VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHÙNG THỊ BÍCH NGUYỆN THE EFFECTS OF TEACHER DIRECT AND INDIRECT CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK ON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN THE WRITINGS OF 10TH GRADE STUDENTS AT KIM ANH HIGH SCHOOL Ảnh hưởng hình thức phản hồi trực tiếp gián tiếp giáo viên việc sửa lỗi ngữ pháp viết học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Kim Anh MASTER’S THESIS Major: English Teaching Methodology Major code: 60140111 Program: Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, PhD HANOI - 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, PhD for her helpful guidance, critical comments and enthusiastic support I would not have been able to complete this thesis without her great encouragement I am indebted to my colleagues for their valuable assistance for the pursuit and fulfillment of this course My heartfelt thanks go to the students who willingly spent their time participating in the study Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family members and close friends, who always stand by me no matter what happens i ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of teacher written direct and indirect corrective feedback on 10th grade students‟ three types of grammatical errors, namely verb tenses and forms, attitudinal adjectives and articles, in their writings Forty five students were randomly assigned into three groups and received direct corrective feedback, indirect corrective feedback and no feedback respectively Students in each group produced three narrative paragraphs (a pretest, a revision, a post-test) The results of data analysis showed that both direct and indirect corrective feedback helped participants reduce errors related to verbs and attitudinal adjectives from the pretest to the post-test However, only direct feedback contributed to a significant reduction of article errors from the pretest to the post-test Between group comparisons of the posttest results revealed that direct corrective feedback appears to be slightly more effective than indirect corrective feedback in helping participants reduce errors related to verbs and attitudinal adjectives In addition, the effect brought about by direct and indirect feedback on reducing article errors compared to the control group was not statistically significant The findings are discussed in the context of the related literature and areas of future research are suggested ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Abstract ii List of Tables vi List of Figures vii List of Abbreviations vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Organization of the paper CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Approaches to the teaching of L2 writing 2.1.1 Product approach 2.1.2 Process approach 2.2 Grammatical errors in L2 writing 2.3 Feedback in L2 Writing 2.3.1 Definition 2.3.2 Types of feedback 2.3.2.1 Direct Corrective Feedback 2.3.2.2 Indirect Corrective Feedback 10 2.3.3 Review on studies about feedback issues 10 2.3.3.1 The effectiveness of corrective feedback .10 2.3.3.2 The impacts of direct and indirect corrective feedback .12 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Setting 15 3.2 Research method 17 3.3 Participants 15 3.4 Data collection 16 iii 3.4.1 Data collection instruments 16 3.4.2 Data collection procedure .17 3.5 Data analysis 20 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Pretest results 22 4.1.1 Verb errors in the pretest 22 4.1.2 Errors of attitudinal adjectives in the pretest 23 4.1.3 Errors of articles in the pretest 24 4.2 Post-test results .25 4.2.1 Answer to the first research question 25 4.2.1.1 Verb tenses and forms 25 4.2.1.2 Attitudinal adjectives 27 4.2.1.3 Articles 29 4.2.1.4 Summary of the results and discussion 31 4.2.2 Answer to the second research question .32 4.2.2.1 Verb tenses and forms 33 4.2.2.2 Attitudinal adjectives 34 4.2.2.3 Articles .36 4.2.2.4 Summary of the results and discussion .37 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of findings .38 5.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 39 5.3 Implications 39 REFERENCES APPENDICES: Appendix 1: Placement Test Appendix 2: Pre-test Appendix 3: Post-test Appendix 4: Pretest result iv Appendix 5: Post-test result Appendix 6: Students‟ writing samples v LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1- Example of direct corrective feedback and indirect corrective feedback Table 3.2.: Summary of data collection procedure Table 4.1- Descriptives (Test - Verb) Table 4.2 - Test of Homogeneity of Variances (Test - Verb) Table 4.3 - ANOVA (Test - Verb) Table 4.4 - Descriptives (Test – Adj) Table 4.5 - Test of Homogeneity of Variances (Test1 - Adj) Table 4.6 - ANOVA (Test1 - Adj) Table 4.7 - Descriptives (Test1 - Article) Table 4.8 - Test of Homogeneity of Variances (Test1 - Article) Table 4.9 - ANOVA (Test1 - Article) Table 4.10 - Paired Samples Statistics (Pair – DF - Verb) Table 