Luận văn thạc sĩ the types of feedback used by teachers of english at vietnam university of commerce and their effectiveness on improving oral presentation skills of the second year

Bạn đang xem bản rút gọn của tài liệu. Xem và tải ngay bản đầy đủ của tài liệu tại đây (534.31 KB, 48 trang )

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
------------------------------

VŨ THỊ HƢƠNG

THE TYPES OF FEEDBACK USED BY TEACHERS OF ENGLISH
AT VIETNAM UNIVERSITY OF COMMERCE AND
THEIR EFFECTIVENESS ON IMPROVING ORAL PRESENTATION
SKILLS OF THE SECOND YEAR ENGLISH – MAJOR STUDENTS

(CÁC LOẠI PHẢN HỒI TỪ GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC
THƯƠNG MẠI VÀ ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA CHÚNG ĐẾN VIỆC HỒN THIỆN
KỸ NĂNG THUYẾT TRÌNH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN
NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field:

English Teaching Methodology

Code:

60.14.10

Hanoi, 2012

z

Hanoi, 2012

z

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Certification………………………………………………………………………………..i
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..ii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………...………………iii
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale………………………………………………………………………...………1
2. Aims of the study………………………………………………………………...……...2
3. Scope of the study……………………………………………………...………………..3
4. Method of the study……………………………………………………………………..3
5. Design of the study……………………………………………………………………...3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Oral presentation
1.1.1. Definitions and characteristics……………………………………...……….………4
1.1.2. Oral presentation organization…………………………………...………….………5
1.1.3. Teaching oral presentation skills……………………………………………....……6
1.2. Feedback
1.2.1. Definitions of feedback……………………………………………………………..9
1.2.2. Types of teacher feedback on oral presentation…………………………………...10
1.3. Effects of teacher feedback on improving students’ oral presentation skills…….….12
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Situation analysis
2.1.1. Context of the study…………………………………………….……………...…..16
2.1.2. Subjects of the study…………………………………………….………...……….17
2.2. Data collection instruments………………………………………………………….17

2.3. Data analysis……………………………………………………....…………………19
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
3.1. Findings
3.1.1. Teachers’ use of feedback on students’ oral presentation.…………..…...……….20
iv

z

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

3.1.2. Effectiveness of teacher feedback on students’ oral presentation skills……….....23
3.2. Discussions
3.2.1. Students’ attitude toward oral presentation skills and teacher feedback……….....27
3.2.2. Teachers’ feedback and its effectiveness on improving students’ oral presentation
skills…………………………………………………………….……………………...…29
3.2.2.1. Strategic feedback…………………………………….…………………...……..30
3.2.2.2. Corrective feedback………………………………….………………...………...30
3.2.2.3. Evaluative feedback………………………………….………………...………...31
PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the study……………………………………………………………...…..33
2. Recommendations……………………………...……………………………………...34
3. Limitations and suggestions………………………...…………………………………35
REFERENCES………………………………………………….………………………..37
APPENDIX 1……………………………………………………………………………...I
APPENDIX 2…………………………………………………………………………….IV

v

z

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
There is a considerable amount of research which confirms that presentation skills
are essential skills that need to be taught to students because of their popularity in most
working places. Morley (2006) points out that oral presentation skills are essential for
employability and true academic study as they lead students to enter into debate and
sustained reasoning. Oral presentation tasks enable students to fully participate in their
learning, show their persuasiveness, their influence on whatever they want to do in the
future and help them develop competency in a vital area of their work. Furthermore,
Powell (2003) states that through the process of presenting, individuals not only become
fully effective in organization, management and expression of ideas and arguments but
also have many advantages when they write a report or an essay. However, giving oral
presentation is one of the most difficult skills for students because it not only requires
them to produce the language most of the time, spontaneously or without enough time to
construct the appropriate and correct utterances but also calls for all aspects of language
to be involved. Due to a lack of English exposure in non-English speaking countries, most
Vietnamese learners do not have sufficient opportunity to improve their oral proficiency
in English. Therefore, language teachers play important roles in helping students to
improve their oral presentation skills.
Current tendencies in education, especially teaching foreign languages, are more
student-centered than teacher-centered. In student-centered pedagogy, the teacher moves
from the traditional role as an authoritative expert to the new role of a facilitator in
students’ learning. This new trend requires teachers to create a supportive learning
atmosphere, acquire interaction skills, develop cooperative learning skills and know how
to apply technology in improving effectiveness of their teaching. Furthermore, working

with students on oral presentation is a challenging job for teachers since it not only
requires teachers’ skill and knowledge about speech communication and public speaking
but also calls for more time and effort in lesson planning and teaching strategies (King,
2002). Moreover, due to students’ lack of chances to communicate with English native
1

