Khóa luận tốt nghiệp tiếng anh: A study on giving feedback on speaking english for the 10th grade students at tay thuy anh upper secondary school in thai binh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my special thanks to M.A Tran
Thi Van, my supervisor, who has given me great help with this graduation
paper. Without her experienced guidance, valuable suggestions and dutiful
supervision, my research would be far from finished.
I would also like to express my thankfulness to teachers and students at
Tay Thuy Anh upper-secondary school for their help in completing my survey
questionnaires as well as their willingness to share their ideas on the
accomplishment of the study.
I take this opportunity to thank the teachers in Department of Foreign
Languages, Taybac University for their help and care for me during the time I
do this study.
I am also indebted to all my friends who have kindly given me assistance
and encouragement, without whom, the study would have no such great
motivation.
Last but not least, the support extended to me by members of my family
has been immeasurable. I would like to express my sincere thanks to them for
their support and encouragement throughout my study.
Son La, 30th April, 2015

Le Thi Kim Thoa

i


ABSTRACT

This study was carried out at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school
with 100 tenth grade students and 8 teachers. The purpose of the study is to
investigate the current situation of teachers’ giving feedback and its impacts on

students’ learning in speaking lessons.
Data for the research was collected from observation sheets,
questionnaires, and interviews. Findings from these instruments reveal that
teachers at Tay Thuy Anh upper- secondary school are highly aware of the
importance of giving feedback on students’ speaking. Their direct feedback is
mostly very useful and motivates students to talk at class. The limitation of the
study and some suggestions for further study are then drawn up.

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Teachers’ background and their teaching conditions ........................... 24
Table 2: Teachers’ attitude towards speaking skill ............................................. 25
Table3: Reasons for giving no feedback in teaching speaking English skill...... 26
Table 4: Teachers’ frequency of using some types of feedback ......................... 30
Table 5: Teachers’ opinions of types of feedback .............................................. 31
Table 6: Teachers’ difficulties when giving feedback ........................................ 31
Table 7: Reasons for giving no feedback in speaking skill ................................ 34
Table 8: Students’ opinions about appropriate time for teachers giving feedback
in speaking skill ................................................................................................... 37
Table 9: The students’ preference for the types of feedback by the teachers ..... 39

iii


LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1: Status of giving feedback in speaking English lessons ......................... 25
Chart 2: Teachers’ purposes in giving feedback for teaching speaking skill ..... 27
Chart 3: The appropriate time for teachers giving feedback in speaking lesson 28

Chart 4: The aspects for teachers’ feedback ....................................................... 29
Chart 5: Year of learning English ....................................................................... 32
Chart 6: Students’ opinions of learning speaking skill ....................................... 33
Chart 7: Status of giving feedback in speaking skill........................................... 34
Chart 8: Students’ opinions of teachers’ feedback.............................................. 35
Chart 9: The effects of teachers’ feedback towards students’ learning .............. 36
Chart 10: The aspects of teachers’ feedback ....................................................... 37
Chart 11: Students’ frequency of receiving feedback ......................................... 38

iv


TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................. i
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... ii
LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………….iii
LIST OF CHARTS……………………………………………………….……iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………..…..v
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale......................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Purposes of the study

2

1.3. Scope of the study .......................................................................................... 2
1.4. Research questions ......................................................................................... 2
1.5. Methods of the study ...................................................................................... 3
1.6. Overview of the study .................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................... 4
2.1. Theoretical background of speaking .............................................................. 4

