students’ attitudes towards teachers’ feedbacks

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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

BAN THI KIM THANH

STUDENTS ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHERSCORRECTIVE FEEDBACK IN WRITING AT THE

BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL FOR ETHNIC MINORITYSTUDENTS IN TUYEN QUANG

THI CA HC SINH I VI PHN HI

THNG TIN CHA LI CA GIO VINTRONG MN VIT TRNG THPT DN TCNI TR TUYN QUANG

MA. MINOR THESISFIELD: METHODOLOGY

CODE 601401

HA NOI - 2010

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF PROJECT REPORT

I certify my authority of the Study Project Report submitted entitled

Students Attitudes towards Teachers Corrective Feedback in Writing

at the Boarding High school for Ethnic Minority Students

in Tuyen Quang

in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts

Hanoi, September 2010

Ban Thi Kim Thanh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my superior Hoang

Hong Hai, M.A. for the support, guidance and valuable critical feedback. Her

help, stimulating suggestion and encouragement helped me a lot right from

the beginning to the end of this study.

I would like acknowledge my sincere thanks to the headmaster, the teachers

of English Group and the students at The High School and Boarding for

Ethnic Minority in Tuyen Quang who helped me a lot and showed great

willingness to take part in my survey.

My special thanks also go to my lecturers, my friends, my classmates for

valuable comments and criticism, their interest and encouragement.

Last but not least, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my husband, my

parents and my children for their love, care, tolerance and encouragement.

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ABSTRACT

Many language educators and researchers (e.g., Nunan; 1987; Horwitz,

1988; Schulz, 2001) claim that matching the expectations of teachers and

students is important for successful language learning. Accordingly, it is

beneficial for teachers to discover their students perceptions toward the

feedback they received. This study investigates the students attitudes towards

teachers corrective feedback at the Boarding and High School for Ethnic

Minority Students in Tuyen Quang. The participants included 4 teachers of

English and 100 students from Grade 10 to 12. The data were collected fromsurvey questionnaires for students, the direct interview with four teachers and

teachers commentary on the students written work. The results show that

there is a slight mismatch between teachers beliefs and students preferences

for teacher corrective feedback regarding feedback types and forms, various

features of writing, and error correction techniques. Also, it is important for

teachers to be aware of the impact of their feedback practices on studentsexpectations and attitudes. On this basis, the study recommends a number of

directions for teachers to help them improve their feedback practices more

effectively.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certification...i

Acknowledgements.......ii

Abstract....iii

PART ONE - INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................81.1. Rationale of the study......................................................................................................81.2. Aims of the study..........................................................................................................101.3. Research questions........................................................................................................101.4. Scope of the study.........................................................................................................101.5. Significance of the research..........................................................................................111.6. Methods of the study.....................................................................................................11

1.7.Design of the study.........................................................................................................11PART TWO. DEVELOPMENT.........................................................................................12CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................................................121.1.Theoretical backgrounds of feedback. ...........................................................................131.1.1.Definitions of feedback...............................................................................................131.1.2. The importance of feedback in L2 writing.................................................................141.1.2.Types of feedback to students writing.......................................................................151.1.2.1.Self-editing...............................................................................................................161.1.2.2.Peer feedback...........................................................................................................161.1.2.3. Teachers feedback ................................................................................................181.2.The focus of teacher feedback........................................................................................19

1.2.1.Types of teacher feedback...........................................................................................191.2.1.1.Marginal versus end feedback..................................................................................201.2.1.2.Positive versus negative feedback............................................................................201.2.1.3.Text specific versus general feedback...................................................................211.2.1.4.Feedback focus on form versus on content..............................................................211.2.2.Forms of teacher feedback..........................................................................................221.2.3.Major issues in giving teachers feedback..................................................................232.1.Context of the study.......................................................................................................252.1.1.The setting of the study...............................................................................................252.1.2.The writing program ...................................................................................................262.1.2.1.Overview of the textbooks.......................................................................................26

2.1.2.2.The teaching of writing skill....................................................................................272.2. The study.......................................................................................................................282.2.1.Methodology...............................................................................................................282.2.1.1.The subjects..............................................................................................................282.2.1.2.The instruments:.......................................................................................................292.2.1.3. Data collection methods..........................................................................................302.2.2.Data analysis................................................................................................................302.2.2.1.Data analysis of classroom observation...................................................................302.2.2.2.Data analysis of direct interview between the researcher and four teachers ...........312.2.2.2.1.Teachers demographic information.....................................................................312.2.2.2.2. Analysis of the interview......................................................................................32

2.2.2.3.Observation of teacher commentary on the students drafts....................................35

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2.2.2.4.Data analysis of students survey questionnaire ......................................................362.2.2.4.1.Students demographic information......................................................................362.2.2.4.2.Analysis of students survey questionnaire...........................................................362.2.3.Findings and discussion...............................................................................................43

CHAPTER THREE: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS...............................48PART THREE. CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................503.1. Summary ......................................................................................................................503.2. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies.........................................51

References

Appendices

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PART ONE - INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale of the study

Today English is considered one of the most important factors to thetrend of globalization in all fields of life over the world. Thus, English as

Second Language has been taught in many countries and the demand to use

English fluently as well as to acquire four basic skills is becoming essential

among all students. As a result, methodology has been studied for years to

find out the most effective ways of teaching and learning English.

In Vietnam, high school students have to acquire four skills of English

as reading, speaking, listening and writing when they study English. Among

them, writing is considered the most difficult skill. Clearly, Vietnamese

students are often much anxious about writing and afraid of making errors in

writing classrooms. Nevertheless, they need to be encouraged to see it as a

means of learning, rather than demonstrating learning. In order to do this,

students need to be provided with opportunities to respond to constructive

feedback on their work.

A review of the literature on writing reveals three major areas of

feedback as revision: peer feedback, self-editing and teachers comments as

feedback. Because of the importance of feedback, there have been a lot of

studies that focus on all aspects relating to feedback. As clear, concise

feedback matched to standards will promote students achievement, feedback

plays a very important role in the teaching of any language. Through

feedback, the writer learns where he or she has misled and confused the

reader by not supplying enough information, illogical organization, lack of

development ideas, or something simple like inappropriate word-choice or

tense. In other words, the writers have opportunities to identify their errors

and correct them to make better writing. Also, the use of teacher feedback in

writing classrooms has been generally supported in the literature review as a

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potentially valuable aid for its social cognitive, affective and methodological

benefits ( Merlin, (1986), Radecki and Swales (1988), Hedge (2000), Ferris

and Roberts (2001)). They all believe that teacher feedback is very importantand has a great influence on the success of teaching and learning writing.

As a teacher of English at the Boarding High School for Ethnic

Minority Students in Tuyen Quang, the researcher is constantly searching for

ways to help her students become more confident and effective writers.

