MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BARIA - VUNGTAU UNIVERSITY TA THI THU GIANG TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS PEER FEEDBACK IN GRADE 10 ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES AT VUNG TAU HIGH SCHOOL MASTER’S THESIS Ba Ria-Vung Tau, March 2023 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BARIA - VUNGTAU UNIVERSITY TA THI THU GIANG TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS PEER FEEDBACK IN GRADE 10 ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES AT VUNG TAU HIGH SCHOOL MASTER’S THESIS Submitted to the Postgraduate Institute in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL Course code: 8140111 Supervisor’s name: Dr. NGUYEN HOANG TUAN Ba Ria-Vung Tau, March 2023 i CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS PEER FEEDBACK IN GRADE 10 ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES AT VUNG TAU HIGH SCHOOL In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s programs issued by Higher Degree Committee of Postgraduate Institute, Ba Ria Vung Tau University, Ba Ria Vung Tau, March 2023 Ta Thi Thu Giang ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Ta Thi Thu Giang, being a candidate for the degree of TESOL accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction for theses. Ba Ria Vung Tau, March 2023 Ta Thi Thu Giang iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor Dr.
Nguyen Hoang Tuan for his invaluable guidance, encouragement, kindness and support from the very early stages of this thesis. His support and contributions helped me to cope with the painstaking task of writing the thesis. Being one of his students is a real privilege for me. Secondly, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Vung Tau high school for providing me with good conditions and great opportunities to carry out my study.
Special thanks to my colleagues of Foreign Language department in my school for their teaching experience, inspiration and constructive suggestions for this research paper. My thanks also go to all the participants in this study including the students and the teachers who accepted to be part of my research. My thesis could not have been finished without their great contribution. Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my precious family and my best friends because of their love and support in the progress of conducting this study.
iv ABSTRACT Among different factors contributing to foreign language teaching and learning, affective variables such as teachers’ and learners' attitudes are of paramount importance. This study, therefore, aimed to explore teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards peer feedback in grade 10 speaking classes at Vung Tau high school. Three aspects of attitude including cognitive, affective, and behavioral components were taken into consideration. Both quantitative and qualitative approach were employed in this study, i.
data were collected from questionnaires, in-depth interviews and semi-structured interviews. There were 80 grade 10 students were asked to complete the questionnaires in the survey, 10 of whom were selected randomly for the in-depth interviews. In addition, 10 high school teachers of English at Vung Tau high school agreed to participate in the semi-structured interviews. As for data analysis, descriptive statistics (e., mean, standard deviation) were used to analyze quantitative data, whereas qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis.
The findings of the study indicated that both students and teachers expressed highly positive attitudes towards peer feedback implementation in grade 10 English speaking classes. However, while students and teachers shared the same attitudes in affective and behavioral components, there was a significant difference between their perception of peer feedback concerning cognitive component. Among the five areas of speaking competence, students agreed that they enhanced much more in lexical resource, discourse management and interactive communication than grammatical resource and pronunciation, which showed a contrast with teachers’ belief. The outcome of this research has a number of important implications for administrators, teachers and students for future practice.
(255 words) Keywords: peer feedback, cognitive attitudes, affective attitudes, behavioral attitudes, high school students and teachers, grade 10 English speaking classes. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.
v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii LIST OF APPENDICES. ix LIST OF TABLES. x LIST OF FIGURES.
Background to the study. Statement of the problem. Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Organization of the study. Second Language Teaching and Learning Theories. Social constructivism theory.
Definitions of key terms. Speaking skills for EFL learners. Peer feedback and speaking .2 The components of attitudes. Assessing speaking performance at level B1 of CEFR.
The review of previous related studies. Conceptual framework of the study. Research setting and participants. In-depth interviews.
Semi-structured interviews. Data collection procedure. Data analysis procedures. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.
Findings of the survey of student questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Findings of teacher semi-structured interviews. Implications for school administrators. Implications for teachers.
Implications for students. Limitations of the study. 105 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CEFR: Common European Framework of Reference for Languages EFL: English as a Foreign Language L2: Second language USA: The United States of America ZPD: Zone of Proximal Development ix LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A: Questionnaire for Students Appendix B: Students’ In-depth Interview Transcript Appendix C: Interview Questions for Teachers Appendix D: Teachers’ Interview Transcript Appendix E: Feedback Form for Groups Appendix F: Feedback Form for Individual Appendix G: Demonstrations of Feedback Forms for Group and Individual x LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Band descriptions for Assessing Speaking Performance – Level B1 .1: The content of the speaking lessons in 6 units of grade 10 English course book .2: Reliability statistics of students’ questionnaire .1: Frequency of surveyed students’ personal information .2: The overall results of students’ attitudes toward peer feedback in grade 10 English speaking classes.3: Students’ cognitive attitudes towards peer feedback in grade 10 English speaking classes .4: Students’ affective attitudes towards peer feedback in grade 10 English speaking classes .5: Students’ behavioral attitudes towards peer feedback in grade 10 English speaking classes .6: Profile of the teachers. 64 xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) .5: Conceptual framework of the study.