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

speakers, teacher feedback to students’ speech is of great importance. Orsmond et al.
(2005) suppose that students use feedback to enhance motivation and learning, to
encourage reflection and clarify understanding. In addition, while good feedback can have
an impact on students’ motivation and autonomy, bad feedback, on the other hand, can
become a demotivating factor to their learning process. Therefore, the kind of feedback
and the way feedback should be given to the students so that it fosters their learning and
improves their oral presentation skills is quite frustrating – the problem that most teachers
of English in Vietnam encounter in their speaking classes.
As a result, teaching oral presentation skills at Vietnam University of Commerce
(VCU) causes certain difficulties for teachers. With the hope of contributing to a more
effective oral presentation teaching and learning in VCU, a minor study was carried out to
find out how teacher feedback can help to improve oral presentation skills of the second
year English – major students at this university.
2. Aims of the study
This study examines the types of feedback which are mainly used by teachers of
English at VCU when their second year English – major students give oral presentations;
thenceforth, finds out how effectively each type of feedback contributes to enhancing
students’ oral presentation skills as perceived by students.

With a view to achieving the aims of the study, the research questions will be
addressed as follows:
1. What types of feedback are mainly used by teachers of English at VCU when their
second year English – major students make oral presentations?
2. How do those types of feedback contribute to the improvement of oral presentation
skills of the second year English – major students as perceived by students?
3. Scope of the study
Due to the framework of this minor thesis, limited time and experience, the
researcher cannot discuss all the aspects related to the broad topic of teacher feedback.
The research just focuses on finding the types of feedback teachers at VCU give to their
2

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

English major students when they deliver their speech. Moreover, the researcher hopes to
provide significant insights into what teachers do to respond to students’ oral presentation
and effectiveness of some certain kinds of feedback in promoting students’ presenting
skills which leads to some suggestions for improving teacher feedback and helping
students to make the best use of teacher feedback to enhance their oral presentation skills.
4. Method of the study
In order to realize the aims, this study employs both qualitative and quantitative
research methods:
A survey questionnaire was done on 126 second year English-major students at
Vietnam University of Commerce to collect their opinions on the types of teachers’
feedback they received and the effectiveness of these types of feedback on improving
students’ oral presentation skills.

Interviews were conducted with 10 students in order to explore further issues being
investigated.
5. Design of the study
This study has three parts: Part A – Introduction, Part B – Development including
literature review, methodology, findings and discussions and Part C – Conclusion.
The introduction part presents the rationale, aims and scope of the study, method
of the study and organization of the study.
The literature review chapter conceptualizes the framework of the study through
the discussions of issues and ideas on theories of oral presentation and feedback.
The methodology chapter includes situation analysis, data collection instruments
and data analysis.
The findings and discussions chapter indicates the results of the study, from which
major findings and some discussions are revealed.
The conclusion part at the end gives a summary of the main issues that have been
discussed so far in the study and suggestions for further research.

3

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1.

Oral presentation

1.1.1. Definition and characteristics
An oral presentation, according to the learning centre of New South Wales
University, is “a short talk on a set topic given to a tutorial or seminar group”, in which
one or more students present views on a topic based on their readings or research. From
this view, we can see that oral presentation is the practice of showing or explaining the
content of a topic to audience(s), so that it can come in nearly as many forms as there are
in life situations. Ohio Wesleyan University, in their “Guidelines for Oral Presentation”
shares the opinion that oral presentations are “brief discussions of a focused topic
delivered to a group of listeners in order to impart knowledge or to stimulate discussion”.
Mentioning characteristics of oral presentation, Clark supposes that both
presentations and reports are “ways of communicating ideas and information to a group”,
however, a presentation not only allows immediate and direct interaction between
participants but also carries the speakers’ personality better than a report does. As far as
he is concerned, a good presentation has at least for elements. Firstly, it has content which
contains information people need, yet, it depends on the amount of information that the
audience can absorb at certain time. Next, an oral presentation has structure which
requires a logical beginning, middle and end so that the audience can understand it.
During the process of wandering among different parts of the presentation, the presenter
must keep to hold the floor and not to loose the audience. Another important element is
packaging, it means that the presentation must be well – prepared for the audience is at
the mercy of the speaker. Last but not least, a good presentation has human in it which
makes it better to remember and differentiates it from a report. To be more detailed,
Comfort (as cited in Ha, Nguyen Thi Van, 2007:11) identifies the criteria which can be
used to evaluate an effective oral presentation:
Over all:
4