2.1.1. Definition of speaking ................................................................................. 4
2.1.2. Position of speaking skill in English Language Teaching .......................... 5
2.2. Theoretical background of teaching speaking ............................................... 6
2.2.1. Definition of teaching speaking .................................................................. 6
2.2.2. The principles for teaching speaking .......................................................... 7
2.2.3. The importance of the teaching speaking ................................................... 8
2.2.4. The relationship between teaching speaking and different skills ............... 9
2.2.4.1. The relationship between speaking and listening .................................. 10
2.2.4.2. The relationship between speaking and reading .................................... 10
2.2.4.3. The relationship between speaking and writing..................................... 11
2.3. Theoretical background of feedback ............................................................ 12
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2.3.1. Definition of giving feedback ................................................................... 12
2.3.2. Types of feedback ..................................................................................... 13
2.3.3. The impacts of giving feedback on speaking English .............................. 13
2.3.3.1. The advantages of giving feedback ........................................................ 13
2.3.3.2. The disadvantages of giving feedback ................................................... 15
2.3.4. The teacher and students’ roles in giving and receiving feedback in
speaking skills ..................................................................................................... 15
2.3.4.1. The teacher’s roles ................................................................................. 15
2.3.4.2. The students’ role ................................................................................... 16
2.4. Summary ...................................................................................................... 17
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 18
3.1. The setting of the study ................................................................................ 18
3.1.1. The participants ......................................................................................... 18
3.1.2. The teaching context ................................................................................. 18
3.1.2.1. Textbook................................................................................................. 18
3.1.2.2. Students and their background ............................................................... 18

3.1.2.3. Teachers and teaching conditions .......................................................... 19
3.2. Research instruments.................................................................................... 20
3.2.1. Survey questionnaires ............................................................................... 20
3.2.1.1. The questionnaire for the teachers ......................................................... 20
3.2.1.2. The questionnaire for the students ......................................................... 21
3.2.2. Class observation....................................................................................... 21
3.2.3. Interview.................................................................................................... 21
3.2.3.1. Students’ interview................................................................................. 22
3.2.3.2. Teachers’ interview ................................................................................ 22
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3.3. Procedure ...................................................................................................... 22
3.4. Summary ...................................................................................................... 22
CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................. 24
4.1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 24
4.2. Data analysis ................................................................................................ 24
4.2.1. Data analysis of the survey questionnaire ................................................. 24
4.2.1.1. Data analysis of the survey questionnaire for the teachers .................... 24
4.2.1.1.1. Teachers’ background and their teaching conditions.......................... 24
4.2.1.1.2. Teachers’ attitude towards teaching speaking skill ............................ 25
4.2.1.1.3. Status of giving feedback in speaking English lessons ....................... 25
4.2.1.1.4. Reasons for giving no feedback in teaching speaking English skill ... 26
4.2.1.1.5. Teachers’ purposes in giving feedback for teaching speaking skill ... 27
4.2.1.1.6. The appropriate time for teachers giving feedback in speaking lesson
............................................................................................................................. 28
4.2.1.1.7. The aspects for teachers giving feedback ........................................... 29
4.2.1.1.8. Teachers’ frequency of using some types of feedback ....................... 30
4.2.1.1.9. Teachers’ opinions about types of feedback ....................................... 31
4.2.1.1.10. Teachers’ difficulties when giving feedback .................................... 31

4.2.1.2. Data analysis of the survey questionnaire for the students .................... 32
4.2.1.2.1. The background information of students ............................................ 32
4.2.1.2.2. Students’ opinions of learning speaking skill ..................................... 33
4.2.1.2.3. Status of giving feedback in speaking skill......................................... 34
4.2.1.2.4. Reasons for giving no feedback in speaking skill ............................... 34
4.2.1.2.5. Students’ opinions of teachers’ feedback............................................ 35
4.2.1.2.6. The effects of teachers’ feedback towards students’ learning ............ 36
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4.2.1.2.7. Students’ opinions about appropriate time for teachers giving feedback
in speaking skill ................................................................................................... 37
4.2.1.2.8. The aspects of teachers’ feedback ....................................................... 37
4.2.1.2.9. Students’ frequency of receiving feedback ......................................... 38
4.2.1.2.10. The students’ preference for the types of feedback by the teachers . 39
4.2.2. Data analysis of the class observation....................................................... 39
4.2.3. Data analysis of the interview ................................................................... 40
4.2.3.1. Data analysis of the interview for students ............................................ 40
4.2.3.2. Data analysis of the interview for teachers ............................................ 41
4.2.4. Summary ................................................................................................... 42
CHAPTER V: MAJOR FINDINGS AND SOME SUGGESTIONS ........... 43
5.1. Major findings .............................................................................................. 43
5.2. Some suggestions ......................................................................................... 44
CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION ...................................................................... 46
REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX ......................................................................................................... V