During writing lessons, she finds that her students often make a lot of errors

that increase students anxiety in writing lesson. With a view of language

learning as a creative construction process, she shares an agreement with

Hedge (2000) in the view that error is an inevitable and positive part of that

process (p.15). Hedge also claimed that learners progress faster with

meaningful language practice in a rich linguistic environment and with an

informed policy of error correction on the part of the teacher (p.15). This

means teacher-response is an essential step in the writing process as he stated

getting feedback from the teacher and from other students in the class

enables learners to test hypotheses and refine their developing knowledge of

the language system (p.13). That is why the researcher focuses on teacher

corrective feedback, which she considers a complex troublesome, but

important issue in writing classrooms. To have a quick view on this aspect, an

observation on the writing lessons of four teachers of English in the

researchers school was conducted within a month. The result showed that all

the four teachers applied mostly teacher corrective feedback to respond to the

students writings. She wondered if the teachers present feedback matched

with students preferences and how students reacted to the feedback they

received.

All above encouraged the researcher to conduct a survey to explore

students attitudes towards teacher corrective feedback and recommend

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teachers of English some suggested solutions to help their students gain more

achievement in writing skill.

1.2. Aims of the study.This research is designed to explore students attitudes toward their

teachers corrective feedback at The Boarding High School for Ethnic

Minority Students in Tuyen Quang. It is expected to achieve the three primary

aims:

(i) to investigate the teacher feedback-giving practice in writing classes:

their responding methods, their feedback focus as well as the feedback types

and forms.

(ii) to investigate the students perceptions of the feedback they receive

and their recommendations for improving it.

(iii) to find out students preferences for teachers corrective feedback

as well as to propose some recommendations and suggestions for the teachers

to improve their practice in order to respond to the students writing more

effectively.

1.3. Research questions

In order to achieve the mentioned aims above, the following research

questions will be included in the study:

1. How do the teachers respond to the students writing?

2. What are the students opinions on the feedback they received?

3. What are EFL students preferences for teachers corrective feedback

techniques?

1.4. Scope of the study

Feedback in writing is such a broad topic that the researcher cannot

discuss all the aspects related. Therefore, within the framework of a minor

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thesis, this study focuses only on the teacher corrective feedback in

responding to the students writing at the Boarding High School for Ethnic

Minority Students in Tuyen Quang.1.5. Significance of the research

The research is carried out with the hope that the results of the study will

provide significant insights into both what teachers have actually done as they

respond and how the students react to these responses. This may lead to

suggestions for improving teacher feedback and helping the students to utilize

it more successfully in their writing revision.

1.6. Methods of the study

To realize the aims, the following methods for data collection were

employed in the study.

1.5.1. Data were collected by means of survey questionnaires for 100

students at The Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students

in Tuyen Quang. The questionnaires included closed-ended

questions, open-ended questions and Likert scales.

1.5.2. Other sources for data collection came from classroom observation,

an interview between the researcher and four teachers, and

collection of the teachers written comments on the students written

work.

Four sources to data collection will hopefully provide fresh insights into

teachers feedback giving practice and the students reactions towards the

feedback they received. On this basis, some measures will be applied to

improve the teacher corrective feedback so that the teacher responds to the

students writing more properly.

1.7. Design of the study

This study has three main parts: introduction, development, and

conclusion.

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The introduction briefly states the rationale of the study, the aims,

research questions, scope, methods, the significance and the design of the

study.The development consists of three chapters: Chapter 1 provides a review

of literature on feedback in general and teacher feedback in particular.

Chapter 2 contains the core part of the study including the context of the

study, the methodology, the collection and analysis of the data for the

research, the findings and implications. Chapter 3 mentions the authors

recommendations and suggestions for improving teacher feedback in a way

that help students to have better writing.

The conclusion at the end gives a summary of the main issues that have

been discussed so far in the study and suggestions for further research.

PART TWO. DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter focuses on some of the most important issues in the theories

of feedback in general and the teacher feedback in particular. Two main

features will be concerned, namely, theoretical background of feedback and

the focus on teacher feedback.

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1.1. Theoretical backgrounds of feedback.

1.1.1. Definitions of feedback

As far from now, responding to student writing, including givingfeedback, is one of the most controversial topics in second language

instruction and theory. As the importance of feedback, it is considered a

fundamental element of a process approach to writing. Therefore, there have

been attempts to define the term feedback.

According to Ur (1996) feedback is information that is given to the

learner about his or her performance of a learning task, usually with the

objective of improving this performance (p.242). He also distinctly pointed

out two main distinguishable components of feedback: assessment and

correction. This significant definition mentions feedback as an essential step

in teaching with an obvious aim at helping students to have better

achievement in learning.

Similarly, Keh (1989) defined feedback as any output from reader to

writer that provides information for revision (p.18). In other words, it is the

comments, questions, and suggestions a reader gives a writer to produce

reader-based prose as opposed to writer prose. As the writers receive all these,

they will discover that good writing involves an interaction between their

ideas, the expressions of the ideas, and their readers perceptions and

reactions to the expression (Chaudron, 1984. p.2). This definition can be

seen as one of the most comprehensive as feedback is considered as an

effective means of teachers communication to the students about their

writing in the final one. Some researchers (Ferris, 2003; Leki, 1990) also

shared an agreement when noting that feedback is most effective when it is

delivered at intermediate stages of the writing process.

Dreham (1995) also had the same point of view in the case that

feedback is interestingly likened to a two-bullock cart. His definition is based

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on a famous saying that in order for the cart to move in the right direction, its

two bullocks need to understand not only the purpose of their efforts but also

each other (p.160). In other words, there should be a collaborative approachto the monitoring and processing of feedback between the teacher and the

students so that the teacher feedback becomes an effective tool for student

revision.

Seows (2002), in contrast, defined feedback as the teachers quick

initial reaction to the students drafts. In this point of view, teacher response

should be given at preliminary or intermediate drafts, not the final one

because things which are not clear or which could be improved upon can still

be changed (p.317). This means students should have chances to rewrite

their drafts at least one more time. If students write only one draft which is

then graded by the teacher, feedback on what is wrong in the composition

comes too late. Added to this, Raimes (1983, p.139) noted, Responding to

students writing is very much a part of the process of teaching writing. In

other words, feedback should be provided in the process of writing rather than

in single act of producing a text.

1.1.2. The importance of feedback in L2 writing

Just as importantly, a great number of studies on this aspect have been

done and a debate about the value of providing feedback on L2 writing has

been prominent in recent years.

According to Taylor (1997) feedback is an area which causes students

considerable anxiety (p.65) and there is a need for great care to be taken in

relation to issues as as timing, location, participation, attitudes, outcomes and

so on. Also, both Huntley (1992) and Truscott (1996), based on their

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respective reviews of the literature, stated that substantial research evidence

suggests that correction of surface level errors is futile and may not be worth

the instructors time and effort. Truscott even concluded that this type ofcorrection should be abandoned in second language writing classes because it

can have harmful effect. This point of view is shared by other studies in

various second language contexts investigating the effect of different types of

feedback on student writing skill in the case that explicit error correction

seems to be generally ineffective (Keper, 1991; Sheppard, 1992).

However, there have been number of the researchers who support to the

importance of feedback in teaching English as a second language. They

believed in giving corrective feedback to students to improve their written

accuracy. In Schulz (1996) students beliefs about what constitutes effective

feedback on writing and their expectations regarding teacher paper-making

techniques may influence the effectiveness of such feedback. Hedge (2000)

shared an agreement in the case that getting feedback from the teacher and

from other students in the class enables learners to test hypothesis and refine

their developing knowledge of the language system. (p.13). In this case,

good feedback not only stimulates students for revision but also motivates

them to maintain their interest in writing. In addition, provision of comments

helps individualize writing instructions in which students will be able to get

individual attention to have their own needs or problems rightfully addressed

(Reid, 1993). In this way, feedback is an important step towards the learner

centeredness.

