Providing Effective Instructor Feedback for the ESL Student By Melanie Ayers, MSN, RN, NCSN

Objectives By the end of the session, the attendee will Have an understanding of what feedback is Learn the common errors ESL students make in their writing Develop strategies to give clear, effective feedback

What is feedback? Information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal Helpful feedback is goal-referenced; tangible and transparent; actionable; user-friendly (specific and personalized); timely; ongoing; and consistent (Wiggins, 2012)

Effective Feedback “The most effective feedback focuses on process and task, while comments about the person are least effective because they distract student’s attention from their learning” (Burke & Pieterick, 2010)

Weak Feedback Good work! This is a weak paper. You got a C on your presentation. I’m so pleased by your poster! What are these examples missing?

Non-Native English Speaking Students International/visa students Completed their secondary education in another country May be more challenged with listening and speaking English than by reading/writing Writing styles may vary due to different expectations from other countries Non-native English speaking residents Children of resident immigrants and came to U.S. at young age, or born here Have U.S. high school diplomas, but may speak another language outside of the classroom May be comfortable with conversational English, but challenged by academics

Errors Errors defined as “morphological, syntactic, and lexical forms that deviate from rules of the target language, violating the expectations of literate adult native speakers”. Reasons for errors— International students—highly educated and literate. May need help with grammar rules. Need to develop intuition of what “sounds right” re: language ESL residents—education interrupted due to traveling back and forth between countries Learned English in ESL program before mainstreamed so lagging behind on English skills Not a one size fits all—depends on background and ability

Common Errors Verb tense (present, past, future; or subject/verb agreement) Noun errors (singular/plural; possessives) Pronoun errors Article errors (a, an, the)—usually last grammatical skill acquired Word choice errors (vocabulary, prepositions) Sentence structure (run-on sentence, fragments, word order) Spelling errors Other (capitalization, punctuation) Informal language See handouts

Error examples: A student should not start writing their paper the night before it is due. Last summer I go to visit my grandmother. The tension was at its pick. (should say “peak”) San Francisco is a very beauty city.

Prior to Assignments Make sure expectations are clear Have clear written instructions with all requirements Provide rubrics (explain connection of instructions to grading) Explain the assignment verbally (in class & Kaltura) Give PowerPoint presentation with main points & visuals may help to clarify content and what is important to study Give sample papers of high quality work Give opportunities for draft submissions

Feedback—What’s Best Practice? Corrective feedback—correcting all errors Controversial—studies conflict due to: Inconsistent feedback/corrections by teaching staff Many students to pay attention to feedback Students may not be willing to correct without incentive (improved grade, required to revise) One study showed student who received corrective feedback significantly outperformed the control group (no feedback) Yes, we need to give feedback!

Types of Feedback Direct feedback—teacher gives correction Indirect feedback—teacher give what is incorrect, but student has to figure out how to correct it Coding—labeling mistakes (ie. spelling error, verb tense) (depends on the study if it is considered helpful. May be as good as highlighting, circling or underlining mistakes)

Feedback Priority is content Read through paper first without marking up Grammar requires direct correction (word choice, articles) Actionable, concrete, specific, useful Reread own feedback or ask someone else to read it for clarity

Checklist Did the assignment: Grammar/mechanics/usage Meet the required content Presented in a way that was comprehensible and effective Content supported in a way that was acceptable at this level of writing Grammar/mechanics/usage Do errors prevent you from comprehending the work? Or does it appear “non-native” Does feedback give enough information for student to reasonably improve? Does it focus on content first, then grammar/mechanics? Does the feedback justify the grade?

Good Feedback examples The subject “student” is singular, therefore the pronoun needs to be singular, also (“his” not “their”). This is an important point about…, however the sentence is a run-on sentence. It would be better to make two shorter sentences so the point you are trying to make does not get lost within the long sentence. This citation gives good support for the point you are making about…in this paragraph. This is a sentence fragment. It has a subject, but it does not have a verb or predicate to finish the sentence. This paper was to compare and contrast two modalities. You have done well meeting the requirements on the comparison, however you did not address how the modalities contrast.

Students: See value in teacher feedback Feel feedback on grammar and errors is important to their writing Like comprehensive correction Like teachers marking errors and giving strategies for correction Found some teachers marking system confusing (vt=verb tense— make sure to spell it out) Are ok with labeling and leaving it up to students to figure it out (collaborative approach)

5 Principles Teachers need to study aspects of grammar that are particularly problematic for non-native speakers of English Teachers of ESL writers need to practice in recognizing and identifying errors in student writing Teachers of ESL writers need practice in developing lessons and teaching grammar points/editing strategies to students (mini-lessons, practice exercises) Teachers need to understand the principles of second language acquisition and of composition theory Teachers should become familiar with language structures needed for different task types and academic disciplines

Interventions Student-teacher conferences Peer editing sessions Revision/rewriting after feedback (drafts). Encourage ESL students to start assignments early. In class grammar instruction/mini-lessons Error charts to track progression Highlight errors with color coding system—watch for ADA compliance

Interventions, cont. Track changes through Word Teach them spell/grammar check through Word Encourage reading to improve vocabulary Verbal feedback through Canvas Kaltura video reviewing paper for feedback Zoom meeting to review paper in real time Refer to the Student Success Center/tutoring early

References Burke, D. & Pieterick, J. (2010). Giving students effective written feedback. Berkshire, England: McGraw-Hill Education Ferris, D. (2011). Treatment of error in second language student writing (2nd ed.). Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press Wiggins, G. (2012). Seven keys to effective feedback. Educational Leadership 70(1), 10-16. Wilmington University (n.d.) Tips for Teaching Non-Native English Speaking Students. Retrieved from https://www.wilmu.edu/faculty/documents/WilmUTipsforESL.pdf