Feeding Back On Students’ Writing?

Feeding Back On Students’ Writing? Try talking to them! by Wayne Trotman Izmir Katip Çelebi UniversityTurkey

Options Available • Self-evaluation • Peer correction (PC) • Teacher error correction (EC) • Teacher written comments (TWC) • Computermediated feedback • Teacher-student conferencing (TSC)

Self evaluation • It’s important not to overlook writers as critical readers of their own work • Feedback may be more effective when it is combined with that of self and others • “..the ultimate aim of any form of feedback should be to move students to a more independent role where they can critically evaluate their own writing…” (Hyland &Hyland 2006a)

Peer correction • Research claims many positive effects for PC • Involves students actively; more authentic audience • Recent research questions effectiveness of PC • Students are more likely to rely on teacher feedback • Questions about the quality of peer feedback • Careful preparation and training for PC are essential

Teacher response: two types • Teacher error correction / written feedback • Research in 1980s & 1990s began to question the effectiveness of fbk on student improvement, because it was too often: • poor quality • vague • inconsistent • misunderstood

Teacher error correction (EC) • Truscott (1996) saw little benefit in EC • Felt EC was harmful, as it was time consuming • Students expect to see teacher response to error • Difficult to draw conclusions and generalisations from the literature, although .. Overall students appear to attend to EC and use it to make accurate changes in their texts

Teacher written feedback • L2 students are positive about this, although.. • Contribution to immediate and long term writing development is still unclear • Studies suggest students… • ignore or misuse comments when revising drafts • understand the problem but cannot respond • delete the problem to avoid issues raised

Computer-mediated feedback • Increasingly common in distance learning and online supervision • Conferencing: synchronous and asynchronous • Synchronous – real time chat • Asynchronous – email • Claimed to make writing more collaborative

Teacher student conferencing Advantages: • In TSC students receive more focused and usable feedback (Zamel 1985) • TSC supplements the limitations of the usual ‘one way’ feedback • TSC saves teacher-time on marking papers later • TSC allows students to ask questions about feedback

“The use of teacher-student conferencing is therefore intuitively attractive and supported by the positive experiences of many teachers, but empirical research on this area is rather limited.” (Ken Hyland, 2003)

Forms of TSC • Usually one-to-one, outside the classroom, and may… • ..focus on completed work, drafts in progress or student writing strategies • ..be done on an ‘ad hoc’ or planned basis during lessons • ..be an optional extra or compulsory feature of the course. • TSC should always end with a possible course of action

Planning decisions • hold conferences in class or outside? • one-to-one or in small groups? • how frequently? • how much time for each student? • which topics to cover? • ask students to prepare for the conference? • how to manage the conference? • how to follow up the conference?

Conducting conferences • TSC should involve the teacher and writer, and address the most noticeable issues in the writing • Research cautions against being over-directive • Teachers should support students’ work, rather than edit it • Students should be encouraged to initiate issues

Suggested procedures for TSC • make the situation non-threatening • find something to praise • establish a collaborative relationship • engage the student in the analysis • respond to writing as ‘work in progress’ • ask the student to sum up the conference • end with praise and encouragement

Action Research? “.. is a process through which teachers collaborate in evaluating their practice, try out new strategies, and record their work in a form that is understandable by other teachers.” Elliot (1991)

Burns (2005) AR framework exploring – identifying planning – data collection analysing / reflecting hypothesising / speculating intervening – observing reporting – writing - presenting

Identifying • Two out of five teachers engaged in TSC • EM only conferenced in her office; planned, ‘pastoral care’ • MT conferenced ‘ad hoc’ in the classroom in quiet moments.. and EM “highly recommended” conferencing after noting an increase in student interest

Data collection • Three teachers; each with two students • Analysed six transcripts, varying in length • Collected and analysed first drafts and follow-up drafts; noted improvements

Comments by teachers • “I exercised my power on these students I didn’t let them express themselves..maybe I killed their ability to create nw things.” • “I could have let them do it their own way, instead of my own.”

Analysing: noting desirable features • Eliciting error correction • Praise with mitigation (‘however’..) • Teacher-questioning • Pausing

Intervening: a new team • Stage two conferencing • Teachers read, then implemented desirable features noted from stage one analysis • Observed what happened...

Observing: Praise and mitigation • Our study is on-going but.. • One of the most dominant features appears to be related to how teachers preface their criticism in conferencing... how they ‘soften the blow’ or ‘sugar the pill.’ • “This sentence is fine, however there are some problems”

Summary: Conferencing is a potentiallyusefulmethod of providingfeedback on students’ work On-goingactionresearchrevealsdesirablefeaturesexist, one of whichappearstorelatetopraisewithmitigation

Contactdetails Dr. Wayne Trotman Izmir Katip Çelebi University School Foreign Languages Izmir-Turkey waynetrotman@gmail.com www.waynetrotman.com

References • Hyland, K. Second Language Writing, 2003. Cambridge University Press : CUP • Hyland K& Hyland F. Feedback on second language students’ writing. In ‘Language Teaching’, 39.2, 2006: CUP • Hyland K & Hyland F. Feedback in Second Language Writing: contexts and issues. 2006: CUP

Feeding Back On Students’ Writing?