In conclusion, giving and receiving feedback helps students to develop

their sensitivity and their own writing style. In other words, feedback is a

fundamental element of a writing approach when it pushes the students

through the writing process on to the eventual end-product.

1.1.2. Types of feedback to students writing.

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A review of literature on writing reveals three major areas of feedback

as revision. They are self-editing, peer feedback, and teacher feedback.

1.1.2.1. Self-editingSelf-editing is an important aspect of re-writing. It is the last thing a

writer does before sending the manuscript off to their agent or an editor.

Raimes (1983) supported this when he stated that What students really need,

more than anything else, is to develop the ability to read their own writing and

to examine it critically, to learn how to express their meaning fluently,

logically, and accurately (p.149). This means students need to be able to find

and correct their own mistakes. Students attempt in language learning is one

of the crucial factors towards their success. If a learner was aware of self-

editing and tried to learn from his own failure, he would receive more chances

of overcoming difficulties in learning than others who did not care why they

failed.

In order to help students to have success in self-editing their writing,

some techniques are designed to help them apply the same critical skills to

their own written products at the right stage in the process as all the

techniques of reading closely and analyzing the writing help with critical

reading. In fact, students need to hold the critical skills in check as the ideas

are forming at the beginning of the process. They also have to know not only

how to edit their own writing but when is the right time to do it.

However, self editing involves an ability to look at ones work with an

impersonal eye. For some this can be difficult; the best thing to do is to let

ones completed manuscript sit for a month, then go back and do a final edit.

In other words, self-editing is more time consuming than the other types of

feedback. Also, it is unsuitable way for students with low English proficiency

to revise their writing.

1.1.2.2. Peer feedback

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Peer feedback is a part of larger category of educational activities in

which students work together in groups. According to Bartels (2004), peer

feedback means feedback from your fellow students. If students are workingon the same assignment together, peer feedback means exchanging drafts and

comments on each others drafts. Peer feedback broadens learners

involvement by giving them the additional roles of reader and advisor to go

with that of writer. This addition of roles, hopefully, increases learners

insight into the writing process. A related benefit proposed for peer work is

that it helps learners become more autonomous, thus preparing them to write

without teacher there to correct their errors. Further, structuring face-to-face

discussion into the feedback process provides students the opportunity to

engage in constructive controversy which may lead to insights and greater

task engagement (Johnson & Johnson, 1987).

Peer feedback on student writing has been advocated for second

language learners. Jacobs (1987) discussed the benefits for learners of

interaction with others when pointing out that such interaction can be the

source of cognitive conflict which can lead learners to reexamine and adjust

the frameworks through which they view the word. In addition, Rollinson

(2005) found that peer feedback gives both readers and writers more time for

collaboration, consideration, and reflection.

In deed, calls for the use of peer feedback may become more common

for two reasons. First, the growing popularity of teaching writing as a process

with several dimensions has made peer feedback more appropriate because

there is more emphasis on revision. Second, these dimensions of the writing

process creating ideas, sharing those ideas into a piece of writing, and then

fixing the form of that writing provide more points at which feedback can

be offered.

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However, some teachers and students, particularly in L2, are worried

about the using peer feedback in writing class because they fear students

comments will cause as many problems as they solve, due to students lack oflanguage ability (Jacobs, 1987).

1.1.2.3. Teachers feedback

Clearly, as the teachers are engaged in the process of responding teacher-

response is considered an essential step in the writing process (Hyland,

1990). He claimed that diligent marking provides students with an idea of the

criteria by which their work is judged. Also, useful information that will help

students avoid similar errors in the future should be offered.

An increasing number of studies have suggested a positive role of

indirect teacher feedback, when it incorporated with student self-revision 1, in

facilitating accuracy in L2 wiring. Ferris and Roberts (2001) examined the

differential effect of teacher feedback among university ESL student writers

in terms of the percentage of errors they could revise when they self-edited

their texts across three feedback conditions: (1) errors marked with codes; (2)

errors underlined with no codes and (3) no feedback at all. Results showed

large beneficial effects for feedback groups versus the non-feedback group.

However, differences in terms of the proficiency level between the feedback

group and the non-feedback group might be a confounding factor in their

study. Chandler (2003) examined whether teacher feedback in the form of

underling errors could help East Asian college students improve their writing

accuracy and whether the effects would last over one semester. The results of

this study demonstrated that formal accuracy of student writing improved

significantly if the participants were required to correct their errors than if

they were not. Results also exhibited a gain in accuracy which was not

accompanied by a decline in fluency over the semester. Findings of the study

signified the importance of student correction or revision, and it might be

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possible that if students did not revise their writing based on feedback about

errors, having teachers mark errors was equivalent to giving no error

feedbackA number of researchers have also attempted to directly investigated

L2 students preferences and reactions to teacher making techniques and their

beliefs about what constitutes effective feedback to writing. Radecki and

Swales (1988), based on a survey of 59 ESL students attitude towards

feedback on their written work, conclude that ESL teachers might lose their

credibility among their students if they do not correct all surface errors since

findings revealed that students seem to need and expect correction of all

errors. Nugrahenny, (2007)carried out a studyto explore Indonesian students'attitudes toward teacherfeedback. The findings show that generally teachers

and students have a marked preference for teacher feedback. The high

preference for teacher feedback was mainly the result of the respondents'

positive attitudes towardsteacher feedback. Interestingly, student preferences

for teacherfeedback also stemmed from their awareness that teachers control

grades. Students also show a high preference for feedback which focused on

language. Moreover, the interview data illustrated that teacher feedback

contributed greatly to students' emotional states particularly their motivation

and attitudes towards writing.

Compared with this growing but far from the conclusion of studies on

the written feedback strategies of teachers, it seems that teacher feedback is a

prominent aspect of responding to students works. Since students beliefs

about feedback on writing may influence the degree of effectiveness of

teacher feedback, it is crucial to identify students attitudes towards error

correction and their expectations regarding teacher feedback on their writing.

1.2. The focus of teacher feedback

1.2.1. Types of teacher feedback

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In general, teacher feedback can be transmitted in a variety of ways: in

dialog journals, mini-conferences during class workshops, written comment

on student drafts and student-teacher conferences. In the scope of the thesis,the author mentioned teacher corrective feedback only. In this section, types

of teacher corrective feedback and how these types influence the student

revision will be examined.

1.2.1.1. Marginal versus end feedback

Marginal feedback is a kind of feedback that is written in the margin or

between sentence lines of the students paper. It refers to the teachers

immediate intervention in discrete parts of the students draft. By contrast,

summary at the end of the paper called end feedback is normally an overview

of more consideration in an essay.

In Ferris and Hedgcocks view (1998), there is no conclusive evidence

that either marginal or end comments are preferable or more effective.