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

clear, simple, and fluent

-

use of natural spoken language

-

use of pauses for emphasis

Body language:
-

use of strong, clear gestures for emphasis

-

good eye contact with the audience

-

positive, confident, and relaxed manner

-

no distracting gestures

Visual aids:
-

clear and simple messages

-

efficient, professional use of equipment

1.1.2. Oral presentation organization
A number of researchers on oral presentation share the opinion that an oral
presentation consists of three main parts: the introduction, body and conclusion (see
Comfort: 1995; Dwyer: 2000; Emden & Backer: 2004). In which the introduction aims to
state the topic and get the audience’s attention. The learning centre of New South Wales
University mentions that “An introduction is like a road map that tells your audience the
direction your presentation will take”. Because it gives the audience a preview of the
presentation, it is necessary to capture their attention and stimulate them at this stage.
Although an introduction is advised to be short and briefly informative, it should include
greeting the audience, introducing the name of the presenter; stating the topic and the
5

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

purpose of the presentation; providing an outline of the main points and necessary
background or some definition of terms. Lewis & Reinders (2003:95) adds that at this
stage, it is necessary to mention when the audience may ask questions, either to interrupt
the presenter during his speech or at the end of the presentation.
Once your audience has a clear idea of what is going to come next, you can start

developing the body where the main points, examples and evidence are presented. These
main points need to be arranged in a way that is clear and easy to understand for both
presenter and audiences. The information in the body should be well – structured, based
on a certain organizing principle; it can be chronological order, theme or order of
importance, and so on. Also in this part, it is the presenter’s duty to informs, persuades or
entertains the audience, so an interesting and lively presentation is determining factor. To
achieve this, the presenter should use personal experience, examples, facts, illustrations or
visual aids, and a very important element – humor. Gigliotti (1995) supposes that it will
not matter how important the content of a presentation is if it is not heard due to lack of
interest. Graphic illustrations and visual aids can help to clarify the message, add color to
attract your audience and help them easy to memorize your presentation as “A picture is
worth a thousand words”.
The last part of a presentation is the conclusion. The conclusion is usually a
summary of the main points made in the body of the talk and leave the audience with a
final impression of the subject. In this part, you should not introduce any new information
but take the opportunity to show that you have covered all the points given in the
introduction “The ending needs to be dynamic too so that the presentation leaves a lasting
impression on the audience and the key points are remembered” (Lewis & Reinders,
2003:95). In this part, the presenter is also suggested to give some remarks or
recommendations for the audience to take away as significance or further consideration.
1.1.3. Teaching oral presentation skills
This literature review presents the ideas of some scholars, researchers, and
educators who have contributed so much to the literature on teaching presentation skills
and whose theories are highly appreciated.
6

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

As a matter of facts, the purposes of oral presentations are to help learners develop
their fluency and increase their confidence when speaking (Underhill, 1987; Vo, 1994).
Making oral presentation brings students a lot of advantages including bridging the gap
between language theory and language practice, using four language skills in a naturally
integrated way; enhancing skills of group work and making students more active and
autonomous in their learning and communicating. However, students often encounter a lot
of difficulties in delivering a speech. Brown and Yule (1983) states that a student who can
make good conversations in English may not be successful in oral presentations because
the presenter has to take responsibility for creating “a structured sequence of utterances
which must help the listener(s) to create a coherence of what he is trying to say” .
Therefore, it will not be easy for teacher to train students to produce short turns and hope
that they will succeed in performing in long turns. Underhill (1987) suggests that teacher
should ask students to present in a less formal situation or mini-presentation as part of the
teaching schedule. Each day, a learner takes turn to make his presentation in front of the
class. He is encouraged to use notes and simple aids such as overhead projector, chalk,
black board, pictures but he is not allowed to read his notes aloud. At the end of the
presentation, it is his duty to answer all the questions related to the topic raised by the
audiences. Teachers are advised not to intervene in the whole activity from the beginning
through the presentation and Q&A session to the final summary. He also says that
choosing the topic is of great importance. The chosen topics should be relevant to the
aims of the program and the needs of the learners; it should contain new information or a
new viewpoint of an already – discussed issue as well. It is also necessary that the chosen
topic has the teacher’s agreement to make sure that it is appropriate to the age and ability
of the listeners so that it can arouse the learners’ interests and create enjoyable classroom
atmosphere.
Vo (1994) gives suggestions for teachers when assigning oral presentations (give
topics and let students have time to prepare before going to class), in which the procedure
of oral presentation should come as below:

