THE OVERVIEW OF HOMEWORK AND TECHNIQUES IN CORRECTING HOMEWORK APPLIED TO TEACHERS AND SECONDARY STUDENT

TABLE CONTENTS
PART 1..................................................................................................................2
PART 2..................................................................................................................4
PART 3................................................................................................................16

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PART 1
I. BACKGROUND AND THE REASON FOR THE STUDY
The purpose for this study comes from my own year-to-year efforts to help
students to do homework in Grades 12 in Dong Son 1 High School.
I feel that the majority of students are always lazy doing their homework.
At first sight, they do not understand the purpose of homework and they are not
patient enough to do their homework. Also, this part accounts for a small
percentage in their whole remark. As a result, students usually put this part aside
and sometimes come to class without doing their homework.
On the other hand, teachers sometimes give students too much home work
and do not properly plan the homework tasks they give to students.The result is
that students have to repeat tasks which they have already done at school and, of
course, they do not find it interesting to do homework. Further more, the way of
correcting homework tasks is not always effective.
Owing to the necessities, I have made up my mind to choose “The
overview of homework and techniques in correcting homework applied for
teachers and secondary students ” as my topic of the study.
II. AIM OF THE STUDY
With the above mentioned reasons in mind, I have the specific aims as
follows:
1. To help teachers prepare homework tasks requisitely .
2. To encourage students to confidently cope with their homework tasks so
as to complete the tasks at best they can.

3. To introduce some homework correction techniques.
III. SOURCE OF THE STUDY
The materials that have been greatly valuable to my study are from the
following books:
1. Breach,D.(2005). Exploring the Vietnamese Concept of a “Good
Teacher”. Teacher’s Edition 16:30 – 37
2. Corey, S.M. (1953). Action Research to Improve School Practices. New
York: Teacher College Press
3. Downs,M.(2000). Increasing student Motivation. Teachers’ Edition 4: 8
– 13

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4. Kemmis,S and R.Mc Taggart.(1998).The Action Research Planner.
Victoria, Australian: Deakin University Press.
5. Underwood,M.(1987).Effective Class Management: A Practical
Approach. New York: Longman.
6. Ur,P.(1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice &Theory.
Cambridge University Press
Besides, the examples to illustrate my thesis are from the latest homework
tasks that I have prepared for my students.

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PART 2
I. WHY SET HOMEWORK?
Teachers should figure out the purpose of homework tasks carefully so that
they can make effective homewok exercises.

1. To extend and consolidate classroom practice
Commonly, students have no more than three hours of classes per week in
the target language, divided into three forty five-minute sessions during the
week. In this case , two homework tasks per week involving half an hour of
student time each will increase the time spent practise the language by 33% and
increase the frequency of contact with the language from three to five occasions
per week.
2. To allow students to work at their own pace
Classroom tasks usually have to be done within a fixed time-limit set by
the teacher, which may mean that faster students have to sit doing nothing while
the slower students face the possibe embarrassment of not finishing the task in
time. Homework, however, can be done at a students' own pace, allowing more
time for reflection and lessening the pressure to finish the task quickly.
II. IMPORTANT PRE - REQUISITES FOR HOMEWORK TASKS
The following apply largely to writing activities, as homework tasks will
normally involve writing rather than the other skills.
1. Validity
Tasks must be valid in terms of the aims for which the teacher is setting the
homework. For example, if a teacher wants students to practise the use of the
passive , an active-to-passive transformation exercise would not be a valid way
of practise this as, although it ensures that students know how to manipulate the
verb forms, it can not conclusively show whether they understand its use.
2. Guidance
At a simple level, this means clear instructions with examples of what the
students are required to do. However, beyond that, it has implications for the
amount of control that the format of the task has over what the students can
produce. The degree of guidance can be divided into four general categories:
* Controlled: where the students is given little or no room for errors, for
example in an exercise involving simply the choice of alternative words to fill

