Examining ESL teachers' understanding and practices of written feedback in the state of Pahang

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore Malaysian ESL teachers understanding of written feedback within the context of assessment for learning (AfL). Specifically, this study seeks to answers these research questions: 1) What are the factors affecting Malaysian ESL teachers’ understanding of feedback? 1.1) Is there any significant relationship or statistical difference in the factors found according to the demographic variables? 2) What is the Malaysian ESL teachers’ current practice of written feedback in writing classroom? 2.1) In what way do their current practice of giving feedback aligned to the AfL Framework? 2.2) What influences teachers’ current written feedback practices? 3) What are the issues and problems teachers face on giving written feedback? 3.1) How do they overcome the issues and the problems? 4) What are the teachers’ suggestions in improving written feedback practices? The data was collected in three phases, i.e. survey questionnaires, student sample essays, and interview protocols. A total of 372 teachers from secondary schools in Pahang answered the Teacher Conception of Feedback (TCoF) inventory, 89 teachers marked the student sample essays, and eleven teachers were interviewed during the data collection processes. The data from the survey questionnaires were analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and five factors were found, namely 1) Purpose, 2) Peer- and Self-assessment (PASA), 3) Teacher, 4) Attitudes, and 5) Praise/Positive. Correlation analyses that were done found no significant relationship between the teachers’ demographic variables to the factors found, except for teaching experience and race. The analysis of the student sample essays that have been marked by the teachers found that all of the teachers used comprehensive marking, with the majority of them marked the errors implicitly. In term of written feedback, the focus was on score/grade, stating the students’ current learning state, and positive motivation and self-esteem. None of the teachers suggested specific activity for improvement. Hence, it can be concluded that the participants of this present study do follow the AfL framework to certain extends, but not all. From the interviews, it has been found that the major factors that influence teachers’ written feedback practices are 1) their personal experiences, either as teachers or as the SPM/PT3 examiners, and 2) students’ attitudes and needs. From the interviews, teachers claimed that they face three major problems related to giving written feedback to their students’ writings, namely 1) lack of time, 2) students’ attitudes, and 3) lack of knowledge in giving feedback. In order to overcome these problems, the teachers have to adopt “mark anywhere, anytime” style, preparing extra activities for the weak students, and attend more courses and workshops held by the District Education Offices and/or the State’s Education Department. The teachers of this present study suggested the following to improve written feedback practices among ESL teachers: 1) spend more time on post-writing processes; 2) standardized marking among all teachers; 3) to practice focused marking; 4) to have less non-academic tasks/roles; 5) to learn more; and 6) to have smaller class size.