INTRODUCTION The main purpose of this chapter is to introduce the present study. To achieve this purpose, some background information to the study is presented. Then, the statement of the problem and the reasons for choosing this topic of research are explained. Afterward, the significance of the study and 3 research questions are given.
Finally, the scope and structure of the study are presented. Background to the study Currently, English is widely recognized as a common language and a global language for international communication (Crystal, 1997). Therefore, proficiency in English is very essential because it comes to be used as a primary medium of communication in such domains as government, the law courts, broadcasting, the press, and especially the educational system. English achieves a special role as the chief foreign language being taught in school in over 100 countries, chiefly in Europe, Asia, North Africa and Latin America (Crystal, 2012).
Vietnam, a developing Asian country, is not an exception. English language in Vietnam has had an important role of “the language for higher education mobility” (Nguyen, 2011). English is currently the most popular foreign language taught and learned in Vietnam. It is a compulsory subject from Grade 3 (primary school) to Grade 12 (high school) of the Vietnamese general education system (Sundkvist & Nguyen, 2020).
The purpose of English learning as mentioned in the English textbook series used across the national education system since 2002, is for students to obtain a certain level of proficiency in four macro skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing), as well as a basic understanding of the cultures of English‐speaking countries, which is claimed to enable them to communicate in English. Of all four key language skills, speaking is deemed to be the most important in learning a second or foreign language. As stated by Ur (1996), speaking seems to be the most important among the four language skills: people who know a language are referred 2 to as ‘speakers’ of that language; as if speaking includes all required knowledge for a language. Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney & Burk, 1998).
Teachers, therefore, take the responsibility for preparing the students as much as possible to be capable of speaking in English in the environment outside the classroom. Realizing that speaking is the primary form of communication for most people, and in the majority of cases, is one of the fundamental reasons why students study a foreign language, teachers have made efforts to assist their students in improving speaking skills. They have made use of various techniques in order to achieve that goal. One suggestion is improving speaking skills through instruction in oral classroom participation (Tsou, 2005).
Instruction about classroom participation was provided to students in the experimental group to see whether this treatment can (a) increase students’ oral participation in class, and (b) lead to the improvement of students’ speaking proficiency. Urrutia and Cely (2010) have suggested encouraging teenagers to improve speaking skills through games in a Colombian public school. The results indicate that students feel free and confident when they participate in oral tasks, particularly during games. Moreover, collaboration, solidarity and interaction among them can be improved.
Another technique is using technology. Technological tools have been considered to be effective ways to help students improve language skills such as speaking skills. Internet, podcasts, video conferencing, videos and speech recognition software are considered the best tools for teaching speaking skills (Bahadorfar & Omidvar, 2014). Furthermore, it is believed that a learner essentially needs to be provided with feedback on his/her performance in speaking.
Due to the emergence of Communicative Language Teaching and Learner-centered Teaching, students’ active participation in language learning is now highly sought and therefore, peer feedback, as a major peer activity for learning in L2 speaking classes, has attracted much attention from researchers and practitioners in different parts of the world. Peer feedback, which is referred to under different names such as peer response, peer review, peer editing, and peer evaluation, can 3 be defined as the use of learners as sources of information and supporting for each other in such a way that learners take the roles and responsibilities normally performed by a qualified teacher, tutor, or editor in commenting on and correcting each other's products in both written and oral formats (Liu and Hansen, 2005). The concept of peer feedback is explained by Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. Vygotsky (1978) claims that mind develops through one's interaction with the world around him/her.
He emphasizes that learning is not an individual activity; instead, it is a cognitive activity that the nature of learning changes the focus on learning from individual to the interaction within a social context. Therefore, peer interaction is essential to the improvement of students' learning, because it allows students to form knowledge through social sharing and interaction (Liu et al. In relation to the use of peer feedback in speaking skills, it is found out that the use of peer feedback improves students’ oral communication performance (Feng et al. It is suggested that learners are willing and able to provide each other with feedback in peer interaction.
The feedback that they deliver successfully helps their peers to pay attention to form and has positive influence on their peers’ English- speaking performance.