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
It is undoubted that nowadays English has become an international
language that takes an important role in the social life of the world. It helps to
narrow the gap between people and people, country and country, continent and
continent. Moreover, it is the golden key to open human treasure of knowledge
particularly in science and technology. Therefore, teaching and learning English
have been received a great amount of focus from every country all over the
world.
In Vietnam, learning English has become necessary to everybody. This
demand in language learning has brought about a great amount of positive
changes in language teaching. Language teachers have looked for and tried
different methods and techniques in teaching and learning in order to find the
effective ones. The effectiveness of a teaching method or technique is reflected
in the learners’ language competence that is their abilities to perform the four
skills. Among which speaking skill appears to be the most important one for
both teachers and students, Barry Sesnan (1997). Moreover, there is the fact that
the question of teaching speaking effectively and attractively has been the
concern of many teachers of English. Therefore, it is essential for the teachers to
find out effective teaching approaches to make the lesson more interesting so
that she can attract students’ attention and help improve their speaking
proficiency as well.
In practice, however, many learners feel frustrated as they find that
speaking in a foreign language is a complex matter. It is because speaking
involves many factors. The ability to speak fluently presupposes not only
knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and
language “on the spot” (Harmer, 2001). In learning speaking skill, the students
often find some problems. The common problem is that their native language
causes them difficult to use the foreign language. Other reason is because of
motivation lack to practice the second language in daily conversation. They are

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also too shy and afraid to take part in the conversation. The researcher realizes
that although teachers now no longer play a dominant role in class, their
guidance, and supports have always been of beneficial help to students.
Especially teachers' feedback provision in response to students' performance is
significantly important. Additionally, 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 suitable
kind of feedback and the way feedback should be given to the students so that it
fosters their learning and improves their speaking skills is quite frustrating – the
problem that most teachers encounter in their speaking classes.
All the above-mentioned reasons and factors have inspired the writer to
conduct a research titled: “A study on giving feedback on speaking English
for the 10th grade students at Tay Thuy Anh upper-secondary school in
Thai Binh.”
1.2. Purposes of the study
The main purposes of this study are:
To identify the fact of giving feedback by teachers at Tay Thuy Anh
upper- secondary school in English speaking skills
To find out the impacts of teachers’ feedback on students in English
speaking lessons to suggest on how to give feedback effectively
1.3. Scope of the study
In fact, feedback can be largely used in teaching and learning English for
students at all grades. However, in this study the research only intends to focus
on giving feedback on speaking English for 10th grade students at Tay Thuy Anh
upper- secondary school in Thai Binh. Therefore, the findings and suggestions
may be just useful for speaking skills in similar teaching conditions.
1.4. Research questions

1. How do the teachers give feedback to the 10th form students in English
speaking skills?

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2. What are the impacts of teachers’ feedback on students in English
speaking lessons?
1.5. Methods of the study
In order to collect sufficient data for analysis, the following methods were
employed. Theoretically, the researcher spent time reading books and materials
available on teaching and learning speaking to get knowledge of the subject.
Moreover, in order to find out the effective ways to give feedback on
speaking English lesson, two questionnaires were conducted. One was designed
for teachers and the other was for students.
The research also interviewed students and teachers about giving feedback
in speaking lessons to get information from participants.
Observation was another method of the study. The research observed the
way teachers gave feedback and the impacts to students in speaking skill.
1.6. Overview of the study
The study consists of six chapters:
Chapter I (Introduction) states the rationale, purpose of the study, the
research question, the methods, and the scope of the study.
Chapter II (Literature review) presents the literature review of the study
including theoretical background of speaking, teaching speaking and giving
feedback.
Chapter III (Methodology) describes the research method in this study,
consists information of the setting, the participant, data collection instrument
and procedure.
Chapter IV (Data analysis) analyses data collected from the survey