4.11 - Paired Samples Test (Pair – DF - Verb) Table 4.12 - Paired Samples Statistics (Pair 2- IF - Verb) Table 4.13 - Paired Samples Test (Pair – IF - Verb ) Table 4.14 - Paired Samples Statistics (Pair – NF - Verb) Table 4.15 - Paired Samples Test (Pair – NF – Verb ) Table 4.16 - Paired Samples Statistics (Pair – DF – Adj) Table 4.17 - Paired Samples Test (Pair – DF – Adj) Table 4.18 - Paired Samples Statistics (Pair – IF – Adj) Table 4.19 - Paired Samples Test (Pair – IF – Adj) Table 4.20 - Paired Samples Statistics (Pair 6- NF – Adj) Table 4.21 - Paired Samples Test (Pair - NF – Adj) Table 4.21 - Paired Samples Test (Pair - NF – Adj) Table 4.22 - Paired Samples Statistics (Pair 7- DF – Article) Table 4.23 - Paired Samples Test (Pair 7- DF – Article) Table 4.24 - Paired Samples Statistics (Pair - IF – Article) Table 4.25 - Paired Samples Test (Pair – IF – Article) Table 4.26 - Paired Samples Statistics (Pair – NF – Article) vi Table 4.27 - Paired Samples Test (Pair – NF – Article) Table 4.28 - Descriptives (Test – Verb) Table 4.29 - Test of Homogeneity of Variances (Test – Verb) Table 4.30- ANOVA (Test – Verb) Table 4.31 - Multiple Comparisons (Test – Verb) Table 4.32 - Descriptives (Test - Adj) Table 4.33 - Test of Homogeneity of Variances (Test - Adj) Table 4.34 - ANOVA (Test - Adj) Table 4.35 - Multiple Comparisons (Test – Adj) Table 4.36 - Descriptives (Test – Article) Table 4.37 - Test of Homogeneity of Variances (Test – Article) Table 4.38 - ANOVA (Test – Article) Table 4.39 - Multiple Comparisons (Test – Article) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: Process of setting up groups LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as Foreign Language ESL: English as Second Language DF: Direct Feedback IF: In Direct Feedback NF: No Feedback L2: Second Language Adj: Attitudinal Adjective vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study Obviously, writing plays an important role in communication because apart from speaking writing enables people to express their feelings and thoughts They use it to define themselves, clarify their knowledge and their ideas, to understand the problems that may face them as well as to find solutions for such problems Being so, writing is a means for self-actualization What people learn about themselves and develop within themselves through writing can help them to realize their individual potential and to achieve potential goals (Hughey, et al, 1983) In the field of second and foreign language learning and teaching, writing has been seen as essential integral part of any language syllabus as learning to write effectively seems to be of prime importance Writing also enhances language acquisition because learners experiment with words, sentences, and large chunks of writing to communicate their ideas effectively and to reinforce grammar and vocabulary they are learning in class (Bello, 1997) It helps to consolidate learning to render it available for use in other areas such as listening, speaking and reading (Mohamed, 2000) In spite of the importance of writing, it is one of the most difficult language skills to master According to Richards and Renandya (2002), the difficulty lies not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating these ideas into readable text They argue that the skills involved in writing are highly complex, and learners have to pay attention to higher level skills of planning and organizing as well as lower level skills of spelling, punctuation, word choice, and so on The difficulty becomes even more pronounced if student writers are at a low level of language proficiency In Vietnam, of four skills that students learn in the subject of English, much attention has been paid to developing writing skill In 2005, the Ministry of Education and Training decided to reform the structure of the English test in Vietnam National High School Graduation Examination 2015 with more emphasis on the writing skill Accordingly, apart from multiple choice grammar questions, students were asked to write a short paragraph However, the result of the exam indicates that students‟ writing performance was generally poor as a large number of students could hardly the task Regarding students‟ attitude towards learning writing, according to Le (2008) (as cited in Pham (2009), only 6.9% of students wanted to learn writing When asked about the reality of English writing at a specialized high school in the Mekong Delta, teachers reported that most of the students had problems with their writing such as (1) students have few opportunities to respond to teacher feedback thoughtfully and critically, (2) their written texts contain a lot of grammatical inaccuracies and (3) they have negative attitudes toward writing in English It can be seen that the teaching and learning writing English in Vietnam seems to face considerable difficulties Given the importance of writing in communication and in the field of EFL learning and teaching, the