VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ****************** LÊ THỊ THU HÀ FEEDBACK ON ESL WRITING: TEACHERS’ PRACTICES AND STUDENTS’ PREFERENCES HOẠT ĐỘNG THỰC TẾ CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN VÀ MONG MUỐN CỦA SINH VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI PHẢN HỒI TRÊN BÀI VIẾT TIẾNG ANH M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ****************** LÊ THỊ THU HÀ FEEDBACK ON ESL WRITING: TEACHERS’ PRACTICES AND STUDENTS’ PREFERENCES HOẠT ĐỘNG THỰC TẾ CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN VÀ MONG MUỐN CỦA SINH VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI PHẢN HỒI TRÊN BÀI VIẾT TIẾNG ANH M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. To Thi Thu Huong HANOI - 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I confirm that this is my own research, and that it has not been published or submitted for any other degrees. Student's signature Lê Thị Thu Hà i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr. To Thi Thu Huong, for her invaluable support, useful guidance and comments.
I am truly grateful to her advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage. I would also express my gratitude to all the teachers of English at College of Technologies and Economics in Trade for their constant support as well as suggestions for this paper. Especially, I am grateful to the students in the three classes which I am in charge for their actively taking part in completing the writing tasks and answering the survey questionnaires. Without their help, this study could not have been completed.
Finally, my special thanks go to my family and my friends who have been beside me and have encouraged me a lot to fulfill my study. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.11 ABSTRACT This case study was conducted at College of Technologies and Economics in Trade to investigate teachers’ practices and students’ strategies for handling the feedback they received as well as students’ preferences for four different types of feedback. Fifty seven students in three ESL classes were asked to fill out the questionnaires and three writing teachers were asked to participate in the interviews. In addition, students’ paragraphs with teacher feedback were analyzed to see how teacher gave the feedback and how students responded to the feedback they received.
The results show that teachers used written feedback frequently, but in different ways; and students’ strategies for handling feedback varied depending on the types of feedback each teacher gave on their papers. Besides, the study revealed that students preferred teacher feedback (teacher correction, teacher correction with comments, error identification) to non-teacher feedback such as self-feedback, peer- feedback or computer- directed feedback. The findings of the study suggests that writing teachers should consider the fit between their practice and students’ preferences to choose the most suitable ways of feedback giving to help students improve their writing.11 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.11 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The number of each type of teacher feedback on students’ first drafts .23 Table 2: Student strategies for handling feedback.28 Table 3: Student’s preferences for each types of feedback .31 Table 4: Attitudes of students in class A to different types of feedback .32 Table 5: Attitudes of students in class B to different types of feedback .34 Table 6: Attitudes of students in class C to different types of feedback .36 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Paragraph sample of the student in class A with teacher feedback .24 Figure 2: Paragraph sample of the student in class B with teacher feedback .25 Figure 3: Paragraph sample of the student in class C with teacher feedback .27 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: Student questionnaire. I Appendix 2: Interview questions.
IV iv (LUAN.11 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEGEMENTS. iii LIST OF TABLES .Error! Bookmark not defined. LIST OF FIGURES .Error! Bookmark not defined. LIST OF APPENDICES.Error! Bookmark not defined.
The rationale of the study. Purposes of the study and research questions. Scope of the study. Significance of the study.
Organization of the study.5 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definitions of feedback. Roles of feedback in teaching ESL/EFL writing. Types of feedback.
Student-teacher conferencing. Teacher written feedback. Computer- assisted feedback .11 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Teachers’ beliefs and practices of giving feedback on ESL writing.
Students’ reactions and preferences for feedback .15 Chapter 3: THE STUDY. The current situation of teaching and learning English writing at CTET. Methods and Instrumentation. Questionnaire and interview.
Data collection procedure. Data analysis procedure .22 Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Teachers’ practices of giving feedback on ESL writing. Students’ reactions to the received teacher feedback.
Students’ preferences for different types of feedback on ESL writing. Implications for teaching and learning. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies .11 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
The rationale of the study Among the most important skills students of English as a second language (ESL) or a foreign language (EFL) need to develop is writing. For many years, as many historical accounts have shown, writing won little interest from the learners’ side compared to other skills, especially speaking. Learning to speak has been deemed a primary concern; learning to write has always been a secondary matter, a means of practicing, sustaining and reinforcing other skills. However, foreign language proficiency demands a balance in mastery between different language skills.
