MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ LE THI THUAN A STUDY ON PEER FEEDBACK IN ENGLISH WRITING CLASSES AT QUANG BINH UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ LE THI THUAN A STUDY ON PEER FEEDBACK IN ENGLISH WRITING CLASSES AT QUANG BINH UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60. TRUONG VIEN HUE, 2018 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------ LÊ THỊ THUẬN Đ U TR V C SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG PHẢN HỒI BÀI VIẾT TỪ BẠN HỌC TRONG C C P ỌC V ẾT TIẾNG ANH TẠ TRƯỜNG ĐẠ ỌC QUẢNG N LUẬN VĂN T ẠC SĨ Ý UẬN VÀ P ƯƠNG P P DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜ Ư NG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. TRƯƠNG V ÊN HUẾ, 2018 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Date: 06/ 12/ 2018 Signature iii ABSTRACT This study aims to explore students‟ and teachers‟ perceptions of peer feedback activities and the reality of peer feedback practice in writing classes at QBU. A mixed methods design was used in this study. Participants of this study are seventy English major students and ten lecturers at Department of Foreign Languages at QBU. The data were collected from both qualitative and quantitative approaches through questionnaires, interview questions and class observations.
The data were analyzed by the means of SPSS software, and illustrated in tables and charts. The findings of the study reveal that the majority of students and teachers had positive perceptions of peer feedback in English learning, especially in writing skill. Furthermore, in reality, peer feedback was applied in writing classes at QBU, but not very often and its benefits were not absolutely perceived by students. The research also indicated some difficulties students and teachers faced when practicing this technique.
In order to make the study complete, some limitations were pointed out and some recommendations were offered, with the hope that this study will have some contributions to improving the peer feedback practice in English writing classes at QBU. iv Acknowledgements My sincere thanks go to many people who gave their time and expertise in the support of this research project. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Associate/Professor Dr. Truong Vien, for his precious comments, suggestions and whole–hearted guidance at every stage of the development of this study.
He instructed, encouraged, also supported and gave me wise advice. Without his help, this thesis would not be completed. Next, I would like to thank the teachers of English at QBU, who shared their teaching experience, provided me with precious comments and suggestions that contribute a crucial part to the achievement of this research. I warmly thank the students from English classes of QBU for their enthusiasm and for their comments.
They were willing to take part in the survey and gave their opinion frankly. Last but not least, I am also grateful to the teachers and friends in the English faculty of Hue College of Foreign Languages, my family who created favorable conditions for me to complete this research. Student Le Thi Thuan v TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents pages SUB COVER PAGE .i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .v TABLE OF CONTENTS .vi LISTS OF ABBRIVIATIONS. viii LISTS OF TABLES.
Rationale of the research. Purposes of the research. Significance of the research. Structure of the research.
Writing as product and writing as a process. Feedback and peer feedback in EFL classrooms. Benefits of peer feedback in writing teaching and learning. Difficulties in practicing peer feedback in English writing classes.
Data collection methods. Procedure of research. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. The students' and teachers' attitudes toward peer feedback in English writing process.
The reality of peer feedback practice in some English writing classes at QBU. The benefits of peer feedback and the difficulties in practicing peer feedback in English writing classes at QBU. The benefits of peer feedback in English writing classes at QBU. The difficulties in practicing peer feedback in English writing classes at QBU.
Comparison among four clusters in the questionnaire. The suggestions for further improvement of peer feedback practice in English writing classes at QBU. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of findings.
The students' and teachers' perceptions of peer feedback in English writing process. The reality of peer feedback practice in writing classes at QBU. The benefits of peer feedback and difficulties in practicing peer feedback in writing classes at QBU. Recommendation for further studies .65 vii ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as Foreign Language M: Mean score MA: Master of Arts Max: Maximum Min: Minimum N: Number QBU: Quang Binh University SD: Standard deviation S: Student Ss: Students T: Teacher viii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Page Table 3.1: Background information of students.2: Background information of teachers.3: Structure of the questionnaire .4: The reliability of the questionnaires in the Pilot study .5: The reliability of the questionnaires .1: Mean score for the students‟ perceptions of peer feedback .2: One-sample test of Cluster 1 .3: Descriptive statistic of the students‟ perceptions of peer feedback .4: Mean score for the reality of implementing peer feedback in writing classes .5: One - sample test of Cluster 2 .6: Descriptive statistic of the reality of implementing peer feedback in writing classes .7: Mean score for the benefits of practicing peer feedback in writing classes .8: One- sample test value of Cluster 3 .9: Descriptive statistic of the benefits of practicing peer feedback in writing classes .10: Mean score for the dificulties in practicing peer feedback in writing classes .11: One –sample test of Cluster 4 .12: Descriptive statistic of the dificulties in practicing peer feedback in writing classes.