difficulties facing learners in developing their writing ability over time in EFL contexts, a lot of research has been conducted in order to explore the effects of various techniques on helping ELF learners become better writers, especially the impact teacher feedback on students‟ writings However, the controversy over the effectiveness of corrective feedback remains unresolved According to the most extreme views, such as Truscott (2007), corrective feedback is seen as not only ineffective but also potentially harmful In contrast, a number of L2 researchers and practitioners (e.g Bitchener and Knoch, 2008; Chandler, 2003; Ferris, 2002; Sheen, 2007) claim that corrective feedback is of value in promoting greater grammatical accuracy Also, there have been studies that examined the relative effectiveness of varying feedback types, and direct and indirect corrective feedback has received due attention of researchers To date, studies examining the effects of direct and indirect feedback on L2 learners‟ writing have yielded mixed results Furthermore, in Vietnam, there is little research addressing the issue Especially, most previous studies have participants who are university students, and hardly any studies whose participants are high school students can be found The above-mentioned reasons are the incentive for the researcher to conduct a study on “The effects of teacher direct and indirect corrective feedback on grammatical errors in the writings of 10th grade students at Kim Anh High School” The results of the study are expected to make a contribution to the ongoing 2 He turned off the lights waste electricity A to not B in order to not C so as not to D so that My grandmother, was an extraordinary woman, lived to the age of one hundred and fifteen A who B that C whom D X Despite _, we arrived on time A the traffic C there was heavy traffic B of the traffic D of there was heavy traffic Why did Tom keep making jokes, about me? I don't enjoy A be laughed at B to be laughed at C laughing at D being laughed at Jim passed his driving test, surprised everybody A and B this C that D which Sperm whales are _, which means they eat meat A herbivores B carnivores C omnivores D mammals They said that they had seen him go with a stranger A last night B the night before C the night after D the following night We arrived late the bad weather A because B because of C although 10 They would be disappointed if we A hadn‟t come B wouldn‟t come C don‟t come D in spite of D didn‟t come 11 We _ borrow his car We‟ll go there by bus A need C needn‟t B must 12 A: “Thank you for the lovely present.” – B: “ ” A What a pity! B Not at all C Come on D mustn‟t D I‟m pleased you like it 13 _ is the protection of environment and natural resources A Survival B Commerce C Conservation D Extinction 14 “Give me another chance, ?” A don‟t you B aren‟t you C shall you D will you 15 National parks help to protect species A dangerous B danger C endanger 16 I told Mom we would be _ home in _ hour or so A the / Ø B a / the C Ø / an D endangered D the / a 17 I prefer thrillers _action films A than B over C to D more 18 This small town developed I had expected A not fast as B as much fast as C slowly than D much faster than 19 He became famous after that prize A winning B win C have won D won 20 The museum director was when talking to the visitors A both professional or friendly B both friendly and professional C either friendly nor professional D neither professional or friendly III reading A Read the passage , fill in each numbered blank with suitable word or phrase (10p) Different kinds of animals have appeared and disappeared throughout Earth‟s history Some animals go extinct because the climate (1) they live changes The climate may become wetter or drier It may become warmer or cooler If the animals cannot change, or adapt, to the new climate, they die IX Some animals go extinct because they cannot _(2)_ with other animals for food Some animals go extinct because they are killed by enemies New kinds of animals are always evolving Evolving means that the animals are changing _(3)_ from generation to generation Small differences between parents, children, and grandchildren slowly add up over many, many generations Eventually,a different kind of animal evolves Sometimes many of the animals on Earth go extinct at the _(4) time Scientists call this a mass extinction Scientists think there (5) at least five mass extinctions in Earth‟s history The last mass extinction happened about 65 million years ago This mass extinction killed off the dinosaurs A where A exist B compete A suddenly A same A have been B when C complete B accidentally B similar B will be C which C quickly C different C has been D what D find D slowly D various D are B Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer (10p) We live in a world of tired, sleep deprived people In his book Counting Sheep, Paul Martin - a behavioural biologist - describes a society which is