Giving Effective Feedback

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Giving Effective Feedback

• Wang Qiang and Keith OHare
• IATEFL YL, Beijing 2008

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Presentation aims

• To understand what feedback means in teaching
• To understand how feedback to students can affect
  their learning
• To learn some effective ways of giving feedback
  so students become better learners
• To learn some useful feedback phrases in English

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Presentation of ideas

• What roles does feedback play for students
  learning?
• How does feedback affect learning?
• What, why and how should we praise and encourage
  children?
• Why, what, when, how and who to correct errors?
  - some practical techniques for providing oral
  and written feedback.

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What roles does feedback play for students
learning?

• The kind of feedback we give to our
  students and the way we give our feedback often
  not only contain messages or advice about
  learning but also carry a very strong emotional
  effect.
• Our students receive feedback in
  different ways according to their maturity. For
  example, young learners need vast quantities of
  praise and may find it difficult to accept
  criticism.

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How does feedback affect learning?

• Look at the following classroom interaction
• T What food does your mother like? Lily?
• S She like chicken
• T No, not she like, she likes, say she
  likes chicken
• S She likes chicken
• T Good

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How does feedback affect learning?

• How could the teacher send a different message?
• T What food does your mother like? Lily?
• S She like chicken
• T Does she? (surprised) She likes chicken. So do
  I. Good. Thank you.
• S (smiles)

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How does feedback affect learning?

• Now look at the following dialogue
• T What food does your mother like? Lily?
• S She like chicken
• T Really? Me too. And Tingting, what about your
  mother?
• S She like chicken too.
• T Good

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How does feedback affect learning?

• All feedback affects students
• Students listen to feedback to decide how to
  continue (do I have a go or do I stop trying?)
• The feedback we give sends a clear message to the
  student.
• Some feedback can help learning
• Some feedback may block learning

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Issues regarding praise - What, why and how do we
praise?

• Do you give a lot of praise to your students?
• When do you praise them?
• Why do you praise them?
• How do you praise them?
• Is there any problems that you find with your
  praise?
• Is there a difference between praise and
  encouragement?

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Issues regarding praise

• We all agree that children need a
  positive and supportive environment for
  successful learning of a foreign language. Most
  teachers have showed such awareness in their
  teaching to try to use a lot of praise to
  encourage learning.
• However, recent research shows that some
  teachers over-praise without clear purposes and
  such praise may be counterproductive rather than
  encouraging.
• Therefore, we would like to give teachers
  some new insights into ways to make their
  statements of praise more effective and
  consistent with the goals we have for children,
  namely, to foster self-esteem, autonomy,
  self-reliance, achievement, and motivation for
  learning.

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Main Problems of Praise in the classroom

• Over-use of praise lead to the fact that children
  learn to please the teacher.
• Over-use of material rewards make children
  dependent on rewards.
• Monotonous use of single word praise makes not
  much difference.
• Focusing on form not content.
• Overlooking individual differences.
• .

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In what ways Are the two kinds of feedback
different?

• T. I like chicken. What do you like?
• S1. I like chicken.
• T. Good. And you? (pointing at the next student)
• S2. I like chicken.
• T. Very good. What about you?
• S3. I like pizza.
• T. Super. Next.
• S4

T. I like chicken. What do you like? S1. I like
chicken. T. Em, you like chicken, too. Good.
Jinjin, What do you like? Do you like chicken,
too? S2. Yes. I like chicken. T. Interesting! We
all like chicken. Very good. What about you,
Nancy? S3. I like pizza. T. Well, OK. You like
pizza! S4
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Our suggestions

• Develop a variety of phrases of praise and
  techniques for praise
• Make sure that you praise or give rewards for a
  clear purpose
• Focus more on content once children can
  understand more language
• Do not overuse praise as a classroom management
  tool. Focus on achieving smooth maintenance of
  the momentum of classroom instruction and
  activities. These are found to be the most
  powerful variable in controlling deviant behavior
  and maintaining student attention.
• Use less praise but more encouragement,
  especially when children grow older.

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Praise vs. encouragement

• Praise is usually given to a child when a task or
  deed is completed or is well done. Statements
  such as "You draw beautifully, Marc," or
  "Terrific job, Stephanie," are examples of
  praise. . They often place a judgment on the
  student, and give some indication of the
  student's status in the group. (Dreikurs and
  others,1982).
• Encouragement, on the other hand, refers to a
  positive acknowledgment response that focuses on
  student efforts. They offer specific feedback
  rather than general comments. For example,
  instead of saying, Terrific job, teachers can
  comment on specific behaviors that they wish to
  acknowledge. it focuses on improvement and
  efforts rather than evaluation of a finished
  product. And it uses sincere, direct comments
  delivered with a natural voice. It helps students
  develop an appreciation of their behaviors and
  achievements.
• Encouragement avoids competition or comparisons
  with others and it works toward self-satisfaction
  from a task or product.