Thus, ESL/EFL students have come to realize the importance of writing as an independent medium of communication which they need for a wide range of purposes in different contexts both inside and outside the classroom. The ESL learners at College of Technologies and Economics in Trade, who follow a three year course in English with Business English as major, by no means; an exception. The course program offers the learners not only knowledge about business in English but also chances to improve their four English skills. Among the four macro skills, writing has recently been interested by both teachers and students.
Over the first semester of the first years, the students are introduced to some basic concepts in Grammar (parts of speech and word function), Syntax (phrases, clauses, and sentences), and Mechanics (capitalization and punctuation). It is until the second semester that students are introduced to basic writing, ranging from writing informal letters/email to business letter, then writing paragraphs and essays for the third and the forth semester. They are taught different forms of letters/email and techniques for paragraph and essay writing including writing topic sentence, introduction, developmental paragraphs and conclusion. Besides, they are provided with insights into different patterns of essay development such as cause/effect, comparison/contrast or argumentation.
The third year is by far an 1 (LUAN.11 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.11 opportunity for them to practice writing essays with different patterns of development. Teaching English writing is not an easy task for ESL teachers as it involves various processes which require teachers to devote a lot of time to helping students write better. Planning what to teach within a particular curriculum is only a part of the task. Besides, they have to consider the different approaches that gleaned from theories and researches on teaching writing in ESL contexts.
Teachers also spend a great deal of time in the post-writing process grading students’ compositions in detail. Especially, it is the teachers’ jobs to select the approach that best fits the learners’ needs and create a motivating environment, and facilitate the learning-to- write activity. The teacher can do so by widening the area of interaction between him and his students. The best means for teacher-student interaction may be insightful feedback which helps both improving students’ writing production and motivating them to be independent writers.
Therefore, most teachers believe that feedback is an important aspect of teaching of writing. However, providing effective feedback is one of the many challenges that any writing teacher faces. In ESL classroom, feedback practices can be even more challenging. Teachers and students agree that teacher written feedback is a crucial part of the writing process (Cohen& Cavalcanti, 1990).
Teachers want to give feedback that will encourage and challenge students to be better writers, but do not always know how the feedback that they are giving is perceived by students, or how effective it is. Since reading students work and giving feedback is very time- consuming process, teachers may feel frustrated when the feedback they offer is not followed by the students. Even when the teachers’ system for giving feedback is clear and consistent, sometimes teachers do not know whether students understand their practices. Therefore, the study examines teachers’ practices of feedback and compared these with students’ preferences and reaction to feedback to see how the teachers’ practice matches students’ needs and to find the best approach to improve students’ writing skill.
Besides, through the study, some implications will be 2 (LUAN.11 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.11 suggested for using feedback in teaching ESL writing. In setting up the study, an attempt is made to replicate Saito’s (1994) study because Saito’s study used ESL students of Engineering and included Vietnamese background student which is quite similar to the context of the current study. Purposes of the study and research questions The research reported in this thesis aims to study teachers’ practices of feedback giving, the students’ strategies for handling feedback they received and their preferences toward different types of feedback in teaching – learning English writing at College of Technologies and Economics in Trade (CTET) so that further improvement of students’ writing can be achieved. In order to achieve the aim, the research attempts to answer the following questions which are a modified version of Saito’s (1994) research questions: 1.
How do English teachers at CTET usually give feedback on their students’ written work? 2. How do ESL students at CTET react to the teacher feedback they received? 3. What types of feedback do students prefer? 3. Scope of the study 1.
The study was conducted with the participation of the second-year students in three CTA classes and 3 teachers of English in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, College of Technologies and Economics in Trade in the academic year 2013. These students study Business English as their major. The study focuses on four different types of feedback on students’ English writing. The types of feedback used in the study are (1) Teacher feedback with four sub-types, (2) Peer feedback, (3) Self- feedback, and (4) Computer-assisted feedback.11 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
The study investigated two issues. Firstly, the real situation of teachers’ practices and students’ reactions to feedback on ESL writing was studied. Secondly, the study investigates students’ preferences to four different types of feedback. Significance of the study Theoretically, the study proves teacher’s feedback to students’ writing is undeniably a key component and a crucial part of the process.
Feedback offers a number of advantages. Indeed, it “helps students to improve their writing by communicating feedback detailed enough to allow students to act, to commit to change in their writing” (Reid, 1993). It also gives the teachers a better chance of closely following the progress of students, both in terms of the feedback offered and revision made. Practically, the study shows that using feedback not only helps students recognize and correct the mistakes to become more professional writers, but also give teachers chances to understand students’ needs and choose the most suitable approaches of writing teaching.
The study also offers teachers some implications to improve teaching writing. Research methods To meet the research aforementioned aims, document analysis and questionnaire survey together with interview were used in this study.