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each space in a given text where each of the chosen alternatives for each space is
acceptable. This level of guidance produces what is little more than a copying
exercise.
* Cued: in which the language of the exercise is given, but students have
to perform a task such as joining given sentences with given connectors.
* Guided: in which details of content are given but students have to
formulate their own way of expressing that content.
For example: write a letter of application for a job saying:
Paragraph 1:
which job you are applying for
where you saw the job advertised
Paragraph 2:
how old you are
what qualifications you have
where you worked before
Paragraph 3:
why you want the job
when you are available for interview
* Free: in which students are provided only with a subject for their
writing, perhaps in the form of a composition title, and, ideally, a purpose for
which they are writing.
Guidance has a number of functions and the relative weight of these varies
according to the nature of the task and the level of the students.
- It means that students can produce extended piecies of written work from
a very early stage and this has motivational value.
- It limits the students' scope for error. As in the guided category of task
above, if details of content are given, students are not tempted to express ideals

which they are not capable of expressing in the target language.
- It can ensure that students use certain items of language or an appropriate
range of items in their writing. One of the drawbacks of the unguided
composition is that students can write answers using only simplistic language
which can deceptively appear better than an answer by a student who has
attempted to use a wider range of language.

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3. Meaningfulness
Grammatical exercises should involve thought on the part of the student
rather than a mechanical operation which can be carried out without necessarily
understanding the language involved.
For example, instead of using the following transformation exercise:
Exercise item
Student answer
a) I've broken a cup
I haven't broken a cup
b) I've seen John
I haven't seen John
the task would be made more interesting, and also made to require thought,
by using the following instead:
Exercise item
Student answer
a) Did you like the new John Fowles book?
I haven't read it yet
b) Did you like the new Fellini film?
I haven't seen it yet
The second exercise is more meaningful in the following ways:

- The students response forms part of a realistic conversational couplet.
- It is related to the real world of films,books,etc...
- It requires understanding in seeing the semantic relationship between the
noun book and the verb read...
Extended writing tasks can in turn be made more meaningful through
contextualization. In other words, the students are told not only to write but also
why they are writing. In each of the examples below, (a) is a typical composition
topic and (b) is the same topic given both a context and an imaginary audience:
(a) Describe somone you know.
(b) It is your first month at high school. Write a paragraph describing a
friend you have got to know there.
(a) What are the arguments for and against capital punishment?
(b) You are a Prime Minister. Write a short speech, which you are going
to make in Parliament, either for or against capital punishment.
(a) When you arrived home last night you found that your home had been
broken into. Describe what you found.
(b) When you arrived home last night you found that your home had been
broken into. Write a report to the police about what you found.

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4. Motivation
Much of what has been written above in connection with meaningfulness
applies here. If an exercise requires thought, or if the relevance to the real world
of a writing task can be seen by the students, then they are likely to find the
homework more interesting and thus more motivating.
An awareness of the interests of the students is also important. Teenagers
are more likely to enjoy writing the sleeve notes for a new record by their
favourite pop group than a letter of application for a job, even if they are more

likely to do the latter in real life. This can also be an argument for setting
alternative tasks to satisfy the heterogeneous interests within a group of students.
III. CORRECTION TECHNIQUES.
Checking answers (to homework, as well as exercises done during the
lesson) is a part of class often described by teachers and students as boring, slow
and not all that engaging for anyone. Naturally, we check these answers for a
variety of reasons, such as for marking, for noting student progress, and in order
to check if the students have understood the language point in question.
However, in my experience both as a teacher and as an observer, the time spent
checking answers in class is often the part of the lesson where a lot of time is
spent that is of no benefit to any of the learners. In short, the teacher is checking
answers just because it is expected that the teacher will check the answers. I
don’t want to get too deep into methodology here, but rather to dispel the notion
that it is our duty as teachers to check every answer to every exercise the
students have done, and also to offer a few suggestions as to how we can make
this whole process more engaging and beneficial for the learners. The first point
to look at here is what the teacher wishes to achieve by reading and correcting
the homework. In brief, the answer is to find out what the students have or have
not learnt and to communicate that to the students. For the students, the
effectiveness of this communication depends, in practice, largely on the system
of correction used by the teacher. Correction of homework can take a number of
forms.
1. Full teacher correction
By this is meant the full written correction of all mistakes by the teacher,
after which the homework is handed back to the students. This is by far the most
correction technique used, but the question arises of exactly how much attention
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students give to their mistakes thus corrected and, even if they make a brief