However, in case teachers can only give one form of commentary given

overwhelming number of papers and severe time constraints, a

comprehensive and clear endnote is strongly recommended. When time

permits, writing teachers should try to make a combination of both to give

students more chance to revise their writing.

1.2.1.2. Positive versus negative feedback

As far as teacher feedback is concerned, a lot of studies have been done

into the effects of positive and negative comments on the student revision

(Gee, 1972; Ferris, 1995). All the studies come to an agreement that the

students remember and appreciate encouraging remarks made by their

teachers. Gee has gone far to assert that the students would have better

attitudes towards writing if they receive positive feedback.

However, Ferris noted that a significant majority of her participants

described critical comments as being positive since they all helped them

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improve their papers. This result suggested that students expect to receive

constructive criticism and are not necessarily offended by this although they

appear to enjoy and appreciate praises.1.2.1.3. Text specific versus general feedback

Text-specific feedback is a kind of comment that directly relates to the

text at hand; whereas; general feedback can be attached to any paper.

Many prominent scholars in the field argued that teacher feedback is

more helpful if it is a text-specific (Hillocks, 1986; Reid, 1993; Seow, 2002).

Reid (1993, p.225) stated that feedback should be informative and detailed

enough to help the students writers return to the task of writing but not so

overwhelming that they cannot form a revision plan. As they write, receive

response, and revise, students should be able to feel good about what they

have done well and realize that they can improve on what they have not done

effectively, Seow (2002, p.317) show his agreement that text-specific

responses, rather than rubber-stamped comments by the teacher will help

students rediscover meanings and facilitate the revision of initial drafts.

However, Ferris (1997) argued that there is a role in teacher commentary for

general responses. A general response of encouragement is no doubt better

than none. This view has been well supported by Fathman and Whalleys

perspective that general comment that do not refer to specifics within a text

can be effective giving encouragements helped improve the students

rewrites. (1990, p. 186)

1.2.1.4. Feedback focus on form versus on content

When responding to students written work, teachers often face with a

big problem on choosing the best feedback to help their students improve

their writing. This is difficult because there is a little agreement among

teachers or researchers about how teachers should respond to student writing.

Much of the conflict over teacher response to written work has been whether

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teacher feedback should focus on form (e.., grammar, mechanics) or on

content (e.g., organization, amount of detail). Griffin (1982) has noted, the

major question confronting any theory of responding to student writing iswhere we should focus our attention (p.299).

A small number of studies have focused on content alone. Hillocks

(1986) concluded that focused feedback can have an effect on certain aspects

of writing (p.166). Additionally, Huntley (1992) maintained that feedback on

content should be provided to students while feedback on form should be

avoided, and she recommended that L2 teachers incorporate peer reviews and

student-teacher conferences in their teaching as two valuable alternative

feedback methods to traditional error correction. These views led to the

suggestion that teachers should focus on content more than form and provide

content feedback between initial and final drafts of papers.

However, some research findings have proved the teacher feedback focus

on form. Enginarlar (1993), based on a survey of 47 EFL students attitudes

towards the feedback procedure employed in their class, concluded that these

students perceive attention to linguistic errors as effective teacher feedback.

Similarly, Ferris (1995) reached the same conclusion based on his respective

surveys of students attitudes toward feedback in an EFL context. Schulz

(1996) investigated Fl teacher and student beliefs about explicit grammar

instruction and error correction and also found that students preferred a focus

on form.

1.2.2. Forms of teacher feedback

Ferris (1997) claimed that teacher feedback generally includes four basic

syntactic forms: question, statement, imperative, and exclamation. They have

different pragmatic aims such as giving or asking for further information,

making requests for revision, giving positive feedback about what the

students has done well.

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In EFL writing classrooms, these forms can be used to provide feedback

to the students works. However, despite their advantages, each form has the

potential problems which teacher should be aware of. In terms of questions,Ferris warned that questions sometimes confuse students although they may

stimulate students thinking process and help teachers avoid appropriating

students texts; statements which give information are not necessarily

intended to lead to specific changes because they do not explicitly ask or tell

the student what to do, although many do contain important information that

teachers want the students to review while revising ; in terms of requests,

Ferris stated, even though students appeared to understand from the

comment that something was required of them, they were less clear about

how to incorporate the requested changed successfully (p.331). Therefore,

teachers should be careful in constructing their own feedback forms, in

explaining those feedback forms together with their pragmatic intents to the

students, and most importantly, in helping the students process the comments

and revise their drafts effectively.

1.2.3. Major issues in giving teachers feedback

As far as teacher feedback in L2 writing classes is concerned, a number

of researchers have attempted to give an overview of issues involved in

responding to L2 writers works (see, Leki, 1992; Ferri, 2003; Reids,

1993). In their studies, major issues in responding to L1 writers seem to fall

largely into three categories: class goals, teacher role(s), and strategies of

teacher feedback.

In terms of class goals, Leki (1992) explored the problematic nature of

teacher feedback and then discussed how an ESL writing teachers goal for

her students as writers might influence how, when, and what she respond to.

She claimed that we may resist the idea, our responses to the writing of ESL

students and our goals for them in our writing courses, are, in fact, laden with

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political context (p.125). With regard to teachers roles in Ls writing classes,

Raimes (1984) discussed the difficulty of composing in a second language

and of how teacher response can shape and potentially get in the way of thatprocess. The main purpose of the researcher is to suggest that ESL writing

teachers need to pay more attention to the act of writing and less to ESL. She

claimed that one remedy for the aguish of composing is to concentrate on the

making of meaning, to concentrate on the act of composing instead of

peripherals (p.92). She offered three areas in which teacher can do this:

generating assignments for the class, giving feedback, and providing readings.

In terms of providing feedback, Raimes suggested that corrections are not the

only kind of feedback teacher can give and that working on developing

grammatical forms should be a parallel activity to composing.

In regard to strategies of teacher feedback, Reid (1993) stated in

teachers attempt to evade the evils of appropriation taking over their

students work, many ESL writing teachers have stopped working with their

students texts altogether (p.275). Though this withdrawal may stem from

the best of intentions, Reid argued that teachers need to accept their

responsibilities as cultural informants and as facilitators for creating social

discourse community in the ESL classroom (p.275).

Summary

In summary, this chapter has so far touched upon issues relating to the

topic of the study. It has mentioned the definition and the importance of

feedback, types of feedback and the focuses on teacher feedback as well as

major issues in giving teachers feedback in ESL writing classroom. The

following chapter will focus on the study - its methodology and findings

under the light of the above discussed theories.

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CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY

This chapter focuses on the context of the study and the study. The context

includes information about the setting and the writing program. The study

concentrates on the methodology, data analysis, and findings and discussion.

2.1. Context of the study

2.1.1. The setting of the study

The study was carried out at the Boarding and High school for Ethnic

Minority Students in Tuyen Quang. The school is located in Tuyen Quang

Town. It was founded 50 years ago and is for ethnic minority students from

all parts of Tuyen Quang Province. The purpose of the school is to train

ethnic minority students as good people who will greatly contribute to the

development of the province. That is why the school is investigated largely

every year with good equipment and good working condition.