The mean score of Cluster 1 and Cluster 2. The mean score of four clusters. 49 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In this introductory chapter, the rationale of the study is presented. Then, the aims of the study and research questions are stated.
This is followed by the significance and the scope of the study. Finally, the structure of the study is outlined 1. Rationale of the research English is an international language and it plays an important part in different fields of life, it is taught in all educational institutions, at every level. Among the four skills, writing is one of the most important skills, and a complex process in learning a new language; it requires the interactions between teachers – students, students – students to make it more effective.
According to Teresa de Jesus Reyes Arias (2009), writing is one of the most difficult language skills because students need to find out the most appropriate word, correct word order, and use of the structure of the paragraphs, spelling and punctuation to express an idea in written form. Nunan (1999) also claimed that writing is not a spontaneous skill or easily acquired; in fact, it is viewed as “probably the most difficult thing to do in language” (p. Writing is a “complex, cognitive process that requires sustained intellectual effort over a considerable period of time. Moreover, “correcting and assessing written work is time-consuming” (Ur, 1999, p.
There are many factors which could influence the students‟ success in writing process such as teaching methods, students‟ English ability, learning facilities. Besides, teaching approaches change over time in order to be suitable to the new era. Hence, teachers as well as students need to use effective teaching and learning methods to get the best result. In order to overcome those problems of teachers and students, there are several strategies and techniques used to help students make a good writing.
One of them is using peer feedback combining with teachers‟ guidelines in writing process. Peer feedback is the way to let students give feedback to each other‟s work. It is defined as a collaborative activity involving reading, critiquing and giving 1 feedback on others‟ writing to facilitate writing competence through mutual scaffolding (Hu, 2005; Tsui & Ng, 2000; Zhu, 2001). In other words, peer feedback mainly engages students in the pair or group activities, reading each other‟s writings, and making suggestions for revisions (Mangelsdorf, 1992).
Each student receives a few pieces of work produced by their peers and gives feedback to it. Then each student receives the feedback given to their work and revises it. Yarrow and Topping (2001) stated that peer feedback plays a pivotal role in "increased engagement and time spent on-task, immediacy and individualization of help, goal specification, explaining, prevention of information processing overload, promoting, modeling and reinforcement. In traditional writing classrooms, teacher‟s feedback was used mainly; students were passive in the classroom.
Thus, using peer feedback can lead to less writing apprehension and more confidence and establish a social context for writing. Peer feedback has been proven to build good relations among students. Some students show that students learnt better from their peers and experienced love and the sense of sharing when working together in small groups. According to Ferris and Hedgecock (2005) peer feedback gives students a less intimidating learning environment which is conducive for a successful acquisition of English as a Second Language.
At Quang Binh University, the learner-centered approach has been introduced into English classrooms. It aims to encourage students to learn English in an active and self-directed way so as to meet the demands of their current educational program. Thus, peer feedback is one of the techniques that can help students to develop their English learning ability. It is important for EFL students to notice its roles in the writing learning process.
Besides, understanding of the difficulty of implementing the peer feedback activities inside and outside the classroom can facilitate both teachers and learners. However, peer feedback is still a rather new way of writing activities to many students. Also, there have been few studies on using peer feedback in the writing skill. These are the reasons why I would like to conduct the research with the topic: “A study on peer feedback in English writing classes at Quang Binh University”.
It is hoped that this research paper can provide 2 an overview of peer feedback and students‟ attitude toward peer feedback in writing classes at QBU. Besides, the difficulties and benefits when using peer feedback are also defined. Moreover, in teaching writing, this will make a great contribution to improve the quality of teaching writing at QBU. Purposes of the research This study is conducted with the main aims as follows: To discover the attitude of EFL students and teachers of peer feedback; To investigate the reality of using peer feedback in some English writing classes at QBU; To find out the benefits and difficulties of utilizing peer feedback; From that, to seek the best solutions which help improve the effectiveness of peer feedback practice at writing classes.
Research questions This research aspires to answer these following questions: 1. What are EFL students‟ and teachers‟ attitudes toward peer feedback in English writing process? 2. How has peer feedback been conducted in some English writing classes at QBU? 3. What are the benefits and difficulties when using peer feedback in English writing classes? 1.
Research scope Within the constraint of time and within scale of a MA thesis, this research only focuses on background knowledge of peer feedback.