MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI THUY KIEU WRITTEN CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK: EFL HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY KIỀU PHẢN HỒI SỬA LỖI BÀI VIẾT: NHẬN THỨC VÀ THỰC HÀNH CỦA GIÁO VIÊN CẤP THPT Ngành: Lý Luận và Phương Pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Người hướng dẫn: PGS. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this master thesis and that I have not used any sources other than those listed in the bibliography and identified as references. I further declare that I have not submitted this thesis for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution.
Quy Nhon, 2023 Nguyễn Thị Thúy Kiều ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and support of numerous people who devoted themselves to helping me, placed belief in me, and motivated me to pursue the ultimate goal. I would like to take this chance to express my sincere gratitude to all those involved. My most profound appreciation goes to my supervisor, Assoc. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, for her time, effort, and understanding in helping me succeed during my academic work.
Her vast wisdom and wealth of experience have inspired me throughout my studies. I feel fortunate to have had her support my work. In addition, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to the professors, lecturers, and instructors of Quy Nhon University for their thoughtful and patient support in imparting priceless knowledge and accompanying me with the steps fundamental to finishing my degree program. My sincere gratitude also goes out to the high school English teachers in central regions and central highland provinces for their helpful contribution and collaboration in this study.
I am also grateful to the school administrators and my colleagues at Tran Hung Dao High School, Mang Yang, Gia Lai for their sympathy and support during my study time. Last but not least, I am gratefully indebted to my family and friends who have accompanied me on this journey. Their unwavering support and encouragement throughout my course truly gave me strength and served as a fantastic source of inspiration. iii ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate two key issues: (1) teachers’ perceptions of their WCF practices and (2) their actual practices in a Vietnamese EFL context.
The data was collected from multiple sources including a questionnaire with 65 English high school teachers in central and central highland provinces in Vietnam, interviews with 10 of those who had completed the questionnaire before, and 937 WCF points detected from 150 students’ writing texts with teacher WCF. The findings of the study revealed that (1) the teachers’ perceptions regarding WCF provision were overwhelmingly favourable. They believed that WCF was essential for high school students’ EFL writing development and served multiple purposes. In terms of their self-reported practices of WCF, the teachers preferred selective over comprehensive WCF; they also favoured both direct and indirect feedback strategies, primarily focused on language forms when provided the students’ writing with correction feedback.
(2) As regards the teachers’ actual practices of WCF in their writing classrooms, they predominantly employed a comprehensive approach, and direct feedback strategy to give correction feedback mainly on language forms to the student’s writing errors. (3) A degree of congruence and incongruence between teachers’ perceptions and practices of WCF in certain areas were also discussed. This misalignment calls for professional training in teaching writing in general and addressing WCF in particular to ensure the effectiveness of WCF strategies employed by teachers. The results of this study also imply that the teachers and their students should cooperate to reach the ultimate goals of WCF.
Key terms: EFL teachers, error correction, teacher perceptions, teacher practices, Written Corrective Feedback iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .vii LIST OF TABLES. viii LIST OF FIGURES. Aim and Objectives.
Scope of the Study. Significance of the Study. Organization of the Study. Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices.
Concepts of Perceptions. Importance of Studying Perceptions and Practices. Relationship Between Teachers’ Perceptions and Their Practices in Classrooms. Written Corrective Feedback in L2 Writing.
Definitions of Written Corrective Feedback. Purposes of Written Corrective Feedback. Types of Written Corrective Feedback and Teachers’ Preferences. Types of Written Corrective Feedback.
Teachers’ preferences for Written Corrective Feedback types. Strategies for Providing Written Corrective Feedback. Direct Written Corrective Feedback. Indirect Written Corrective Feedback.
Metalinguistic Written Corrective Feedback. Focused Versus Unfocused CF. Previous Studies on Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices Regarding Written Corrective Feedback. Research Setting and Participants.
Semi-structured Interviews. Students’ Writing Samples. Research Reliability and Validity. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Teachers’ Perceptions of Written Corrective Feedback. Teachers’ Perceptions of the Main Purpose of WCF Provision. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Their WCF Practices on Their Students’ Writing. Teachers’ Perceptions of WCF Strategy Practices.
Teachers’ Perceptions of WCF Techniques. Teachers’ Practices of Written Corrective Feedback. Types of Written Corrective Feedback. Strategies for Providing Written Corrective Feedback.
Teachers’ Perceptions of Written Corrective Feedback. Teachers’ Practices of Written Corrective Feedback. Teachers’ Perceptions and Their Actual Classroom Practices Regarding Written Corrective Feedback. WCF Efficacy and Responsibility.
Using Marking Codes. The Amount of WCF. The Focus of WCF. The Strategies for WCF.
Summary of the Findings. Pedagogical Implications for the Teaching and Learning Process. Limitations of the Study. Recommendations for Further Research.
TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (ENGLISH VERSION). TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (VIETNAMESE VERSION). AP-19 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CF Corrective Feedback EFL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language L2 Second Language SLA Second Language Acquisition WCF Written Corrective Feedback viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Elements in Writing .2 Strategies for Providing CF .1 Demographic Information of Participants .2 Description of Examining Students’ Writing Texts .3 Reliability Statistics of 9 Likert Scale Questions .4 Item-total Statistics .1 Teachers’ Perceptions of the Main Purpose of WCF .2 Teachers’ Self-evaluation of the Effectiveness of Their WCF Practices on Their Students’ Writing .3 Teachers’ Perceptions of Their WCF Strategies .4 Teachers’ Description of Their Existing Feedback Practices .5 Frequency of WCF Techniques Provided by Teachers .6 Amount of WCF Provided by the Teachers on the Students’ Writing .7 Focus of WCF Provided by EFL High School Teachers .8 Strategies for WCF Provided by EFL High School Teachers. 80 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Teachers’ Perceptions of Using Marking Codes .2 Frequency of WCF Techniques Provided by Teachers .3 Sample of Teacher WCF on Student Writing .4 Sample of Teacher WCF on Student Writing .5 Sample of Teacher WCF on Student Writing .6 Sample of Teacher WCF on Student Writing .7 Sample of Teacher WCF on Student Writing .8 Sample of Teacher WCF on Student Writing .9 Sample of Teacher WCF on Student Writing .10 Sample of Teacher WCF on Student Writing .11 Sample of Teacher WCF on Student Writing.
Rationale Teaching and learning English in Vietnam aims to help students develop both oral and written communication. Along with speaking, writing skill is also an important aspect of communication because it enables people to express their thoughts, feelings, and opinions. Even though writing is essential and valuable for students, as compared to other skills such as reading, listening, and speaking, many students believe that it is challenging to master writing skills due to the great number of language elements involved (Harmer, 2004). In line with this, Ly (1997) stated that as a matter of fact, many Vietnamese students are more motivated to develop speaking, reading, and listening abilities than writing, and writing appears to be seen as a hardship because there is always homework waiting for them after a writing lesson.
To illustrate this skill’s complicity, Hedge (1988) explained that writing typically calls for a variety of skills, including the capacity to generate ideas and information, a high level of correctness to prevent misunderstandings among readers, and the use of a wide range of grammatical structures, syntax, and vocabulary. All of them contribute to developing a specific writing style that aligns with the writing theme and the intended audience. It is writing that those who learn English as a foreign language find the most complex and challenging to learn because “writing is an extremely complex cognitive activity for which the writer is required to demonstrate control of several variables simultaneously” (Nunan, 1989). Upon learning writing skills, for novice students, making mistakes is an unavoidable and natural aspect of development.
Teachers' Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) to students' mistakes in this situation is crucial in assisting 2 them in enhancing their written correctness so they can effortlessly advance to a higher language level. WCF sometimes known as grammar or error correction has long been standard practice for teachers to provide in L2 education. In reality, second language learners continue to make a variety of mistakes despite the time and effort their teachers put into providing feedback. Thus, critics of mistake correction, including Truscott (1996), voiced their concerns and even called for its removal from L2 writing courses.
This drew instant attention and sparked frank debates among L2 scholars. As a crucial component of L2 writing instruction, over the last decades, a notable corpus of empirical studies has been carried out to look into the function of WCF in SLA and L2 writing. The vast majority of recent better-designed research has produced favourable outcomes for WCF (Bitchener, 2008, 2009; Bitchener et al., 2005; Ellis et al., 2008; Le, 2014; Sheen et al. Besides, many studies focus on students' views of teachers’ WCF, or teachers’ perceptions of WCF (Saragih et al., 2021; Eriksson, 2022; Zohra & Fatiha, 2022; Mi, 2020; Nguyen et al.
However, only a few studies have examined how instructors implement WCF, and the alignment of teachers' perceptions and practices (Lee, 2009; Sakrak-Ekin & Balgikanli, 2019; Purnomo et al. This, of course, calls attention to teachers’ perceptions and practices towards WCF in the EFL context. Borg (2003) indicated that teachers’ theories and perceptions have a great effect on their actual teaching practices. By the same token, Squires & Bliss (2004), asserted that “decades of research on the connection between teachers’ theoretical beliefs and their practices yield a common theme: all teachers bring to the classroom some level of beliefs that influence their critical decision making.” Indeed, it can not be denied that teachers’ beliefs, practices and attitudes play a crucial part in understanding and improving 3 teaching and learning processes.
They are definitely associated with teachers’ strategies for facing obstacles in their daily professional lives. Subsequently, they influence student inspiration and achievement while modifying the learning environment for students. Teachers also require new thinking skills, such as large picture, transdisciplinary, simulation, design, and computational forms of reasoning, in order to handle many aspects of issues in more complex educational environments. Importantly, instructors must be conscious of their perceptions and beliefs, be motivated to achieve their plans and goals and be inspired to create creative pedagogies to advance their profession.
Teachers’ beliefs and practices are crucial in the classroom because they directly affect the process of teaching and learning (Griffiths, 2007). On the grounds that providing feedback is such a difficult yet crucial responsibility for teachers. Discovering the perceptions that support instructors' practices can assist in discovering the elements that lead to beneficial feedback. This explains why the current investigation was conducted.
Academic achievement for EFL students depends on their ability to write. Nonetheless, after serving as the writing course teacher at a high school in the central highland region for fifteen years, I found that students were failing to meet the course's planned writing assessment goals. Additionally, I recognised that students struggled during the writing course.