questionnaires, the class observations and the interviews.
Chapter V (Major findings and some suggested techniques) gives major
findings and some suggestions for giving feedback in order to stimulate 10th
form students at Tay Thuy Anh upper-secondary school to speak English.
Chapter VI (Conclusion) includes summary and limitations of the study.

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents the literature review of the study. It will be devoted
to focus on the basic issues of speaking and giving feedback.
2.1. Theoretical background of speaking
2.1.1. Definition of speaking
Speaking is crucially important for the whole learning process. Lerris
(2003) stated that speaking makes you a more fluent language user, speaking is a
chance to notice the gaps between what you want to say and what you can say, it
is a chance to test hypotheses about language. The term “speaking” catches
much attention of linguistic. Therefore, many definitions have been offered to
this term so far.
In Oxford Advanced Dictionary (1995), the definition of speaking “is to
express or communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc, by or as talking and it
involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological
(articulator) and physical (acoustic) stages”.
Together with Brown (1994), Burns and Joyce (1997), shared the same
point of view that “speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning
that involves producing and receiving and processing information”. Chaney
(1998:119) defined speaking “is the process of building and sharing meaning
through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts”.
Based on Byrne (2001), “speaking can be understood as the ability to

express oneself opinions”. Hedge (2000) said that “speaking is oral expression,
the use of the sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation”. While another
expert, Huebner (1960:5) believed “Language is essentially speech, and speech
is basically communication by sounds”. And according to him, speaking is a
skill used by someone in daily life communication whether at school or outside.
The skill is acquired by much repetition; it primarily a neuromuscular and not an
intellectual process. It consists of competence in sending and receiving
messages.

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From the above definitions, it can be inferred that speaking is expressing
ideas, opinions, or feelings to other by using words or sounds of articulation in
order to inform, to persuade, and to entertain that can be learnt by using some
teaching and learning methodologies.
2.1.2. Position of speaking skill in English Language Teaching
Different linguists and methodologists have recognized the essential role
of speaking skill in English Language Teaching for various reasons.
In the first place, it is the speaking skill which helps the learners have
communication which, as for Richard. A (1991), is the proper aim of language
teaching. Once the learner communicates well, he can get information from
others about anything he would like to know. For example, a Vietnamese
student in Australia can use his speaking activity to ask native student about the
institution, and thus can have all the information concerned. Also, as Larson
(1996) believes, effective communication can bring people a more productive,
satisfactory, and meaningful life. In other words, being able to communicate
successfully in a foreign language helps people to take it easy and be confident
to express themselves. Therefore, conflicts threats and nervousness can be
avoided and a better relationship will come to them.

Secondly, according to Brown, G and G. Yule (1992), speaking skills play
an ever important role in conveying transactional intentions. That is, to make
clear what it is that they want to say.
Above all as Littlewood, W (1991) states, and communicative use is the
goal as well as a means of learning which helps the learners reach it. Therefore,
speaking skill enforces and brings about the successful acquisition of reading,
listening, and writing, in the other words, the learning of English as a whole. It
cannot be denied that although the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and
writing) are put in connection of language teaching and learning, it is the
speaking skill that is the most highly of all. Factually, learning any of the other
three skills and coming across any difficulties, it is the speaking skill that does
not solve the problem by asking the teacher or the other for help. Moreover,
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additional information concerning the three other skills can only be attained with
an adequate speaking ability.
In conclusion, speaking skill helps a special and very important
positioning English Language Teaching as effective speaking activity ability. It
is not only helps a learner to acquire the language better but to communicate
successfully to improve his academic knowledge as well. A learner of English
can master the language in the true meaning only when he can actually use the
language as a means of communication. After all, what would make sense if
after years of learning English, a person cannot speak English fluently to
slowly? Speaking ability is the signal that reveals if a person really knows the
language or not.
2.2. Theoretical background of teaching speaking
2.2.1. Definition of teaching speaking
Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching.
Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued

and English language teacher have continued to teach speaking just as a
repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, today’s world
requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students’
communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express
themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in
each communicative circumstance.
According to Nunan (2003), teaching speaking is to:
 Produce the English speech sounds and sounds patterns.
 Use a word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of
the second language.
 Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social
setting, audience, situation and subject matter.
 Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence.
 Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments.

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 Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses,
which are called fluency.
As mentioned above, teaching speaking is an important work that needs
all educators takes many interests to get the best results for effective teaching. In
addition, the qualification of learning is also improved better.
2.2.2. The principles for teaching speaking
In order to help students have “communicative competence” it is actually
essential for teachers of English to be aware of the principles for teaching
speaking.
David Nunan (2005) gave some principles for teaching speaking to
beginning learners:
 Provide something for learners to talk about.

 Create opportunities for students to interact by using group-work or
pair-work.
 Manipulate physical arrangements to promote speaking practice.
Ann Burn and Helen Joyce (1977) worked out the principles for teaching
speaking that teachers of English should bear in mind:
 Being learners need to understand the cultural and social purpose of
spoken interaction which may be broadly classified as transaction or interaction.
 Speaking involves an understanding that spoken texts differ from
written texts in their grammatical patterns and discourse strategies.
 Speaking involves an understanding of the way in which context
influences the choice of language made.
 Speaking activities should focus on text in context, rather than on the
sentence-level grammatical construction on isolation.
 Learning

and

practicing

vocabulary,

grammatical

structures,

pronunciation should be related to contexts and lead to the use of the whole
texts.
 Being spoken discourse types of text can be analyzed with learner for
their typical structural grammatical patterns.
7

Their principles are actually very useful and sufficient for teachers of
English in teaching speaking. If teachers of English follow all these principles
and know how to adapt them in speaking lesson, they will be successful in
developing the students’ speaking activity.
But many teachers of English find it very difficult to apply these
principles at most Vietnamese high schools where both teachers and learners are
mainly focusing on linguistic competence. Therefore, in the process of acquiring
English, students try their best to practice vocabulary, grammar and do exercises
related to these patterns. They seem to neglect the cultural differences as well as
communication purposes. So, the difficulties when teachers apply these
principles are unavoidable. In order to get students speak accurately and
fluently, it is very necessary for teachers to create flexible speaking activities
and know how to exploit the students’ capacity in each activity in order to obtain
the goal of language teaching and learning
2.2.3. The importance of the teaching speaking
According to David Nunan (2005) said that language teaching was seen to
as helping learners develop “linguistic competence” – that is, helping students
master the sounds, words, and grammar patterns of English. The idea was that
by studying the bits and pieces of a language, students could eventually put them
all together and communicate.
In “Teaching English to Children” Brumfit (1991), Moon and Tongue say:
“It is not surprising to note that a child’s concentration span increases as he/ she
grows older. Children cannot concentrate on one thing for a long period and
therefore the authors recommend that lesson should be divided into a series of
activities lasting no longer than five or ten minutes. This is because children are
bombarded with new experiences and information. Teachers should introduce a
reasonable number of new language items and present and practice them in a
number of different ways.