There are about five hundred ethnic minority students studying at

school each year. The total classes are fourteen and not very large size ones

(about 30 35 students in each). There are thirty-eight teachers and most of

them are well-trained. They are considered the most hard-working and

enthusiastic teachers of all in the province. There are five teachers of the

English Group at the school. Most of them are not very high-educated, but

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experienced teachers. They spend a lot of their concerns about teaching and

improving students English level. However, they lack appropriate teaching

methods and techniques, especially giving feedback. They do not have anadequate knowledge about many fields of language teaching; in other words,

they need to be retrained.

All the students are ethnic minorities groups. They mostly come from

remote or mountainous areas of the province. They are hard-working and

well-behaved students. However, most of them have low ability in learning.

Many of them have low English proficiency and their utterances are in words

or short prefabricated phrases. Their grammar is mostly inaccurate and their

pronunciation requires concentrated listening. As a result, they often have a

great anxiety in English classrooms. Among four skills of English, they find

writing much more difficult than the others and often participate in writing

lessons unsuccessfully. Despite their low ability, many of them are

continuously paying much more concerns about English as a core subject and

hope that their English level will be improved by their great efforts. Thus,

they ask for help in writing skill.

2.1.2. The writing program

2.1.2.1. Overview of the textbooks

The textbooks which are required to teach English in high schools are

English Basic 10, 11 and 12. They were developed based on the new national

curriculum. The methodologies that the books follow are learner-centered

approach and the communicative approach with task-based teaching being the

central teaching method (English 10, Teachers Manual: 12).

Each book includes 16 teaching units and six review units. Each

teaching unit covers a topic and is sub-divided into five sections: Reading,

Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus. Each part is supposed to

be taught in a period of 45 minutes.

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The Writing section may begin with a model, followed by activities

that guide students through the writing process such as model analysis,

language work, and guided writing. In this part, students are required toproduce various text types such as personal and formal letters, narratives,

chart, graph and table description, and expository essays. The general and

specific objectives are set clearly in the books. (Table 1, 2)

2.1.2.2. The teaching of writing skill.

Table 3: Distribution of writing activities

English 10 English 11 English 12Total

SB WB SB WB SB WB

Preparation work 20 1 9 2 16 0 48

Controlled writing 7 13 1 8 2 12 43

Guided writing 7 2 7 3 3 4 26

Free writing 13 4 15 9 18 7 66

No. of activities 47 20 32 22 39 23 183

No. of units 22 16 22 16 22 16 114

The types of the texts that students are taught and made to practice in

three books are quite varied, ranging from forms, postcards, letters, and

announcements to mini-biographies, narratives, table descriptions, and

expository essays. A glance at this variety seems to guide students to follow

the process of writing than the product. However, according to Thuy Minh

(20?, p.43) the writing approached adopted in the books seems to beproduct-oriented in the nature emphasis seems to be placed on the end-result

of writing rather than the process of writing itself. She found that the writing

section normally begins with some preparation work in which students are

required to analyze task requirements, work on models, or generate ideas.

Then, it may proceed with one or two controlled or / and guided writing

activities and end with a freer writing activities (p. 43). This fact leads

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students to engage in imitating copying and transforming models of correct

language texts to the new writing task. There seems to be no explicit

emphasis on the process of planning, drafting, revision, and editing.

Moreover, the textbooks do not offer much chance for free writing

practice. As can be seen from the table 3, among the 183 writing activities, 66

are for free writing practice, account for 36%. In other words, there is an

average of only 0.5 free writing activity per unit. This is quite far from the

given goal of teaching writing in CLT that is to enable learners to become

more independent and effective writers. Also, Thuy Minh, based on a text

book evaluation, claimed that writing involves more than putting ideas into

sentences and without adequate prior preparation (e.g. instruction about

paragraph writing, working on models, controlled and guided practice (p.

45). She concluded that writing task in the three textbooks would probably be

too challenging and perhaps even beyond students ability. As a result, the

teachers have to adapt writing tasks to match them with students ability.

Also, the teachers should know students preferences for the feedback they

receive to give good responses to their students written work.

2.2. The study

2.2.1. Methodology

2.2.1.1. The subjects.

The subjects involved in the study include 100 students and 4 teachers

from the Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority Students in Tuyen

Quang. It may be very difficult to select a random sample of individuals due

to a large number of the students in the department (more than 500 students).

In this case, instead of randomly selecting individuals, the researcher

randomly selects classes or groups for investigation. This method is

convenient for the investigator to observe the participants complete the

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questionnaires in class. Moreover, these classes have been assigned with a

relative equal proportion of good, average, and poor English proficiency

students by the Department of English in each high school and there wereboth males and females in each class.

The 4 teachers are teaching English in the classes from which the

students are chosen to be involved in the research. They are both experienced

and inexperienced teachers of the Boarding High School for Ethnic Minority

Students. They are willing to participate in the survey with the hope that the

results of the study will help them to have better understanding on students

preferences for teacher feedback.

2.2.1.2. The instruments:

Four instruments were used to collect the data for the study.

Classroom observation was conducted within a month to get a quick

view on teachers feedback-giving practice.

A direct interview between the researcher and four teachers was

designed to examine more about the purpose of providing feedback, the types

and forms of feedback as well as the practice of error correction teachers

often use to give comments on the students writings. The interview was

formed in semi-structured questions.

A questionnaire for the students examined students attitudes toward

their teacher corrective feedback, the problems they often face up with in

writing classes as well as their preferred feedback type and form. It consists of

nine questions and is divided into three parts. Part I includes some short

questions on personal information of the participants. Part II consists of close-

ended questions, open-ended questions and 3 Likert scales to explore

students opinions on the feedback they received. Part III has three open-

ended questions to examine students preferences for their teacher corrective

feedback on writing.

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The teachers written comments on the students drafts were done with

a view to obtaining the most truthful information about the teachers current

practice of giving feedback.2.2.1.3. Data collection methods

The whole process was divided into four stages.

At the first stage, the researcher carried out an observation on writing

lessons of four teachers. The researcher attended eight periods of writing

lesson. She observed teachers feedback-giving practice carefully and took

notes all necessary information for the study.

At the second stage, the researcher had a direct interview with each of

four teachers. She interviewed each of them one by one. All the talks were in

Vietnamese. During the interview, the researcher sat nearby the interviewers,

taking notes all the information which was then transcribed into English.

Then, the questionnaire was transcribed into Vietnamese and

distributed to 100 students. The transcription of the questionnaire was done to

make sure that all the students understood all the questions. The researcher

was also present to give any explanation if any confusion or problem arises as

the respondents are working on the questions.

Finally, the writing drafts of the eight students on which there were the

teacher comments were collected at the beginning and the end of the school

year and analyzed.

2.2.2. Data analysis

This part of the thesis concerns with the treatment of all the data

collected from classroom observation, direct interview between the researcher

and four teachers, the survey questionnaires conducted on 100 students, and

the analysis of the teacher commentary on the students sample drafts.

