An Empirical Study of Tutor Feedback on Students’ Written Assignment 柳君丽 北京理工大学外国语学院 liujiuli@bit.edu.cn

An Empirical Study of Tutor Feedback on Students’ Written Assignments The Rationale for the Empirical Study Research Procedures and Findings Conclusion

Rationale Penny Ur defined the term feedback as “ in the context of teaching in general, feedback is information that is given to the learner about his or her performance of a learning task, usually with the objective of improving this performance. It has two main distinguishable components: assessment and correction.”

Obviously, teachers assess and correct students’ written assignments with the purpose of improving students’ performance, namely students’ writing ability.

However the reality is: Students make the same mistake although the teachers have corrected it in their previous written assignments. Some students will pay attention to only the scores the teachers have given and then put aside their homework and forget all about their mistakes.

Then in which way can teachers’ written feedback be best utilized?

The inspiration for the new method Fathman and Whalley (1990) found that identifying the location of errors was an effective means of helping students to correct errors in form. Hedgcock and Lefkowitz (1994) found that students paid closer attention to teacher feedback than those in a one-draft classroom.

The new method the author has employed identify all the type of mistakes in the students’ written assignments without any correction select the typical mistakes and discuss them in class select two or three good models and discuss them in class require the students to correct their mistakes by themselves and turn the revised composition in for the second time together with the original version assess and correct the students’ second version in detail.

Research Procedures 2 classes are selected each with about 70 students Students in both classes should write 3 compositions during one term For Class A, the teacher adopts the new method of giving feedback. (The experimental group) For Class B, the teacher just uses the traditional way of giving feedback which is to give a global score and correct the mistakes. (The Controlled group)

A questionnaire is distributed after the three compositions.

Gender of Subjects Experimental Group 29 female students Controlled Group 18 female students 40 male students

Majors of Subjects Experimental Group Controlled Group 10 students majoring in natural sciences 42 students majoring in engineering 1 student majoring in management and economics 1 student majoring in art design Controlled Group 8 students majoring in natural sciences 47 students majoring in engineering 3 students majoring in management and economics

Before this term, what do you think of your English Writing Ability? Experimental group Controlled Group

Research Findings Significant differences exist in the following practice. The teacher only identifies the type of all the mistakes in all the students’ written assignments without any correction and let the students themselves correct them after the teacher explain all the typical mistakes in class. A. Strongly dislike B. dislike C. Like D. strongly like

Experimental Group Controlled Group

2. Significant differences also exist in the practice. The teacher selects two or three good models written by their classmates or others for all the students to discuss in class. A. Strongly dislike B. dislike C. Like D. strongly like

Experimental Group Controlled Group

3. Significant differences also exist in the following question. You __________ the practice that students turn in the composition again after revising it according to the teachers’ feedback. A. strongly dislike B. dislike C. like D. Strongly like

Experimental Group Controlled Group

4. Significant differences also exist in the question Do you think it is ________ for the teacher to read the revised composition of the students to see whether they have corrected their mistakes? A. Very unnecessary B. Unnecessary C. Necessary D. Very unnecessary

Experimental Group Controlled Group

5. Significant differences also exist in the question. When revising your composition, you will __________ if you do not know how to revise a mistake. ask the teacher ask your classmates look it up in a dictionary ignore it

Experimental Group Controlled Group

6. Significant differences also exist in the question. Do you think it _______for the teacher to ask the students to revise their compositions the second time and turn them in. A. very unnecessary B. unnecessary C. necessary D. very necessary

Experimental Group Controlled Group

7. Significant differences also exist in the question. The teacher’s feedback is ________ to improve your writing. A. very unhelpful B. unhelpful C. helpful D. very helpful

Experimental Group Controlled Group

Conclusions For most students, any kind of teachers’ feedback is somewhat conducive to students’ writing ability. This new method is more effective in improving students’ writing ability. However, for those students with poor English foundation, it is somewhat ineffective for they themselves can not correct their mistakes and teachers had better correct all the mistakes for them.

Teachers should be careful not to concentrate too heavily on errors in form at a level beyond which students are able or not yet ready to understand. By identifying errors at a level beyond a learner’s level acquisition, instructors risk not only wasting much of their own time, but also confusing students. (Matthew Reesor )

Limitations of this method Teachers need to spend a lot of time in reading the students’ compositions. It’s quite awkward that when you read the same composition the second time, you will find that there are some mistakes you have not identified for the first time. Will you identify them or not? Most students will just correct the mistakes identified by the teachers, and only a few of them will rewrite their compositions such as adding new contents, changing the structure, correcting the mistakes the teacher has not identified and so on.

Other suggestions 1. When meeting unknown words in writing, you are more likely to consult. Paper English-English Dictionary Paper English-Chinese Dictionary The combination of the first two E-dictionaries

写作中，碰到不会的单词，您最可能查阅的是_______。 Experimental Group Controlled Group

2. You ______ that the teacher corrects all the students’ compositions. A. strongly dislike B. dislike C. like D. strongly like

您觉得老师_______批阅全班所有同学的作文。 Experimental Group Controlled Group

3. You ______ that the teacher corrects 1/3 of the students’ compositions. A. strongly dislike B. dislike C. like D. strongly like

您_______老师抽样批阅作文（只批阅班上1/3学生的作文）。 Experimental Group Controlled Group

Thank you for your attention!