mental note of mistakes at all, how much learning takes place as a result of this
effortless process of glancing over the home work.
2. Student-student correction
Students check each other's homework in pairs, discussing it and making
any necessary alterations before handing it to the teacher. This requires them to
think rto take place. However, this method does have a disadvantage in that
students may wrongly identify mistakes and , as a result, reinforce mistaken
ideas. Further, in many teaching situations, teachers are required to build up an
assessment of individual students, part of which is usually based on homework,
and such co-operation between students conflicts with this requirement.
2.1. Let the learners compare their answers first.
Speaking from experience as a language learner, I always appreciated the
opportunity to have a look at my partner’s answers to make sure I wasn’t
completely off the mark (and so didn’t have to worry so much about making a
fool of myself when called upon). By letting the students compare their
answers, it means they’ll have more confidence in them (and so they will be
more likely to volunteer them) and also gives them an opportunity for the
learners to use English to explain why they chose answer A instead of B, etc.
This is, for me, the golden rule of checking answers in class: we want to
get the learners to use English in their discussions / comparisons of their
answers. In general, students are often resistant to this at first, but if we can get
them use to it then comparing answers later becomes an opportunity for the
students to speak and use many of the language structures they’ve learned in
class (e.g. modals: “the answer must be A”).
2.2. Alternate between asking for volunteers and nominating students
to give the answer.
We’ve all taught classes with students who dominate question / answer
time. This is a way to simply get more (if not all) of the students involved in the
process of checking answers.
2.3. Random Order

Instead of just going through the questions linearly (i.e. 1,2,3,4,5), elicit the
answers to the questions randomly. This will hopefully keep the students alert,

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and helps prevent them from simply anticipating what question they are likely to
get.
2.4. Let the students decide which questions to answer
A variation of the above- nominate a student and let them decide which
question to answer. This is good for weaker students, as it allows them to
answer questions that they are more confident they have correct.
2.5. ‘Randomly’ call on students with correct answers
For activities done in class, you can walk around the class, monitoring and
offering help, then ‘randomly’ call on the students who have the correct
answers. This, again, is nice for giving students confidence in speaking and
offering up their answers in class.
2.6. Let students nominate each other
Easy and fun to do- nominate the first student, then allow this student to
choose who will answer the next question. Variations of this include using a ball
in class (the student throws the ball to the student they want to answer next).
2.7. Read out the questions randomly at normal speed.
After the learners have completed the exercises and compared their
answers, you can give the learners a bit of authentic listening practice by
reading out the questions randomly, but at your normal speed. This makes the
process at bit more different (naturally) for the learners, but if done regularly
could help them become more aware of features of natural speech, such as weak
forms, connected speech, etc.
2.8. Hold off on confirming if an answer is correct or incorrect
I think it’s a teacher’s instinct to tell a student if their answer is correct or

incorrect straightaway, but discussion in class among the students can be
generated by simply waiting a bit (thus giving the other students a chance to
agree or disagree) or by nominating another student in the class and asking “do
you agree?.”
2.9. Just give the students the answers
When I first started teaching, I considered this to be the ‘lazy-way’ to check
answers, but it’s what I do most of the time now. Simply give the students the
answers on a handout or put it on the blackboard, and give the students time to
check their answers and ask questions. If there are no questions, then move on.

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When I taught in a private language school (where marks were not given) I
would often give the students the answers to the homework and set aside a few
minutes at the start of class for questions or problems with the homework.
2.10. Put the answers on the board in the wrong order
When dealing with a relatively low number of multiple-choice questions (I
certainly wouldn’t do this with 50 answers)to check, you can simply put the
answers (not the numbers of course) on the board in a random order and let the
students work out in groups. If you wanted to turn this into a full-speaking
activity then you could also put a few functional phrases (such as modals
“Number 5 could be A” or even basic conditional structures “If 5 is A, then 6
must be C” etc. )on the board for the students to use in their groups as they work
out which answer goes with which question.
2.11. Easy-First Game
A Variation of number 4 above. Put the groups into teams. The teams first
compare their answers, then, in turn, each team gets to choose one of the
questions to answer. If they answer correctly, they get a point, if they answer
incorrectly then the next team has an opportunity to answer.