2.2.2.1. Data analysis of classroom observation

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As a teacher of English Group, the researcher often attended different

English classes at her school. To collect data for this study, the researcher

attended totally eight writing classes of four teachers. She observed the waysfour teachers gave feedback to their students. She found that despite different

teaching experience, all teachers seemed to apply the same feedback

techniques. All of them seemed to use corrective feedback quite often. This

means they tended to focus their feedback on pointing out and correcting

errors. Besides, most of them used both oral and written comments to give

feedback. Interestingly, they rarely collected all students papers. They often

showed the students a sample in the end or applied teacher-student conference

when their students nearly finished their writing. Three of them sometimes

collected some papers to give written feedback at home, returning them to the

students next period and asking the students to rewrite the drafts in exercise

notebook. Obviously, all students are required to have an exercise notebook in

which they write their homework. Those notebooks will be collected

randomly during the school year buy the teachers to assess students learning

effort. Also, they tended to focus on correcting errors on form and spelling.

Only one teacher paid her attention to the content and organization of

students papers. Surprisingly, none of them applied other types of feedback

such as peer feedback or student self-monitoring in writing classes.

2.2.2.2. Data analysis of direct interview between the researcher and

four teachers

2.2.2.2.1.Teachers demographic information

There were only one male and three female teachers taking part in the

study. The teachers ages ranged from 28 to 50. Their experience in teaching

English quite varied from 5 years to 28 years during which they all have spent

4 years teaching writing to high school students since the writing section was

separated from others in new English text books.

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2.2.2.2.2. Analysis of the interview

Firstly, all teachers were asked about their beliefs on the importance of

feedback to teaching and learning writing skill. Most of them agreed thatfeedback played a very important role in writing lesson when stating that We

cannot ignore feedback when teaching writing because it is necessary to

show out students errors so that they can improve their papers. However,

one teacher had a neutral view to the importance of feedback. She said, It is

not necessary to give feedback to student quite often. The writing task is not

very difficult for the students when they are asked to write something similar

to the sample. That is the reason why most of the teachers often respond to

students written work and only one of them sometimes gives feedback to her

students.

When being asked about purpose of giving feedback, all of the teachers

said that they wanted to help the students to improve their writing. I want my

students to have a positive attitude towards writing and that is why I try to

give feedback as clearly as possible so that they will not make the same

mistake again and rewrite better paper, one of them said. Also, the majority

considered feedback as a good way to justify the grade given students

writing. They stated that we often give mark to students paper so that they

will know how they write and what level they are in.

In terms of feedback types, teachers seemed to have different choices

for different types of feedback. Most of the teachers tended to locate their

comments in the margin of students papers. The same number of teachers

sometimes gave comments at the end of the papers. Regarding the teachers

provision of general or specific feedback, all the teachers utilized specific

comments than the general ones. Moreover, teachers tended to use more

positive feedback to raise students strength. Most of the teachers never gave

negative feedback to their students. What they said are as follows:

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I like to write my comments in the margin of students paper because

I want to show specific comments to my students.

Students will be confused a lot if we write our comment in general atthe end of the paper.

Writing comments at the end of the paper takes a lot of time when we

have to overview all the errors and categorize them.

I often write such comments Quite good, very good or try harder in

my students paper because I want to encourage them to write more and

more.

I avoid giving negative comment to my students because they are

ethnic minority students who feel embarrassed quite easily. When they are not

encouraged, they will keep silence and write something invaluable. Thats

too bad.

In terms of feedback forms, all teachers said that they often used

statement and imperative when responding to students papers. They thought

it was easy for them to write short, clear comments with such feedback forms.

They said, My students do not like to receive a question or an exclamation in

their paper. They want some things in detail. How can I write something

clear enough with a question?

When being asked about the focus of teacher feedback on different

features of writing such as grammar, punctuation, spelling, vocabulary

choice, the organization, and the ideas expressed in the paper teachers

seemed to highly concentrate on pointing out errors in grammar and

punctuation. In terms of spelling and vocabulary choice, half of them agreed

that they often pointed out errors in these two features. However, not many of

them focused on the organization of the paper and the ideas expressed in the

paper. Their opinions are as follows:

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My students often make a lot of errors in grammar such as verb

tenses, article use, subject and verb agreementetc and spelling. They rarely

have errors in organization of the paper and sometimes errors in ideasexpressed. This does not mean they have high level of English, but they follow

a sample which guides them the organization of the paper.

Students do not have to write any essay in English current tests, so it

is not necessary to focus much on the organization of the paper and the ideas

expressed.

I try to focus my feedback in pointing out errors in grammar, spelling,

and vocabulary choice because students need to improve their knowledge

about these features to complete successfully the English current test which

focus much on form.

Regarding error indication, most of the teachers often indicate students

errors by crossing what is incorrect and writing the correct word or structure.

They sometimes showed the location of the error is and gave clue about how

to correct it. They never ignored errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation

etc, and only paying attention to the ideas expressed. If there were many

errors in a paper, they said they tried to correct all errors as many as possible.

What they said are as follows:

I often indicate students errors by underlining the errors and write

the correct ones

I think most of the students have low English proficiency, so they want

to have all errors corrected.

Most of my students make different mistakes, so if I indicate and

correct all errors, they can exchange their papers to improve all errors

easily.

However, only one of them claimed that she corrected all the errors she

considered major, but not the minor ones. She said, We can not have enough

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time to correct all the errors if there are many of them in a paper. We should

focus on the errors that relate to the requirement of the writing task. For

example, we should focus errors on past tenses when that paper reportedabout a past even. Other features should be concentrated less. She also

stated that students should be given chances to correct errors by themselves.

2.2.2.3. Observation of teacher commentary on the students drafts.

The students drafts which focused on describing a friend, a football

match and a letter about ones familys rules were examined. The eight

students were allowed to choose one of the topics in English 11 and 12. This

explained why the topic selected for each writing paper quite varied.

Through an observation of teacher written comments on the collected

drafts, the researcher came up with a finding that there were some points in

common and some differences among teachers when they gave feedback to

the students writing.

Concerning the common points, all the teachers tended to give text-

specific feedback to students writing. They tried to make the feedback

informative and clear enough so that the students would notice all of their

errors. They all indicated an error by using red-colored pens to underline the

error and write down the correct words or structures. Regarding many errors

in a paper, the teachers tended to correct most of the errors, among which

errors in grammar, vocabulary choice were focused on much more than the

ones in organization and ideas expressed in the papers. The other agreement

in teachers paper-marking techniques was that all of them gave marks on the

papers.

However, there were some differences among teachers in paper-

marking techniques. Firstly, they used different forms of feedback to respond

to students writing. Only one of them chose exclamation and sometimes

marking the errors, but not actually correcting them; two of them used

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imperative and the other even used no forms of feedback. In terms of the

choice between negative or positive feedback, two of the teachers preferred to

use negative feedback, only one would like to use positive one to encouragestudents. When indicating an error in students papers, only one teacher

showed where the error was and giving clue about how to correct it such as

was happened -> active voice, won or failed -> present participleThe

other only showed the location of the error without correcting it or giving any

clues.

2.2.2.4. Data analysis of students survey questionnaire

2.2.2.4.1.Students demographic information

There were 100 students from grade 10 to 12 completing the survey

questionnaire. Among them, there were 46 males and 54 female. Their age

ranged from 16 to 18 years old. All of them have been studying English for

five to 8 years. All of them have been learning writing since it was one of five

sections in each unit at secondary school.

2.2.2.4.2.Analysis of students survey questionnaire

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4%

24%

72%

not important

important

ve ry important

The chart showed students opinions on the role of feedback in writing.

