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A Journal of Teaching English Language and Literature
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Home (/) / Training Language Learners to Use Feedback: An Action Research at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad

FEATURES TRAINING LANGUAGE LEARNERS ANNOUNCEMENTS

TO USE FEEDBACK: AN ACTION
Call for papers for
Articles (/article) RESEARCH AT BITS PILANI, Fortell ISSN no: Print
HYDERABAD 2229 – 6557, Online
Interviews
(/interview) 2394-9244 January
Santosh Kumar Mahapatra 2016, issue no.32
Book Reviews This study is based on the researcher’s own (/content/call-papers-
(/book-reviews) experience of finding a solution to a pedagogic problem fortell-issn-no-print-
related to the use of feedback by students. It is often 2229-%E2
Reports observed that even if teachers learn to provide %80%93-6557-
(/reports) constructive feedback to students, it does not yield online-2394-9244-
great results in terms of student achievement. Students january-
Language often do not utilize the feedback the way the teacher 2016-issue-no32)
Activities would like them to. There could be many reasons
(/language- behind it. But the important ones could include lack of
activites) learner training in using feedback, absence of any ADVERTISEMENTS
follow-up activity and an unfavourable institutional belief
about the role of feedback in learning. In this
connection, the researcher made an attempt to train his UPCOMING
learners in Advanced Communicative English, a EVENTS
course on academic communication skills, at BITS
. (/content
Pilani, Hyderabad Campus. The aim was to raise their
/coming-soon)
awareness about how to utilize the feedback given on
their presentation skills and enhance the same skills in
the process. ADVERTISEMENTS
Learner Training and its Impact on Learning

Learner training is an essential step towards promoting

learner autonomy in the classroom. According to
McCarthy (1998), it can help ‘improve learning’. Brown
has quite appropriately called it strategy-based

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instruction. Research on learning strategies also

focuses on learner training and its impact on learner
achievement. The impact of training on learners has
been often found to be positive (Cohen, Weaver & Li,
1998; Rossiter, 2003; Kirkwood, 2005). However, any
such success entails meticulous planning and focused
execution. The teacher should try to prepare students
to self-reflect and develop students’ metacognitive
awareness - an awareness about their own thinking -
so that they become independent learners.

Role of Feedback in Language Learning

Formal instruction remains incomplete without

feedback. Merrill (2002) gives it strong position in
instructional design theory and asserts that it leads
learner guidance. Feedback can be explicit or implicit,
oral or written, negative or positive, form-focused or
meaning-focused. It is the teacher who decides
aspects related to ‘when’, ‘how’, ‘what’, ‘how much’,
etc. of feedback. However, for young adult learners, an
interactional approach to providing feedback (Gass and
Varonis, 1994) has been found quite effective. Mackey
(2006) calls it ‘noticing’ and finds it useful for second
language learners.

Research Methodology

Action Research: Often considered to be an aid to

reflective teaching in ELT, action research involves
addressing an instruction-related problem through a
planned intervention, which is later evaluated after
careful documentation of the entire process. While
conducting an action research, the roles of the teacher
and researcher get integrated and students, who also
play the roles of subjects, are involved in the process.
Moreover, the process of research may continue even
after getting results from the initial study. The current
study adopted action research because the researcher,
who was also a teacher of students who participated in
the study, observed that the students did not make use
of his detailed oral and written feedback on their
presentation skills.

Research Questions: The study addressed the

following questions:

How does learner training in using feedback

influence students’ presentation skills?
How do students respond to learner training?

Sample: Though the class in which the study was

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conducted had 70 students from B. Tech., B. E. and B.

A. (Economics), only 10 students, who were regularly
present in the classroom, were included as the sample
of the study. The students were a heterogeneous group
and studying in the either second or third or fourth year
of their course. The selection was based on the
availability and willingness of students to undergo the
training provided by the researcher.

Tools: Three research tools were used for collecting

the required data for the study. They were:

Pre- and post-tests to assess students’ ability to

make effective presentations
Voicethread: It is a Web 2.0 tool through which
feedback was provided. On this web platform, one
can upload and share audio, video and pictures.
The people, with whom it is shared, can post
written, audio and video comments on it. It is a
wonderful tool for promoting collaborative learning
and peer feedback. For more information, visit
www.voicethread.com.
(http://www.voicethread.com. )
Informal interview with students to find out about
their experience

Data Collection The data for the study were collected

in stages. In the first stage, the students were asked to
make academic presentations on a mutually-agreed
upon topic. The duration of the presentation was
between 4-10 minutes. The students were aware of the
assessment criteria which comprised the following
components:

Introducing the topic and stating the purpose and

plan of the presentation (5 marks)
Execution of the plan (4 marks)
Conclusion (3 marks)
Use of correct sentences and pronunciation (3
marks)
Appropriate body language (3 marks)
Proper pace of delivery (2 marks)

The students’ performance was scored by the

researcher and a record was maintained. After
analysing students’ performance, a detailed plan was
made to train the students in using the feedback given
on their individual presentation. The researchers
offered both written and oral feedback on the
Voicethread platform. As per the plan, the researcher
had a question- answer session with students in each

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class. Some of the questions were: ‘Why were you

speaking so fast in the middle?’, ‘What was my
suggestion?’, ‘I know you tried but you were a little too
fast. How do you plan to tackle this in your next
presentation?’, etc . Efforts were made to bring
students’ problems and the researcher’s corresponding
suggestions to their notice and make them address
their problems. As a part of the plan, students were
asked to respond to teacher’s feedback with at least
two comments on Voicethread. Also, students were
asked to analyse and rate video recorded
presentations made by students from other colleges
and universities. They continued to make presentations
but those were not scored.