7

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

1. At the beginning, let students know that all of them will have chances to speak
in front of the class.
2. Put up a large calendar so that students can choose the date they prefer.
3. After the break of every class session, have one student come forward and
speak about his/ her topic.
4. The teacher sits in the audience during the speech.
5. Time limit for each student should be about five minutes.
6. Let other members of the class raise their questions and comment until the
speaker has finished (if the presenter has difficulty in answering the audience
questions, the teacher and other students can help).
7. After each speech, give the speaker some feedback (it is highly recommended
that compliments should come before criticism in order not to discourage the
speaker).
According to Jane King (2002), confidence is vital to effective oral presentations
since lack of it produces students’ stress and nervousness. He supposes that in order to
build confidence in students, teachers firstly need to “free them from their detailed –
oriented learning strategies” by instructing students not only how to organize the main
ideas and develop a logical, coherent outline but also how to get the general
understanding of the material they read. Additionally, teacher should help students
conquer their fear of making grammatical and pronunciation errors by informing them
that they will not be graded by the mistakes they made. In his opinion, the teacher’s role

in oral presentation involves organizing groups, helping students to select topics, guiding
their research, instructing them the use of various visual aids, providing feedback and
evaluating their performance.
In brief, teaching oral presentation skills is a really challenging job for teachers
because they are required to play a lot different roles at the same time. However, with
structured planning and appropriate method of teaching and giving feedback, oral
presentations can be beneficial and enjoyable activities for learners.
1.2.

Feedback
8

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

1.2.1. Definitions of feedback
Feedback is an essential component in all learning contexts and serves a variety of
purposes including evaluating students’ achievement, developing students’ competences,
and enhancing students’ motivation and confidence (Hyland, 2000). In a purely
instructional sense, feedback can be seen as any communication or procedure given to
inform a learner of the accuracy of a response, usually to an instructional question (Carter,
1984; Sales, 1993). More broadly, feedback allows the comparison of actual performance
with some set standard of performance (Johnson & Johnson, 1993). This view is quite
similar with Ramapsasad’s (1983:4) which is extensively used in education literature
“Feedback is information about the gap between the actual level and the reference level of
a system parameter which is used to alter the gap in some way”. Littlewood (1981) and
Lewis (2002) point out that feedback can be either oral or written, and it means “telling

learners about their progress and showing them their errors in order to guide them to areas
for improvement”. According to Race (2001), feedback can be seen as information
communicated to the learner as a result of learning – oriented action in teaching and
learning activities in higher education. Ur (1996:242) considers feedback as “information
that is given to the learner about his or her performance of a learning task, usually with
the objective of improving this performance”. According to him, feedback has two main
distinguished components called assessment and correction. While in assessment the
learner is simply informed how well or badly he has performed, in correction, teachers
provide some specific information on aspects of the learner’s performance by explaining,
suggesting better or other alternatives or eliciting these from the learner. Ferris (1999)
views feedback as “any response a teacher may give his or her students”. To be more
detailed, Ypsilandis (2002) shares the idea that feedback is “reaction, a response that is
usually triggered and received by the learners and provided by teacher” and as an
“assistance mechanism, a key factor for successful learning, offering support to the
learning process”.
There remains argument about whether a feedback should contain judgement or
not. Ur (1996:243) finds the opinion that teacher feedback should be “non - judgemental”
9

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

unrealistic and supposes that “Any meaningful feedback is going to involve some kind of
judgement”. However, he also adds that the teacher should try to make more positive
judgement in order to help and promote learning in students. Robert (2003) shares the
same view when proposing that “feedback should only ever be used as a basis for
improvement. It should not be mistaken for negative criticism and vice verse”. Bound

(1991) points out that helpful feedback should make a conscious distinction between the
person – who is always valued – and particular acts or specific work – which may be the
subject to critical, so no matter how distasteful an oral presentation might be, the common
humanity should be respected. Weaver (2006) agrees with this view when pointing out the
feedback that is considered unhelpful to learning improvement involves comments which
are too general or vague, unrelated to assessment criteria, lack guidance and focus on
negative. To sum up, most researchers agree on the aspects that feedback should not be
used as a correction tool only; it should be a motivating factor for students’ learning as
well, so most of them suppose that the teacher’s feedback should base on the facts, not
beliefs, assumptions or personal opinion.
Feedback, according to Kouritzin and Vizard (1999), is continuous, ongoing and
interactive; it comes not only from teachers, but also from peers, parents, and friends.
Feedback assumes the form of grades, comments, error – correction, body languages,
facial expression, conversation, self – evaluation and it may be spoken, written, audio
taped or videotaped and so on, yet, in this study, the writer focuses on the types of
feedback teachers use in class and its effects on improving oral presentation skills only.
1.2.2. Types of teacher feedback on oral presentation
Numerous researchers (Gattullo, 2000; Harmer, 2001; Dweck, 2000; Hattie &
Timperley, 2007) have noted the importance of teacher feedback to students’ learning, yet
different researchers have different ways of classifying types of feedback, below are some
of their views.
Gattullo (2000) and Harmer (2001) divide feedback into three different types:
corrective, evaluative and strategic. First of all, corrective feedback focuses on helping
learners notice and correct errors. In language learning, it explains why responses are
10