Most of the student (72%) agreed that feedback plays a very important role in

teaching and learning writing skill. Some of them considered feedback an

important means. On the other hands, there were still few students denying

the role of feedback when stating that it was not important at all.

2%

2%

48%40%

8%

never

almost never

sometimes

often

very often

As shown in chart 2, students gave different ideas on the frequency of

teachers feedback-giving practice. Only eight percent of them agreed that

they received their teacher feedback very often. Nearly a half of them (40%)

said that their written works were often given feedback. However, larger

number of the subjects (account for 48%) claimed that their teachers

responses were sometimes given to their writings. Surprisingly, the same

37

Chart 1: Students Beliefs on the Importance of Feedback

Chart 2: Students Opinions on Teachers Feedback Frequency


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percentage of the students (2%) said that they never or almost never received

any feedback from their teachers.

10 6

32 20

7444 54

4844

1846 46

20 188

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

a b c d e

very helpful

helpful

not helpful at al

Chart 3 showed students opinions on Forms of Teacher Feedback (Part

II, items 3a-e). As can be seen from the chart, in general, the majority of the

students highly valued feedback in the following forms: questions, statement,

imperative, and exclamation, among which statement was considered the

most helpful one. In contrast, marking the errors, but not actually correcting

them was assessed by 74% of the students as not helpful one at all.

45%

55%

YES

NO

Chart 4 showed the students opinions on the comprehension of the

feedback they received. Only 45% of the students said that they found the

teacher feedback quite easy to understand; meanwhile 55% of them responded

negatively due to different reasons shown in table 4.

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Chart 3: Students Opinions on Forms of Teachers Feedback

Chart 4: Students comprehension of teacher feedback


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Items Responses (in

%)

4. Why dont you find your teacher feedback easy?

a. feedback is too general to understand

b. teachers use new vocabulary and structures in

feedback

c. teachers including hedges in feedback confuses me

d. teachers use new feedback strategies

5. What strategies do you use to solve your problem?

a. asking the teacher or peers for help

b. consulting a grammar book or dictionary

c. doing nothing

64

20

16

0

72

22

6

The data in the table showed different factors that made students not

comprehend their teacher feedback. The first reason which was shared by

64% of the students was that their teacher feedback is too general to

understand. In other words, students would like to receive more specific

feedback from their teacher. Besides, the use of new vocabulary and

structures in feedback had a negative influence on the students

comprehension. This factor made it difficult for them to understand the

teacher intention behind their feedback. Teachers inclusion of hedges in

feedback, such as perhaps or maybe, also confused students. Although

only 16% of the students complained about this factor, it was still one of the

main reasons affecting students comprehension that is worth getting

teachers attention when responding to students written works.

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Table 4: Factors Affecting the Comprehension of Feedback


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66

38

18

42

5844

24

42

17

38

30

30

10

14

65

1810

22

6 2 22 2 2

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%90%

100%

a b c d e f

strongly disagree

dis agree

neither agree nor disagree

Agree

Strongly agree

Response frequencies for 8 Likert-type items addressing the students

beliefs about the relative importance of various features of their writing (Part

III, items 6a-h) appear in chart 5. Students seemed to equate the importance of

most of various features of their writing such as grammar, spelling,

vocabulary choice, organization, and ideas expressed in the paper. More

students agreed that the teacher should point out errors in grammar and the

organization of the paper (ranging from 88% to 90%) than they did for the

other features (ranging from 74% to 80%). Punctuation might be only feature

that students concerned least. 65% of the students have a neutral choice for

this item.

40

Chart 5: Students Beliefs about the Relative Importance of VariousFeatures in their Writing

Chart 6: Students Preferences for Kinds of Feedback


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4%

38%

58%

negative feedback

positive feedback

both of them

Chart 6 revealed students preferences for kinds of feedback. As can be

seen from the chart, the majority of the students preferred both negative andpositive feedback most. Many of them (38%) also would like to receive

positive feedback; meanwhile; only 4% wanted to get negative feedback from

their teacher.

Items Response (in %)1 2 3 4 5

6. When responding to your written work,

teacher should always:

a. use a set of correction of proof-reading

symbols.

b. use a red-colored pen.

10

48

14

30

20

18

38

2

18

2

1=strongly agree; 2=agree; 3=neither agree nor disagree; 4=disagree; 5 =

strongly disagree

As shown in Table 5, students preferences for teacher marking

techniques such as using a set of correction or of proof-reading symbols and

using a red-colored pen were quite different. 78% of the students agreed that

the teacher should always use a red-colored pen when responding to their

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Table 5: Students Preferences for Paper-marking Techniques


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written work. In contrast, 56% of them shared their disagreement with the

teachers use of a set of correction or proof-reading symbols.

ItemsRespons

es (in %)

8. How do you want your teacher to indicate an error in your

written work?

a. By crossing what is incorrect and writing the correct word or

structure.

b. By showing where the error is and giving clue about how to

correct it.

c. By only showing where the error is.

d. By ignoring the errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation

etc., and only paying attention to the ideas expressed.

8. If there are many errors in a paper, what do you wantyour English teacher to do?

(You can choose as many answers as apply)

a. Correct all errors, major and minor.

b. Correct all errors the teacher considers major, but not the

minor ones.

c. Correct most but not necessary all of the major errors if there

are many of them.

d. Correct only a few of the major errors no matter how many

there are.

e. Correct all repeated errors whether major or minor.

f. Correct no errors and respond only to the ideas expressed.

52

44

4

0

68

6

10

2

5

4

42

Table 6: Students preferences for Paper-marking Techniques Nominal items


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Concerning students preferences for teachers techniques in pointing

out errors, students revealed nearly the same choice as their teachers. As

shown in Table 6, 52% of the students chose crossing out an error and writingthe correct word or structure as the best teacher feedback technique in

responding to their written works. Similarly, 44% of them chose showing

where the error is and giving clue about how to correct it as the second

preferred one. In addition, very few students chose only showing where the

error is.

Regarding students preferences for the amount of feedback on their

papers if there are so many errors in a paper, 68% of the students stated that

they would prefer their teacher to correct all errors. 10% of them would like

to have most of the major errors corrected if there are many of them. Very

few students concerned on correcting a few major errors or all repeated errors

as well as the ideas expressed only (ranging from 2% to 6%).

2.2.3. Findings and discussion

This section presents the answers to the research questions proposed at

the beginning of the thesis.

Research question 1: How do the teachers respond to the student

writing?

Similar to a number of researchers who support the important role of

feedback in L2 context (Keh, 1989; Chaudron, 1984; Leki, 1990; Schulz,

1996), the teachers in this study approved the important roles of feedback as

an effective means in teaching and learning writing skill. As far as their

concerns, they stated that they responded to each of their students written

works quite often. The teachers main purpose of giving feedback to the

student writing was that it helped students to improve the quality of their

papers. This purpose is relevant to the most important function of teacher

feedback as a pedagogical tool for writing improvement. Most of the teachers

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also used feedback as a means to justify the grade given to the student

writing.