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Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to
teaching speaking. Rather than leading students to pure memorization, providing
a rich environment where meaningful communication takes place is desired.
2.2.4. The relationship between teaching speaking and different skills
Odewale speaks in “The Gods Are Not To Blame” by Nigerian author,
Ola Rotimi: “I refuse to listen alone. Speaking openly, son, before all- a cooking
– pot for the chameleon is a cooking – pot for lizard.”
We know that English has four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. All of them are important, and all of them should be taught. Because
examination usually tests reading and writing only, the spoken (or oral) and
listening skills are often forgotten or are given very little teaching time. This
concentration on written skills may well produce students who can pass the
examination, but it does not help them learn English which will be useful to
them outside school, where the oral element will be important.
The four skills are related to each other in two ways

Person Y

Giving feedbacks
to students on
speaking English

Giving feedbacks to
students on speaking
English

Person X
Barry Sesnan’s picture 1997

In other words, when person X wants to communicate he can use writing
or speech. His message can therefore either be heard or read person Y. We can
also say that writing and reading both use the written or printed media, whereas
speaking and listening use the air as medium.
Speech definitely came first both in our own lives and in the development
of the human race. We must always remember this and give oral English the
priority it deserves.
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2.2.4.1. The relationship between speaking and listening
Most people define oral communication narrowly, focusing on speaking
and listening skills separately. Traditionally, when people describe speaking
skills, they do so in a context of public speaking. Recently, however, definitions
of speaking have been expanded to include school plays, dramatic recitals and
group activities. Even when the majority of the class has mastered basic
listening and speaking skills, it is important to keep in mind that not every
student learns effective verbal communication or skillful listening abilities at the
same rate. Those students, who are not “catching on” as quickly as the rest of
the class, are not so much unskilled as they are undisciplined. The skills that can
make difference between minimal and effective communication can be taught,
practiced and improved.
Jared (2001) claimed “speech recognition as a person learning to take
dictation in a language needs to learn the vocabulary and the pronunciation of
the language. Getting good at dictation takes a lot of practice hearing the
language spoken it helps to know what people are likely to talk about, how they
express themselves, and the common construction and idioms”.

In conclusion, we shall consider elements of pronunciation that extend
over entire utterances. Also acts of speech are physical acts which often involve
the whole body. In addition to employing our voice, we also use eyes movement
mimes and gestures. As we speak with our vocal organs, we converse with our
entire bodies.
2.2.4.2. The relationship between speaking and reading
The fact is that spoken language and reading have a lot in common. If the
printed words can be efficiently recognized, comprehension of connected text
depends heavily on the readers’ oral- language abilities, particularly with regard
to understanding the meanings of words that have been identified and the
syntactic and semantic relationships among them. Indeed, many early research
reports called attention to the differences between good and poor readers in their
comprehension and production of structural relations within spoken sentences.
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Moreover, beginning readers need to learn phonological awareness: awareness
of the sound system; and graphological awareness: knowledge of the letters and
an understanding that letters and letter combinations stand for sounds and words.
If people are only doing oral skills, it might not include much attention to the
elements of the sounds of the language- the bits and pieces- even if they do
some work on pronunciation.
2.2.4.3. The relationship between speaking and writing
Speaking and writing have a close relationship within language; they are
very similar because both disciplines require the language learners to create
language. However, it is fundamental premise that putting pen to paper forces
you to iron out the grammatical and spelling mistakes which may have gone
unnoticed when speaking. We know that while writing our students can ask
others to check it for them before it reaches its final destination. But this process
of checking will also make our learners’ speaking improve because they will be

able to visualize the words as they are saying them and see where these words
would go if they were writing them down.
Considerable research has been done on the relationship between speaking
and writing development in the first language acquisition from different
perspectives, Kantor and Rubin (1981); Cambourne (1981); Gere (1981); Labor
(1963) argued “competence in the spoken language appears to be a necessary
base for competence in writing and predicted it would be relatively difficult for
the students with low proficiency in speaking to master written conventions.
Kroll (1981) stated there was a developmental trend on speaking and writing,
which progressed through different phrases of development. These studies have
provided valuable information for the first language instructors to facilitate their
student language acquisition.
Many beginners shy away from creating language, preferring instead to
concentrate on listening and reading, those aspects which are centered on
understanding other people’s language. But writing and speaking help everyone
to get better at the language and understanding how it works. Not until you have
11