just too busy to sleep and which does not give sleeping the importance it deserves Modern society has invented reasons not to sleep We are now a 24/7 society where shops and services must be available all hours We spend longer hours at work than we used to, and more time getting to work Mobile phones and email allow us to stay in touch round the clock and late-night TV and the Internet tempt us away from our beds When we need more time for work or pleasure, the easy solution is to sleep less The average adult sleeps only 6.2 hours a night during the week, whereas research shows that most people need eight or even eight and a half hours' sleep to feel at their best Nowadays, many people have got used to sleeping less than they need and they live in an almost permanent state of 'sleep debt' Until the invention of the electric light in 1879 our daily cycle of sleep used to depend on the hours of daylight People would get up with the sun and go to bed at nightfall But nowadays our hours of sleep are mainly determined by our working hours (or our social life) and most people are woken up artificially by an alarm clock During the day caffeine, the world's most popular drug, helps to keep us awake 75% of the world's population habitually consume caffeine, which up to a point masks the symptoms of sleep deprivation What does a chronic lack of sleep to us? As well as making us irritable and unhappy as humans, it also reduces our motivation and ability to work This has serious implications for society in general Doctors, for example, are often chronically sleep deprived, especially when they are on 'night call', and may get less than three hours' sleep Lack of sleep can seriously impair their mood, judgment, and ability to take decisions Tired engineers, in the early hours of the morning, made a series of mistakes with catastrophic results On our roads and motorways lack of sleep kills thousands of people every year Tests show that a tired driver can be just as dangerous as a drunken driver However, driving when drunk is against the law but driving when exhausted isn't As Paul Martin says, it is very ironic that we admire people who function on very little sleep instead of criticizing them for being irresponsible Our world would be a much safer, happier place if everyone, whatever their job, slept eight hours a night New English File Upper-intermediate by Clive Oxenden and Christina LathamKoenig, OUP Which of the following could best serve as the title of the passage? A A Society of Sleepless People B A Well-known Biologist C Accident Prevention: Urgent! D Sleep Deprivation: Causes and Effects The writer mentions the Internet in the passage as X A an ineffective means of communication B a factor that is not related to sleep deprivation C a temptation that prevents us from sleeping D an easy solution to sleep deprivation According to the third paragraph, which of the following statements is NOT TRUE? A The sun obviously determined our daily routines B The electric light was invented in the 19th century C Our social life has no influence on our hours of sleep D The electric light has changed our daily cycle of sleep The word “which” in the third paragraph refers to A the world's population B caffeine consumption C reaching a point D masking the symptoms All of the following are mentioned as those whose performance is affected by „sleep debt’ EXCEPT A biologists B drivers C doctors D engineers IV Writing A Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to show the underlined part that needs correction (10p) Most of the jobs in the manufacturing factories will take over by robots A B C D San Francisco, that is a beautiful city, has a population of six million A B C D She was died in a car accident last year A B C D It was not until the mother came back when the child went to bed A B C D This dictionary is well known for including many different meanings of words and to give real examples A B C D We‟re always amazing by John‟s travel stories A B C D The number of homeless people in Nepal have increased sharply due to the recent severe A B C earthquake D Jack will miss his bus if he leaves now A B CD At first we found it difficult to get used to drive on the other side of the road A B C D 10 Last year my little brother got lost while we had gone shopping A B C D B Rewrite the sentence so that its meaning stays the same, beginning with the words given (10p) “You shouldn‟t buy this expensive dress ”  She advised………………………………………………………………………… What a pity! I couldn‟t come to your wedding because I went to Japan on business  Had…………………………………………………………………………………… People believe that Italy will become the World Cup champion this year XI  Italy ………………………………………………………………………………………… I don‟t know how to use this machine  I wish………………………………………………………………………………………… They are always happy although they have very little money  In spite of………………………………………………………………………………… C Rewrite the sentence so that its meaning stays the same, including the words given (10p) The curry was so spicy that I couldn‟t eat it ( too) ………………………………………………………………………………………… The last time Liz phoned me was three weeks ago ( for) ………………………………………………………………………………………… She spends hours doing the housework every day ( to do) ………………………………………………………………………………………… You were introduced to a man He is my boss ( whom) ………………………………………………………………………………………….