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

correct or wrong and primarily concerns with accuracy. Evaluative feedback provides a
judgement on students’ performance, and this type of feedback, according to Gattullo (as
cited in Al-Fahdi) is widely used in second and foreign language classrooms. With
evaluative feedback, teachers use words or phrases to show the students the extent to
which their performance is good or not. Thirdly, strategic feedback aims at helping
students to overcome their mistakes by themselves, so in this type of feedback, teachers
often give advice on what students should do to improve their performance.
Unlike this opinion, Llinares (2005) distinguishes two main types: interactional
feedback and pedagogic feedback. Interactional feedback includes expressions of
agreement, disagreement and acknowledgement (with this expression, teacher responds
affirmatively to the content and ignores error by moving on to topic continuation). This
feedback reflects “comments made by teacher, with no evaluative or corrective purpose”
and aims at enhancing the students’ linguistic production. Whereas, pedagogic feedback
refers to “acknowledgment or comments made by teacher, with the purpose of correcting
and evaluating students’ performance”, it involves making positive and negative
evaluation, correcting errors, giving a clue for right answer and prompting the students to
respond.
Sutton (1997) and Stobart (1993) offer another way of feedback separation which
differentiates between descriptive feedback and evaluative feedback. According to these
researchers, descriptive feedback describes strengths to establish further growth and
development, articulates the manner to suggest how performance which falls short of
desired criteria can be remediated and gives information to enable learners to adjust to
what he is doing so as to get better, hence, this feedback has positive effect on learning.
Alternatively, evaluative feedback tells the learner how he has performed in comparison
with others or some set standard. Shared the same opinion, but to be more detailed,
Tunstall and Gipps’ (as cited in Knight, 2003:44) distinguish eight types of feedback.
They indentify two major types: descriptive feedback and evaluative feedback in which
each of them consists of four minor types. Descriptive feedback includes specifying

attainment, constructing achievement, specifying improvement and constructing the way
11

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

forward while evaluative one involves rewarding (most positive), approving, punishing
(most negative) and disapproving. The former directs student attention to task and
emphasizes mastery of the task and further improvement, so it is said to be task –
involving; whereas, the later directs student to external forces (rewards or punishment)
and focuses on self – worth and comparison, so it is ego – involving. This typology of
Tunstall and Gipps’ (1996) also indicates that evaluative feedback can be either positive
or negative, but all descriptive feedback is positive. However, the feature of evaluative or
descriptive feedback is not the matter of presence or absence, it is the matter of degree, so
there is no clear – cut and sometimes exist some fuzzy areas between them.
Additionally, McNamara (1999) and Ayoun (2001) argue that teacher’s oral
feedback might affect students’ attitudes toward their learning positively or negatively,
thus, feedback can be categorized as positive or negative. Positive feedback shows
learners that the teacher is interested in their performance and this, as a result, encourages
them. On the other hand, negative feedback expresses the teacher’s displeasure,
frustration or sometimes punishment towards students’ performance.
In this study, the researcher follows the categorization of Gattullo (2000) and
Harmer (2001), which means that this study will examine the feedback VCU teachers
give to students’ oral presentation under three types: corrective, evaluative and strategic
and then investigate the effectiveness of each type of feedback on the development of
students’ oral presentation skills. Therefore, in the next part, the researcher will discuss
the effects of teacher feedback on students’ oral presentation skills.

1.3.