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Some questions to consider regarding Error
correction

• As a teacher, do you correct students errors?
• When do you correct immediately after you
  notice an error?
• How do you correct speaking errors?
• How do you correct writing errors?

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Issues in Error correction

• Attitudes towards errors
• Categorising errors
• When, how, and who to correct
• Practical techniques for correcting
• speaking and writing errors

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Attitudes towards errors

• Are errors bad signs of learning?
• Why students make errors?

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Categorising errors

• What are errors and what are mistakes?
• What kind of errors are most common among young
  learners in your context? Pronunciation, verb
  tense, word order, vocabulary, spelling,
  pragmatic ?

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When, how and who to correct?

• When to correct Fluency-focused vs.
  accuracy-focused activities global vs. local
• How to correct direct vs indirect individual
  differences
• Who to correct self-correction, peer-correction,
  whole class-correction, and teacher-correction

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practical techniques for correcting speaking
errors

• On-the-spot correction
• Using body language
• Using a rising tone to repeat the wrong utterance
• Mouthing (Useful with pronunciation errors).
• ReformulationStudent I went in
  ScotlandTeacher Oh really, you went to
  Scotland, did you?
• Recasting using an emphasis on the error
• Delayed Correction- e.g. after a communication
  activity.
• Noting down errors and draw sts attention for
  correction
• Recording play the recording to invite whole
  class correction

Adapted from Rolf Donald, Error
Correction 2 http//www.teachingenglish.org.uk/th
ink/methodology/error_correct.shtml
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Practical techniques for correcting Writing

• Students receive a number of sentences taken
  from their written work. Some are correct, some
  wrong. Students in groups have to identify the
  correct ones and correct the wrong ones. They
  have a limited amount of time. The team with the
  most correct sentences wins.
• Underline inappropriate language in a piece of
  writing using a specific colour. Or use a
  different colour to underline examples of
  appropriate language.
• Use codes in the margin to identify the type of
  error(s), for example, VOC a lexical error.
  Students have to identify the error(s) and if
  possible make a correction.
• Alternatively put crosses in the margin for the
  number of errors in each line. Students then try
  to identify the errors and make corrections.
• Put students into pairs / groups. They correct
  each others work using one or more of the
  techniques above.

Adapted from Rolf Donald, Error Correction
1 http//www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodo
logy/error_correct.shtml
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Useful feedback phrases

• Yes, you did it !
• Yes, you made it!
• You got it!
• Good/Nice job
• You did very well.
• Good work/try.
• Thats perfect!
• Thats lovely.
• Thats nice.
• Thats neat!
• Lets give him a big hand!
• Clap your hands!
•  
• Youve done it much better this time.
• Youve made a lot of progress!
• Youve improved a lot!

• Great!
• Wonderful!
• Super!
• Brilliant!
• Fabulous!
• Terrific!
• Excellent!
• Amazing!
• Fantastic!
• Marvelous!
• Good, well done.
• Good boy/girl!
• You are wonderful today.
• You are smart.
• Very good!
• Not bad!
• Good idea!
• Very good, indeed.
• Thats fine.

• I hope you will do better next time.
• Take it easy.
• Dont worry. It doesnt matter.
• Dont be shy.
• Dont be afraid of making mistakes.
• Dont worry. Everyone makes mistakes.
• Thats OK. No one is perfect.
• Youve done your best. Good!
• Ill help you if you get stuck.
• Take a guess if you dont know.
• You can do it.
• Come on! Have a try.
• Take your time. Try it one more time.

Ministry of Education, China (Forthcoming) The
National English Curriculum for Nine-Year
Compulsory Education (Revised Version). Beijing
Beijing Normal University Press.
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Summary

• We understand what feedback means in teaching
• We understand how feedback to students can affect
  their learning
• We have learnt some effective ways of giving
  feedback so students become better learners
• We have learnt some useful feedback phrases in
  English

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References

• Dreikurs, R., Greenwald, B., and Pepper, F. 1982.
  Maintanining Sanity in the Classroom CLASSROOM
  MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES. New York Harper Row,
  1982.
• Hitz, Randy and Driscoll, Amy 1989. Praise in the
  Classroom. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and
  Early Childhood Education Urbana IL. ED313108.
• Donald, Rolf Error Correction
  http//www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodolog
  y/error_correct.shtml
• Ministry of Education, China (Forthcoming) The
  National English Curriculum for Nine-Year
  Compulsory Education (Revised Version). Beijing
  Beijing Normal University Press.