put the kills into practice in writing and speaking yourself can you truly
appreciate how language works.
In short, the four areas are important, they are connected, and one leads to
another. Just think in our daily life, we read a newspaper, we talk on the phone,
we listen to a song and we write a mail. When we talk about a second language
is the same. We can be more or less skillful in any of them, but all of the areas
are important.
All in all, four language skills of teaching and learning a foreign language
are closely interrelated. The relationship among language skills motivates
students greatly in their learning.
2.3. Theoretical background of feedback

2.3.1. Definition of giving feedback
In Cambridge International Dictionary of English (2000), feedback is
defined as information or statements of opinion about something, such as a new
product, that provide an idea of whether it is successful or liked.
In Ramapsasad’s opinion (1983) “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”.
According to Grant Wiggins (1998) “feedback is not about praise or
blame, approval or disapproval. That’s what evaluation is – placing value.
Feedback is value-neutral. It describes what you did and did not do”.
W. Fred Miser (1998) stated that “feedback is an objective description of
a student’s performance intended to guide future performance.

Unlike

evaluation, which judges performance, feedback is the process of helping our
students assess their performance, identify areas where they are right on target
and provide them tips on what they can do in the future to improve in areas that
need correcting”.
Robyn R. Jackson (2009) assumes that feedback shows where we are in
relationship to the objectives and what we need to do to get there. Its intent is to
help students get better at learning.
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In the context of teaching and learning language, there have been various
studies to look at the roles of feedback. In short, feedback should be used for
more than correction, also be a motivating factor. Feedback provision can be
among peers or between teachers and students; however, in this study, the
research just focus on the notion of teaching-learning between the teacher and

students.
2.3.2. Types of feedback
Gattullo (2000) and Harmer (2001) decide feedback into corrective,
evaluative and strategic. Corrective feedback focuses on helping learners notice
and correct errors. This type of feedback explains why responses are correct or
wrong. In learning speaking, corrective feedback will primarily concern with
accuracy. Evaluative feedback aims to provide a judgment on the students'
performance. Gattullo (2000) suggests that evaluate feedback is dominant in
second and foreign language classroom. In giving evaluative feedback, teachers
use words and phrases to indicate the extent to which students' performance is
good or not. Finally, strategic feedback usually aims to offer students advice on
what to do to improve their performance. In other word, the teachers try to
suggest ways of helping students to overcome their mistakes.
2.3.3. The impacts of giving feedback on speaking English
2.3.3.1. The advantages of giving feedback
Feedback is an essential part of effective learning. It helps students
understand the subject being studied and gives them clear guidance on how to
improve their learning.
Bellon et al state “academic feedback is more strongly and consistently
related to achievement than any other teaching behavior…this relationship is
consistent regardless of grade, socioeconomic status, race, or school setting”.
Feedback can improve a student’s confidence, self- awareness and enthusiasm
for learning. Providing students engage with feedback, it should enhance
learning and improve assessment performance.

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Feedback on performance is so important that Gibbs and Simpson (2004)
said that feedback to the students on their assignments was the single most

powerful influence on student achievement. In fact, an item about the
importance and quality of feedback shows up on almost all students evaluations
of teaching.
New HSC Assessment and Reporting Bulletin No 4: Establishing sound
assessment practices – providing meaningful feedback has been issued to all
schools in Term 4, 2000. The following comments are based on that issue:
Providing students with meaningful information prior to an assessment
task gives them every opportunity to present their best possible response to a
given task. Teachers are their prime source of support. Students rely on their
teachers to give them feedback about the things they are doing well and how
they might improve in other areas.
The school assessment program provides a major source of information
on how successfully students are performing in their courses. The information is
valuable for both the student and the teacher.
Feedback can provide students with information about strengths and
weaknesses of responses, the outcomes achieved and students’ performance in
relation to standards and to other students:
 For students, effective feedback on responses to assessment tasks
should include:
-