2.12. Snake game
Put numbers of questions on board in rows and/or columns as shown
below. You could even put the numbers randomly if you want.
1 2 3 4 5
6

7

8

9 10

11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
Again, the students work in teams. This time, the goal of the game is for
each team to have the longest ‘snake.’ So, for example, in the first round a team
answers number 1 correctly. In the next round, if they answered number 2 or 6
or 7 correctly (the snake can only move 1 space vertically or diagonally) then
these two numbers would be connected.

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This game is nice with competitive groups as a bit of strategy is involved in
blocking the other teams movement, etc.
The problem, for me, is often keeping track of which snake belongs to
which team. Either different color markers or assigning a different shape (circle,
square, triangle) to each team helps keep everything clear.
Again, encourage the students to use English when they’re talking in their
groups.

2.13. Using a copy of a listening tapescript
If checking the answers to a listening task (or reading task), allow the
students to read (or read while they listen again) and find / mark the passages in
the listening where the answers are. Following this, the students can compare
their answers and, in theory, should be able to explain why the answer they’ve
chosen is correct.
A variation of this is to give the students the correct answers and have the
students use the text / tapescript to explain why the answers are correct.
2.14. Exploit the vocabulary in the questions / answers
Ask the students if they know a synonym or antonym of one of the words
in the question / answer, or with higher level groups, ask if anyone can rephrase
the question or answer in a different way but with the same meaning.
2.15. Working with mistakes
While part of the job does entail testing the students from time to time,
most of the tasks we do in the classroom are not meant to be tests. As such,
mistakes shouldn’t be viewed in a negative light, e.g. that the learners have
failed to master a particular language point, but instead are a natural part of the
learning process.
So anytime we can get the learners to reflect on their mistakes and examine
why they got a particular exercise wrong (e.g. due to a difference between their
L1 and English, or are they possibly confusing two different structures that are
similar in appearance, such as “Used to” and “be used to”, etc), we’re not only
helping them notice and internalize the language point in question and approach
similar tasks more effectively in the future, but also giving them the tools to
become more reflective, autonomous, successful language learners.

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3. Indication but not correction

There are two approaches of this kind. First, the mistakes can simply be
underlined by the teacher, leaving the student to identify the nature of the
mistake and to correct it. Second, as well as underlining the mistake, the teacher
can indicate why it is wrong by using a code such as the one given below.
If a marking code is used , then it is , of course, important that the students
are made familiar with it beforehand and that they are able to understand the
terminology used. For obvious reasons, it is also advisable for teachers in the
same school to use the same code.
Symbols for indicating errors:
Symbol Error
#
Number or agreement
^

Some thing is missing

[ ]Wo
WW

Word order
Wrong word

WF

Wrong form

T

Tense

Example
#
#
She need two banana.
I went school yesterday.
^
Where he [does ]Wo work?
WW
I didn't buy something.
WF
His English is very well.

T
I saw a nice sweater and I buy it.
[ ]
This need to be The city grew in such a way that the old
reorganizied
centre, outlined in a time that [ there is no
automobiles and bus... and now is different
in dealing with so much traffic. ]
Symbol Error
Example
?
What do you mean?
[I am glad as if I had sleep. ]?
S
Spelling
S
comfotable
P

Punctuation
What is it. P
VF
Verb form wrong
VF
I didn't mention doing it.
Ø
Not necessary
Ø
An old and blind man
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NA

Not appropriate in this Dear sir,
context
How are you? NA
Once the homework has been returned to the students, they can be asked to
correct their own work individually or in pairs, returning the corrected form to
the teacher for a second check. This system has the advantages of:
- requiring the students to think about and learn from their mistakes
- providing the teacher with important feedback on whether the mistakes
were made symply as a result of a lapse or due to misunderstanding what had
been taught.
- still allowing a teacher to evaluate and allot marks for each individual's
work for assessment purpose.
The following is an example of this marking code put into practice:
10. Oxford Road,
Cambridge

