Construction of Effective Assignment Feedback in Webbased Tertiarylevel English Language Teaching

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Construction of Effective Assignment Feedback in
Web-based Tertiary-level English Language
Teaching

• -- A Case Study of the Course EnglishgtChinese
  Translation at BeiwaiOnline

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Outline

• Literature Review
• Research Objectives
• Research Design
• Results and Discussions
• Implications

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Literature Review Significance of Assignment
Feedback to Learning

• 1.1 Hattie (1987)found from his research on the
  factors affecting the learning outcome that
  feedback affected the latter more than any
  others.
• 1.2 Black and Wiliam (1998)came up with the
  similar findings that feedback can exert constant
  and positive impacts on learning.
• 1.3 Hyland (2001)discovered that feedback can
  help develop the learners autonomous-learning
  strategies and promote learning motivation.

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2. Research Objective

• 2.1 What objectives do the learners think the
  assignment feedback should fulfill?
• 2.2 What do the learners think the assignment
  feedback of EnglishgtChinese Translation should
  focus on?
• 2.3 What types of assignment feedback do the
  learners consider helpful to their learning of
  the course?
• 2.4 What do the learners do with the assignment
  feedback?
• 2.5 What actions do the learners take if they
  have problems understanding the assignment
  feedback?

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3. Research Design

• 3.1 Questionnaire survey 86 questionnaires were
  emailed to 86 students in Beijing, Xiamen,
  Huangzhou and Guangzhou taking the course in the
  autumn term of 2005 and 79 were completed and
  sent back.
• 3.2 Interview 10 students (randomly chosen,
  three from Bejing and Guangzhou respectively, and
  two from Xiamen and Hangzhou respectively) were
  interviewed being invited to explain their
  answers to the questions in the questionnaire.

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4. Results and Discussions
Table 1
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4. Results and Discussions
Table 2
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4. Results and Discussions
Table 3
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4. Results and Discussions
Table 4
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4. Results and Discussions
Table 5
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5. Implications

• 5.1 A set of assessing criteria is suggested to
  be formulated
• incorporating the aims and features of the
  course.
• 5.2 The functions of assignment feedback should
  not be restricted
• to the identification of errors but
  expanded to direct the
• learners to correct the error, offer
  suggestions on future
• improvement, praise the progress to
  strengthen the
• confidence, etc.
• 5.3 The language of the assignment feedback
  needs to be
• relevant, specific and constructive.
• 5.4 The learner should be encouraged to
  communicate with the
• tutor on their queries of the assignment
  feedback.

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Thank you for your interest!