Effects of teacher feedback on improving students’ oral presentation skills
It cannot be denied that feedback, if properly used and given, have a great

influence on the learners’ improvement. However, the type of feedback and the way it
should be given in a specific situation must be taken into consideration in order to achieve
this effect. Askew (2000), as cited in Terése (2005:8), states that “As soon as we ask for
feedback, we open ourselves to the possibility of criticism – something which many of us
find difficult to handle”. Terése (2005) supposes that when feedback is given with a
dominating attitude, the students will most likely be defensive; and when a person
12

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

become defensive, he will neither listen nor process the given feedback. Terése’s study
which was conducted in an upper secondary school to find out the students’ reaction to
teacher feedback when learning English as a foreign language indicates that oral feedback
is of value to students since they get a lot benefit from the feedback. Students in this study
also say that they are mostly corrected in pronunciation and grammar, beside this, words,
expressions, context, sentence structure and verb forms are represented as well.
Moreover, they point out an important feature that feedback should be delivered nicely,
even when it is not positive one, it should be delivered in positive way so that students do
not feel embarrassed or insulted.
Another study, carried out by Nugrahenny (2007) to explore Indonesian students’
attitude towards teacher feedback shows that generally teachers and students have a

marked preference for teacher feedback. Interestingly, student preferences for teacher
feedback originate from their awareness that teachers control grades and if they do not
follow the feedback, teachers might give them low grades. Nugarhenny (2007) also points
out that students respond favorably to the teacher comments which are explicit and they
benefit if teachers use easy language and familiar terms to deliver their feedback.
Dinham (2008) supposes that feedback is “vital in schooling and performs a
variety of functions including recognizing, correcting, encouraging, challenging and
improving student performance”. Feedback also keeps students “on track” and is an aid to
classroom management. Negative feedback can discourage student effort and
achievement (Hattie & Timperlay, 2007), so in some cases, bad feedback can be worse
than no feedback. Dinham (2008) also states that effective feedback needs to be
equivalent, constructive and instructive; moreover, it should neither hurt someone’s
feeling nor destroy their confidence. Book (1983:6) shares the view that feedback on
speeches informs the speaker about the audience’s reaction to the speech, this helps to
make suggestions for improvement on future speech and motivate the speaker to speak
again or to enjoy the speaking.
Moreover, Tsui (1995) as cited in Ribas (2010) states that teacher’s feedback, apart
from evaluating and providing information related to students’ responses, has many other
13

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

functions such as acknowledging information or providing personal comments on
students’ responses. He also emphasizes the role of teacher feedback when showing that
when feedback is absent, students know that there must be something wrong or
unsatisfactory with their answer. Al Fahdis (2005) agrees with Tsui’ opinion when

supposes that “giving feedback is one of the key roles that teachers play in the
classroom”. Both researchers think that this is an important role because the way the
teacher handles it can have a strong influence on the learners’ experience. Particularly, the
way teachers respond to learners can have a powerful impact on learners’ attitudes
towards the subject (Tsui, 1985).
Lynch and Maclean (2003) conducted a study investigated the effects of teacher
feedback on changes in the spoken language performance of a group of advanced learners
of English in the Netherlands. In this study, feedback is explicit, arose primarily in
prepared presentations. The results show that most of the participants “did improve their
“strike - rate” of correct L2 forms in the areas that had been brought to their attention by
tutor” (p.20). The most striking finding is the learners’ awareness of their language use
including language problems identified in teacher feedback and changes in their language
performance. For instances, in this very short course of English for Medical Congress, 21
out of 24 participants perceive gains in pronunciation, 8 out of 24 perceive gains in
grammar, 2 perceive gains in fluency and two realize an increase in their confidence for
speaking. The researchers argue that it is right for teachers and learners to consider the
provision of feedback as a beneficial element of a speaking skill course. What is more,
their research suggests that if teachers provide feedback on spoken performance in written
form and on an individual basis, and combine it with recording the performance, it can
make feedback more accessible, more easily retrievable later and possibly more effective
(p.22).
In general, the indispensable role of teacher feedback is shown in the point that
teacher feedback reflects to students what and how they perform, showing them their
strong points to bring into play and the weak points to improve. Therefore, if the feedback
students receive on their presentation has the characteristics of a good feedback, if they
14

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

receive sufficient often enough and in enough detail, it is learning-focused and relevant to
the learning outcomes, it can help a lot with improving their presentation skills.

15

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the context of the study, the subjects, the methods of the study, the data
collection instruments, the data collection procedure and the data analysis procedure will
be presented.
2.1. Situation analysis
2.1.1. Context of the study
The study was conducted at Vietnam University of Commerce (VCU). Because of
the increasing demand of English-competent workforce, Faculty of English was
established at VCU in 2007. The aim of this institution is to provide students basic
knowledge of the socio-economic, business management, to be master of Business
English in order to work effectively in the fields of goods and services trading,
commercial investment and intellectual property rights and moreover to meet the
requirements of national and international transactions. Students who want to enter this
faculty have to take examinations in English, literature and math. Each year, Faculty of
English enrolls about 240 new students. There are forty-three teachers aged 23-57 of
English at this faculty and the number is always on the rise. On the whole, the teaching