8th April
Dear Anne,
How is # Fred and the children?
You know Anne, I've moved to a new flat, it's WW nice and
friendly.There is a fantastic fireplace and the flat has plenty of place to WW my
furniture.
Do you can VF guess where I've put my desk? In a corner between two
windows because, as you know, I need sunligh S to work on my books. Can you
also gess S where I've put my armchair? Just in front of the fireplace.
Oh, I forgot. There is a big wall just behind the door and I've put [ there ]
Wo my bed and the wardrobe.
Well, I hpoe that you and your husband and that # beautiful children of
yours could T come and know WW my flat one day. It's a litle S one but there is
enough place WW for me and my things.
Best wishes,
Betty

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It is necessary to distinct between mistakes and errors. A mistake refers to
slips of the tongue or lapses which may equally well be made by a native
speaker or by a learner of a language and which can therefore readily be selfcorrected. An error refers to incorrect language produced as a result of an
imperfect competence in the language. Trachers can make use of the marking
code to deal with mistakes but not error, and they must use their knowledge of
the students and the syllabus they have followed to decide which of these two
categories applies. In the case of an error, teachers have to correct in full
themselves.
IV. REMEDIAL WORK
For the teacher, homework should confirm, or otherwise, the effectiveness

of the teaching strategies used so that any necessary remedial teaching can be
carried out. The form that this takes will vary according to the importance of the
misunderstanding in linguistic terms and to the number of students involved. For
errors made by a large proportion of the class, the teacher needs to use class time
for considerable further practice. Where smaller numbers are involved, directed
remedial group work may be possible.
These "remedies" , however, can only seriously be applied to errors which
have been made by enough students to warrant further class time being spent on
them. The majority of mistakes and errors usually apply to individuals, and time
constraints do not allow for considered action involving class time in each case.
These mistakes or errors, therefore, must be communicated to the students by
other means, and it is in this area that the teacher must select the appropriate of
the correction techniques outlined above.
V. EFFECTS OF THE STUDY
Over a year of teaching according to the previously given rules, I found
that my students’ skill of doing homework has improved remarkably.
This study has been used in the school year 2017 – 2018 in classes: 12A3,
12A4, and the results are the followings:
1.Before the study:
Class

Results

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12A4
12A3

Good

30/46
27/44

%
65,2
61,3

Bad
16/46
17/44

%
34,8
38,7

2.After the study:

Class
12A4
12A3

Good
39/46
35/44

%
84,7
79,5

Results

Bad
7/46
9/44

%
15,3
20,5

Together with this result, my students are not only confident to do
homework tasks but also able to get good marks in them. They are no longer
scared of homework. Instead, they are eager to do it because it makes their
scores perfect.

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PART 3
CONCLUSION
This article has reviewed some practical ways to help teachers prepare
homework tasks and teach students how to do homework tasks perfectly. It can
be thought that the tips or strategies mentioned above are not always completely
effective. However, I have lately succeeded myself in using them for preparing
homewok tasks. I found that the attitude of students towards home work has
changed. They have eagerly tried to do their best in doing homework tasks
I hope that this article will prove useful to some of my readers. Besides,
this kind of skill is helpful for all students who have to do homework every day
of the week. Most of the students follow the teacher’s instructions and know for
sure what to do. I have found it less time-consuming and more labor-efficient
from a practical point of view. Above all, by doing homework perfectly they
have chances to get high marks, which help them receive better results at the

end of each term.
The measures I’ve given out are just from my own experiences during the
process of teaching students in grade 12. I think that with the affection for our
students and with the devotion to teaching, we – the teachers – will have more
methods of teaching language, because our aim is to help our students become
good learners. Above here are only my little ideas, I am looking forward to
receiving your comments so that I may more and more improve my teaching in
English.

XÁC NHẬN CỦA
THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ

Thanh Hoá, ngày 15 tháng 5 năm 2018
Tôi xin cam đoan đây là SKKN của mình
viết, không sao chép nội dung của người khác.

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Hoàng Thị Thương Huyền

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