……… Do you have a good relationship with your colleagues at work? ( get) ………………………………………………………………………………………… XII APPENDIX 2: PRETEST Time allowed: 35 minutes Use the prompts below to build up a narrative paragraph about an unforgettable experience My/ embarrass/ experience/ happen/ago I/want/red hat My birthday/ father/give/ money I / excite/ decide/go/ shop immediately I/ sit/ boy/ bus I/notice/boy/ school bag/ open I/ see/ wad of dollar notes/ like/ ones/ my father/give/me I/look/ bag/ money/go I/ sure/ boy/ thief 10 He/steal/money 11 I/ decide/take/money/ back/ without/say/ about it 12 I/take/ notes/ put/ my bag 13 I/buy/hat/with/ money 14 I/come/home, I/see/ my wad of dollar notes/table 15 I/ embarrass XIII APPENDIX 3: POST-TEST Time allowed: 35 minutes Use the prompts below to build up a narrative paragraph about an unforgettable experience My/embarrass/experience/ happen/ago I/go/jog/ in/ park/ near my house Suddenly/I / hear/cries of “Help!, help!” from behind/trees After/ I/ find/ stick/ I/ run/ toward /trees I/come/ nearer/bush/I/see/ two men/ attack/ young girl I /rush/ at/men/start/hit/them/my stick I/scream “Run!” I/surprise She/stand/ there/ shout “Stop! Please stop it!” 10 Three more men/ appear/ pull/ away/ push/to the ground 11 /By the time I/get up/ many people/stand/ around us 12 Young girl/give/strange look/say “Thank you very much/try/help/you see, we/make/TV program” 13 I/ embarrass XIV APPENDIX 4: PRETEST RESULTS APPENDIX 4A: Percentage of errors in the pretest of group No Student Verb Attitudinal Articles (%) adjectives (%) (%) Student 18 25 Student 23 67 Student 18 67 63 Student 50 67 75 Student 32 38 Student 36 33 63 Student 18 67 75 Student 68 75 Student 23 38 10 Student 10 27 33 88 11 Student 11 36 33 63 12 Student 12 41 33 75 13 Student 13 41 33 50 14 Student 14 59 33 63 15 Student 15 50 33 88 XV APPENDIX 4B: Percentage of errors in the pretest of group No Student Verb (%) Attitudinal adjectives (%) Articles (%) Student 32 67 88 Student 18 33 38 Student 14 33 25 Student 36 67 50 Student 41 67 25 Student 18 33 50 Student 55 75 Student 27 67 38 Student 45 33 63 10 Student 10 64 67 63 11 Student 11 41 67 88 12 Student 12 32 33 75 13 Student 13 41 33 88 14 Student 14 50 33 63 15 Student 15 32 67 75 XVI APPENDIX 4C: Percentage of errors in the pretest of group No Student Verb (%) Attitudinal adjectives (%) Articles (%) Student 33 63 Student 36 67 63 Student 59 67 88 Student 27 67 50 Student 23 33 38 Student 50 67 63 Student 36 67 25 Student 45 67 88 Student 68 33 38 10 Student 10 23 50 11 Student 11 50 67 38 12 Student 12 50 33 75 13 Student 13 36 33 63 14 Student 14 36 33 63 15 Student 15 32 33 75 XVII APPENDIX 5: POST-TEST RESULTS APPENDIX 5A: Percentage of errors in the pots-test of group No Student Verb (%) Attitudinal adjectives (%) Articles (%) Student 16 25 Student 24 0 Student 20 33 75 Student 48 33 88 Student 0 Student 20 25 Student 12 25 Student 20 63 Student 75 10 Student 10 16 33 63 11 Student 11 38 12 Student 12 16 50 13 Student 13 12 38 14 Student 14 24 50 15 Student 15 36 50 XVIII APPENDIX 5B: Percentage of errors in the pots-test of group No Student Verb (%) Attitudinal adjectives (%) Articles (%) Student 20 33 38 Student 12 38 Student 50 Student 36 33 88 Student 36 33 25 Student 48 75 Student 20 63 Student 12 33 63 Student 20 50 10 Student 10 44 33 75 11 Student 11 28 67 50 12 Student 12 24 63 13 Student 13 28 63 14 Student 14 40 63 15 Student 15 24 33 50 XIX APPENDIX 5C: Percentage of errors in the pots-test of group No Student Student Verb (%) Attitudinal adjectives (%) Articles (%) Student 20 32 33 88 63 Student 48 33 75 Student 44 50 Student 28 75 Student 28 33 63 Student 32 33 38 Student Student 32 12 67 33 25 50 10 Student 10 36 63 11 Student 11 20 50 12 Student 12 13 Student 13 48 36 33 33 63 63 14 Student 14 48 33 75 15 Student 15 24 63 XX APPENDIX 6: STUDENTS’ WRITING SAMPLES APPENDIX 6A: PRETEST SAMPLE XXI APPENDIX 6B: REVISION SAMPLE XXII APPENDIX 6C: POST-TEST SAMPLE XXIII ... aims at investigating the effects of teacher direct and indirect corrective feedback on grammatical errors in the writings of 10th grade students at Kim Anh High School In order to achieve the. .. effects of teacher direct and indirect corrective feedback on grammatical errors in the writings of 10th grade students at Kim Anh High School? ?? The results of the study are expected to make a contribution... providing some suggestions for further investigations on teacher written corrective feedback on improving students grammatical accuracy in their writings In addition, implications of the findings