staff at this university is eager to knowledge and willing to apply effective methods of
teaching in order for their students to master English.
The learning program of English major students consists of 138 credits in eight
semesters for all subjects. Of which 60 credits are allotted to the development of four
language skills and 30 credits for other English courses including phonetics, semantics,
literature, business, translation and so on. The rest is rationed to the general subjects
applied for all the VCU students and are taught in Vietnamese. The textbook used for
developing students’ four skills is “The Business” series (Pre-intermediate, Intermediate
and Upper-intermediate) by Karen Richardson, Marie Kavangh, John Sydes, John
Allison, Jeremy Townend and Paul Emmerson which adhere to communicative approach.
Each unit consists of six sections: about business, vocabulary, grammar, speaking, writing
and case study. The four language skills are taught inseparably throughout the syllabus
16

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

and the target for the second year English major students is Intermediate level. In the
second year, the students study four subjects English II.1, II.2, II.3, II.4, with the structure
(42, 12, 18, 3). It means students will have 42 periods for class meeting, 12 for group
discussions and presentations, 18 for self-study and 3 periods for revision with 50 minutes
per periods.
2.1.2. Subjects of the study
Although English is taught to both English-major students and non-English-major
students, the researcher focuses on English major ones who are the target population of
this study. The subjects of this study include 126 second year English-major students who
are studying at the faculty of English – VCU. Most of them are about twenty years old

and come from different parts of Vietnam – from rural areas to urban ones. These students
have studied English for at least three years and are going to finish the second year of
Commercial English at the time of the study, so they are supposed to get familiar with the
learning and teaching methods used at VCU. It may be very difficult to select a random
sample of individuals due to researcher’s limited time and experience. In this case, instead
of randomly selecting individuals, the researcher randomly selects classes or groups for
investigation. Because English major students who belong to a class in their English class
may belong to another class in general subjects like macroeconomics or contrastive
linguistics (which are taught in Vietnamese), this selection can meet the requirements that
the respondents come from different English classes and are taught by different teachers
of English.
2.2. Data collection instruments
This study was done in the light of both quantitative and qualitative methods in
order to get a more detailed and comprehensive picture about what is investigated.
Quantitative methods of analysis would be suitable to identify the types of feedback
mainly used by teachers of English when teaching the second year English – major
students at VCU. However, so as to get deep insights into how those types of feedback
contribute to improving students’ oral presentation skills in those classes, the researcher
17

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

supposes that a qualitative method is needed. Interviews as a qualitative tool will give
participants chances to select, reconstruct and explain details of their experience which
can offer insights into students’ feelings, thoughts or opinions – things that may be
undetected with quantitative methods.

In this study, data is gained through the employment of two research instruments,
namely questionnaire and interviews. Quantitative data is collected from self – report
questionnaire and qualitative data is achieved from semi – structured interviews. The
questionnaire consists of three parts, which will be discussed in details as follows:
Part 1: This part is the questionnaire about students’ perception of oral
presentation skills and teachers’ feedback. Questions 1, 2, 3, 4 are designed to find out
students’ attitude towards oral presentation skills. Questions 5, 6, 7, 8 are used to detect
students’ attitude towards teachers’ feedback.
Part 2: This part includes 10 statements about the frequency of teachers’ using
three kinds of feedback namely corrective feedback (statements 1, 2, 3, 4), evaluative
feedback (statements 5, 6, 7, 8) and strategic feedback (statements 9, 10) in English
speaking class.
Part 3: This part focuses on the effectiveness of the three kinds of feedback
mentioned above. Of which, statements (1, 2, 3, 4) mention the effectiveness of corrective
feedback, statements (5, 6, 7, 8) estimate the effectiveness of evaluative feedback and the
two statements (9, 10) investigate the effectiveness of strategic feedback.
Table 1: The layout of students’ questionnaire
Part

Category

Part 1

Students’

Question (Q)/ Statement (S)
attitude

toward

oral Q (1, 2, 3, 4)

presentation skills
Students’ attitude toward teachers’ Q (5, 6, 7, 8)
feedback
Part 2

Frequency of corrective feedback

S (1, 2, 3, 4)

Frequency of evaluative feedback

S (5, 6, 7, 8)

18

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

Part 3

Frequency of strategic feedback

S (9, 10)

Effectiveness of corrective feedback

S (1, 2, 3, 4)

Effectiveness of evaluative feedback S (5, 6, 7, 8)
Effectiveness of strategic feedback

S (9, 10)