what was expected from the task

-

meaningful information about the quality of work

-

clear statements about how to improve

-

correction of misunderstandings

-

Reinforcement of what has been done well

 For teachers, effective feedback enables them to evaluate:
-

teaching and learning programs

-

teaching strategies

-

assessment strategies
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-

assessment task design

-

Marking guidelines

2.3.3.2. The disadvantages of giving feedback
When studying the giving feedback for teaching speaking, many
advantages are discussed. Everything, however, has two sides Gibbs and
Simpson (2004) give some problems when teachers give feedback such as time,
controlling class…
 Time
How to manage time successfully is not easy. It is precious to everyone,
especially teachers because in most high schools in Vietnam, teachers have only
4 or 5 periods (equaling 180- 225 minutes) a week for teaching English in one
class. During such a short period of time, they have to do lots of things: teaching
grammar, vocabulary, controlling the class, giving explanation… Hence, giving
feedback is limited in the class.
 Controlling class
As mentioned in the first part of this chapter, oral one has to give and
receive information when they carry out a real communication. While teachers
give feedback for the students who have been spoken in front of the class, the
noise made by other students is unavoidable. In fact, the noise certainly will not
bother students themselves when they are too busy practicing speaking so it is
considered “good noise”. But the noise makes students lose concentrating on
teacher’s feedback. Therefore, it may be necessary for teachers to think of ways
of keeping the noise level down at times. In order to help students receive
effective feedback, teacher should control class well when giving feedback.
2.3.4. The teacher and students’ roles in giving and receiving feedback in
speaking skills
2.3.4.1. The teacher’s roles
People have in general many different roles. Everybody plays a part in
society. According to Brno (2006) experience the personality of a teacher and
his/ her approach is very important. A teacher’s role is very significant and

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should be in a high level. A teacher is often the first person who gives children
new information about a foreign language. According to many practical
methodological books, a teacher can change various roles, because individual
stages of the lesson require different approaches to learners. Sometimes only the
teacher’s personality can decide if the children’s attitude towards learning
foreign language is positive or negative.
Moreover, when giving feedback teacher should consider carefully the
selection of feedback. In the first place, appropriateness is necessary. It means
that giving feedback must suitable with students’ English level. Secondly, giving
feedback should concern about the mood of students; only then they have
potential to bring motivation in the language classroom. Thirdly, honest
feedback is very important for students to encourage them to speak English.
2.3.4.2. The students’ role
The younger learner is very significant and all work should be aimed
towards him. “Younger learners respond to language according to what it does
or what they can do with it, rather than treating it as an intellectual game in
abstract system. This has both advantages and disadvantages: on the one hand
they respond to the meaning underlying the language used and do not worry
about individual words or sentences, on the other hand, they do not make the
analytical links that older learners do. Younger learners have the advantage of
being great mimics, are often unselfconscious, and are usually prepared to enjoy
the activities the teacher has prepared for them”, Younger Learners, S. Philips
(1997).
Especially, when students receive feedback from their teacher, literary
quality is not the only the criterion for the selection of feedback. Quite often
“bad” writing proves more useful or stimulating than “good”. Feedback is not
necessarily presented as model of good writing. Students are not required to

approve of them, but simple to work with them to improve their speaking skill.

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2.4. Summary
The chapter so far has presented the relevant literature, which has helped
to form the theoretical and conceptual framework for the study. It concerns
different aspects related to speaking skill and feedback. In which the definition
and importance of speaking skill and teaching speaking as well as the
relationship of the teaching speaking with the different skills and between
speaking skill and other skills have been mentioned. Also, the definitions, types,
the important role of teachers’ feedback for teaching and learning English
speaking skill are stated.

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