speaking, which is considered one of the most challenging subjects to teach successfully. With a view to improve the teaching and learning of speaking skills especially public speaking performances of students, the findings of the thesis, to some extent, can benefit teachers, students and the researcher herself.
10 In general, teachers of speaking skills will find it a guide to giving responses to how students present their speaking skills in public speaking classes.