Additionally, the researcher conducts semi-structured interviews with 10 students
who participated in doing the questionnaire in order to obtain more detailed and
comprehensive information about the effect of teachers’ feedback on improving students’
oral presentation skills.
2.3. Data analysis
After piloting the questionnaire to a small sample of 10 students to check its
validity and reality, it was then re-edited and distributed to 150 students a month before
the end of school year 2011 – 2012. Finally, 126 questionnaires were returned. After
receiving the completed questionnaires, the researcher classified and counted them using
the functions DCOUNT, AVERAGE and SUM.
After analyzing the questionnaires, the researcher chose 10 students among all the
respondents to interview, 3 of them were identified as highly appreciated corrective
feedback, other 3 of them were considered as prefer evaluative feedback and the other 4
respondents prefer strategic feedback. The researcher interviewed them one by one and
took notes all the information. The content of the interviews then was typed and printed.
After all, she read each response and sorted out the frequency of teacher using each type
of feedback as well as its effects on improving their oral presentation skills. Thus, the
following chapter will deal with findings and discussions.

19

z

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This chapter answers the research question proposed at the beginning of the study, so the
types of feedback are mainly used by teachers of English when their second year English
– major students make oral presentations and the influence of each type of feedback on
students’ improvement of oral presentation skill will be in focus. The results are reflected
through the data collection from questionnaires and interviews lead to a better
understanding of feedback types and their role in laying a more effective learning and
teaching method of speaking skill.
3.1. Findings
3.1.1. Teachers’ use of feedback on students’ oral presentation
As discussed in the chapter of literature review, the researcher based on the
classification of Gattullo (2000) and Harmer (2001) to divide teacher feedback into three
groups namely corrective feedback, evaluative feedback and strategic feedback. During
oral presentation, teachers use these kinds of feedback with different rates of frequency.
Table 2 below shows the level of frequency of using these three types of teacher
feedback. Surprisingly, the strategic feedback had the highest frequency of using (54.8%),
followed by evaluative feedback (45.3%) and corrective feedback (29.2%).
Table 2: Frequency of teachers’ feedback on oral presentation kills
Statements

Never
%

Seldom
%

Sometimes Often
%
%

Always
%

2.4

7.1

40.5

33.3

16.7

2.4

14.3

47.6

19

16.7

14.3

26.6

35.7

19

4.8

23.8

40.5

28.6

7.1

0

Corrective feedback
1. Your teacher helps you notice and
correct mistakes yourself.
2. Your teacher directly corrects
your mistakes.
3. Your teacher clarifies your
utterance by asking questions like
“what do you mean by…?” or
“Excuse me?”.
4. Your teacher draws your attention
to mistakes by repeating your
mistakes with a change in

intonation.

20

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.2237.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.66

Total

32.7

Evaluative feedback
5. Your teacher criticizes you when 28.6
you make mistakes.
6. Your teacher gives comments/ 9.6
explanation for her mark on your
presentation.
7. Your teacher compliments on 0
your good performance.
8. Your teacher indicates to what 2.4
extent your performance is good or
not.

Total
Strategic feedback
9. Your teacher gives you advice on 0

29.2

23.7

28.6

16.7

2.4

19

21.4

28.6

21.4

14.3

38

31

16.7

11.9

42.8

40.5

2.4

27.4

how to improve your performance.
10. Your teacher suggests ways for 7.1
you to overcome mistakes yourself.
Total

38.1

32.7

39.9

19

26.2

40.5

14.3

14.3

23.8

38.1

16.7

20.2

25

54.8

Frequency of teachers’ using corrective feedback
In table 2, the teacher uses corrective feedback with a quite low level of frequency.
Only 29.2% of respondents say that their teachers often and always give corrective
feedback. Of which the percentage of teachers’ helping students notice and correct
mistakes themselves is the highest at 50%. While 35.5% of students suppose that their
teachers directly correct their mistakes, only 7.1% of the participants claim that their
teachers draw their attention to mistakes by repeating their mistakes with a change in
intonation and 22.8% of them acknowledge that the teachers clarify their utterance by
asking questions like “What do you mean by…?” or “Excuse me?.
This result comes as a little surprise to the researcher for her knowing that
corrective feedback is highly appreciated in education system of Vietnam, especially for
foreign language learning and teaching. Interviewing with students gives her more detail
and explanation for this phenomenon. S8 shares that:
“My teacher doesn’t interrupt us in the middle of our talk for mistakes correcting because
she says that the interruption may make us lose face and feel nervous. She often
21

z
37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.99

Luận văn thạc sĩ the types of feedback used by teachers of english at vietnam university of commerce and their effectiveness on improving oral presentation skills of the second year

Tài liệu liên quan

Tài liệu bạn tìm kiếm đã sẵn sàng tải về