In addition, the teachers tended to equate their concentration to variousfeatures of writing such as pointing out errors in grammar, in spelling,

vocabulary choice, making comment on the organization and the ideas

expressed, but less on punctuation. This means the teachers focused on both

form and content when responding to students writing as Fathman and

Whalley (1990) stated, Grammar and content feedback, whether given alone

or simultaneously, positive affect writing (p.185).

In terms of types of teacher feedback, the results indicated that the

teachers seldom combined negative with positive comments. The majority of

them paid much attention to students errors and gave negative comments to

their students instead of encouraging them to write better writing in the next

attempt. However, all of the teachers indicated students errors clearly and

specifically and combined margin feedback and end feedback together, which

help most of the students with low English proficiency to find out their errors

easily and make greater effort for better writing. This point was supported by

Fathman and Whalley (1990) when they claimed that The identification of

the location of errors by the teachers appears to be an effective means of

helping students correct their grammar errors (p.185).

Besides, the teachers used forms of feedback quite differently. In this

study, no certain form appeared to be used the most often. The least choice

was marking the errors, but not actually correcting them. The other forms

such as question, statement, imperative, and exclamation seemed to be equal

in use, but not so often. This finding indicated that the teachers were in favor

of making requests for revision and identifying or marking the problems.

Regarding teachers techniques in pointing out the errors, most of the

teachers often crossed all errors and tried to write the correct words. They

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sometimes showed out the errors and gave clue about how to correct it if they

thought those errors were the minor ones. Also, teachers seemed to choose

short comments at the end of the students papers. This finding reflected themain problem that all teachers often faced with: written comments are time-

consuming.

The findings of teachers beliefs in giving corrective feedback above

revealed teachers great concerns on this area of teaching and learning

English in L2 con text as many researchers have shown their positive attitudes

towards teacher feedback so far (see Hylland, 1990; Lee, 1997; Ferris and

Robert, 2001).

Research question 2: What are the students opinions on the feedback

they received?

The study indicated that most of the students thought feedback was

important to their writing since it provided useful information to help them

rewrite their papers and produce better ones in the next stages. Some of them

strongly considered feedback as a very important means. In other words, they

would like to receive as much feedback as possible from their teachers to

make progress in writing. Despite their desire of feedback, more than a half of

the students stated that they didnt receive their teacher feedback for each of

their papers quite often. Surprisingly, few of them even claimed that they

never got feedback from their teachers. In terms of forms of feedback, the

students in this study thought that question and statement were the most

effective forms of encouraging them to rewrite and edit their own papers.

Only a few of them like to receive their teachers in form of exclamation and

imperative. Moreover, the majority thought that if their teachers marked the

errors, but not actually correcting them, such feedback would be not helpful at

all.

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More importantly, the majority of the students claimed that their

teacher feedback was not easy enough to understand. In their opinions, the

main reason for this is that their teachers feedback was too general tounderstand. In addition, their teachers used new vocabulary and structures in

feedback. A small number of the student thought teachers including hedges

in feedback confused them a lot. The finding suggested that students were not

really satisfied with the feedback they received. Thus, the students would like

to have more specific information of their teachers feedback, especially in

writing comments as they asked their teachers or peers for help to solve their

problem.

Research question 3: What are EFL students preferences for teachers

feedback techniques?

Similar to previous findings in L2 contexts (Radecki & Swales, 1988;

Leki, 1991; Ferris, 1995), the high school students revealed a great concern

with accuracy and error-free writing, in spite of the research evidence arguing

that surface-level error correction is ineffective. Besides, although the

students in this study generally equated the importance of various features of

their writing such as grammar, spelling, vocabulary choice, organization, and

ideas expressed in the paper; many of them chose comments on grammar and

organization of the paper as the most important teacher marks they look at.

Meanwhile, comments on punctuation were chosen least.

Regarding students preferences for kinds of feedback, many students

would like to receive both negative and positive from their teacher. This

finding may reflect a difference between teachers and students on feedback

kinds as teachers rarely used a combination of two kinds of feedback when

writing comments on student paper.

On the other hand, the students preferences for teachers techniques in

indicating an error seemed to differ to their teacher current practice. They

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chose crossing the error and writing the correct word or structure as the best

technique of responding to an error despite their low English proficiency.

Another positive finding is that many students would like to be shown wherethe error is and given clue about how to correct it rather than the correction

itself although the latter would presumably make it easier to revise the draft.

Such preference for clues in teacher feedback was also found among the

ESL students surveyed in Lekis (1991) study. Since an interdependent

relationship exists between teachers behaviors and students views

(Hedgcock & Lefkowitz, 1994, 1996), this finding revealed that teachers

seem not to be behaving according to students preferences.

Concerning students preferences for the amount of marks on their

papers, most students stated that they would prefer their teachers to correct all

errors. Considering that in most cases, this finding revealed students care

about having their written errors corrected beyond obtaining a good grade on

the paper.

Summary

In summary, this chapter has focused much on the main parts of the study. It

has concerned about the context of the study that has a great influence on the

teaching and learning English. Methodology including information about the

subject, the instruments, data collection and data analysis has been discussed

in particular. The chapter also pointed out major findings and discussion.

The following chapter will focus on recommendation and suggestions for

teachers of English under the light of the results above.

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CHAPTER THREE: RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTIONS

The results of the study revealed some gaps between teachers and

students beliefs towards corrective feedback. Obviously, teachers in this

study tend to give their feedback at the final stage of the writing process and

mainly focus on end-product. This means students do not have many

opportunities to rewrite the first drafts for the second time. In fact, teachers do

not have enough time to give feedback to each of the student paper as giving

feedback is time-consuming. In addition, large size classes (35 students per

each) and students preferences for correcting all errors also influence teacher

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corrective feedback. The following suggested solutions are drawn for the

teachers of English at the school to solve the problem.

Firstly, teachers should deliver feedback at intermediate stages of thewriting process. This is necessary because when students are required to write

drafts, they can receive feedback during and between the writing of their

drafts so that they can respond to feedback and may more actively attend to

the teachers comments and suggestions.

Secondly, teachers should provide corrective feedback on all aspects of

student text, including content, rhetorical structure, grammar, and mechanics.

However, teachers should not mention all errors at the same time. In other

words, teacher should be as a reader in the early drafts, then a reader and a

writing consultant to offer advice about structure and organization and finally,

as an editor and error analyst, focusing on the grammar and mechanic in the

papers.

Thirdly, teacher corrective feedback should be clear and concrete to

assist students with revision. It can be concluded that when the teachers ask

for specific information or give clear and concrete suggestions, the students

will appreciate it and produce more effective revisions. To do this, teacher

should ask themselves before giving feedback if their comments lead students

to positive learning experiences in their revision process, how their responses

shape the students view of what revision is, and if their comments help the

students to see what actions they should take when they revise their papers.

Finally, teacher corrective feedback must take individual and

contextual variables into account. In fact, a profound effect of teacher

corrective feedback can be expected when feedback given to the students

bases on their needs. In other words, teachers need to know their individual

students prior experiences, knowledge, and expectations, and give different

types feedback to meet individual students needs and desires.

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Summary

This chapter has pointed out recommendation and suggestions for teachers of

English, based on the results discussed before. The researcher hope

students’ attitudes towards teachers’ feedbacks

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