A few informal interviews were conducted with all the

participants. The researcher tried to obtain information
about the students’ experience with Voicethread and
how they felt about question-answer and video-analysis
sessions in the classroom.

In the last stage, each student made an academic

presentation, uploaded them on Voicethread and those
presentations were graded using the same set of
criteria used earlier. The pre- and post-training
presentations were compared both quantitatively and
qualitatively. The students were part of this process of
comparison too. Changes were evident in several
aspects of oral presentation skills.

Findings

How does learner training in using feedback influence

students’ presentation skills?

The students unconsciously developed their own

presentation skills while undergoing training in which
they analysed and commented on others’
presentations. The employment of Voicethread kept
students interested and gave them easy access to the
feedback, which was available online below their
recorded presentation on screen. Their acquaintance
with most of the typical problems faced by people while
making presentations enabled them to focus on
selected problem areas which, in turn, helped them
address the problems more efficiently. Some of the
sample comments and corresponding changes are
mentioned in the following table:

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Teacher’s Comments Observed Changes

(transcript of oral comments) in the Second
Voicethread
Presentation

Hi XX, Just watched your XX did not use

presentation …(at first, good many informal
things about the presentation words like ‘guys’,
like good English, appropriate ‘cool’, ‘bucks’, etc.
gestures, etc)… I believe you but could not
can make it a much better change the informal
presentation if you change a tone on some
few things. You need to occasions. May be,
sound a little more formal and the meaning of
academic. Think about ‘informal/formal
changing the vocabulary and tone’ needed a little
the tone. The introduction of more explaining. He
the topic is good but you stated the purpose
need to state the purpose and plan a little
and plan.Also, highlight the more clearly. The
main points while concluding conclusion,
the presentation. however, could
have been better,
though he tried to
quickly summarise
the main points.

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Hi XY,…(starting with good XY introduced the

things like effective topic well and made
introduction, good use of use of the BBC
academic vocabulary, materials to
excellent pronunciation, etc., improve her
about the presentation.)…You introduction and
should state the purpose of conclusion. In
your presentation a little more conclusion, she
clearly. It can be done by started with ‘So in
stating why you wish to talk this presentation, I
about 'cell theory'. Refer to talked about three
the BBC website shared on important
the CMS (course things:…’. Her hand
management system of the movements were,
university). Your language is to a great extent,
good and the pace of controlled.
delivery is quite smooth. You
look confident and the body
language is appropriate.
However, I believe you
should control your hand
movements and not let the
hands move beyond your
shoulder. Just one more
thing! It sounds a little clichéd
if you say- ‘I would like to
conclude by saying that…’.
Refer to the BBC website I
shared with you to learn
about better ways.

As you can see in the above table, some of the

suggested corrections were accurately carried out.
However, some other suggestions could not reach the
students. Thus, it is necessary to give feedback with
sufficient information about what, how and why to
change, and reference materials.

How do students respond to learner training?

The students’ response to learner training was

encouraging in the beginning though they reported
during the interview that they did not know about any
training. The researcher, however, had to make extra
efforts to keep them involved the process. On

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occasions, they were a little too worried about their

scores and did not participate in classroom interactions
and video-analysis sessions. For such students, the
researcher posted oral questions on Voicethread. Most
of the students responded to those questions, though
they took a little extra time.

Conclusion

The current study made use of the available resources

and the institutional freedom to address a relevant and
recurrent problem often faced by ESL teachers. Though
the study was conducted with a privileged group of
students in an elite institution, the findings are
nonetheless quite encouraging. In addition, it can be
replicated in other professional colleges and
universities across India. It is hoped that the study will
aid teachers in improving their students’ language
ability by training them (students) to utilize their
(teachers’) feedback.

References

Cohen, A.D., Weaver, S., & Li, T-Y. (1998). The impact
of strategies-based instruction on speaking a
foreign language. In A.D. Cohen (Ed.), Strategies
in learning and using a second language (pp.
107-156). London: Longman.

Gass, S. M., & Varonis, E. M. (1994). Input, interaction,

and second language production.Studies in
Second Language Acquisition,16 , 283-302.

Kirkwood, M. (2005). Learning to think: Thinking to

learn: An introduction to thinking skills
from nursery to secondary. UK: Hodden Gibson.

Mackey, A. (2006). Feedback, noticing and instructed

second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 27
(3), 405–430.

McCarthy, C. P. (1998). Learner training for learner

autonomy on summer language courses. The
Internet TESL Journal, 4 (7). Retrieved from
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/McCarthy-
Autonomy.html (http://iteslj.org/Techniques
/McCarthy-Autonomy.html).

Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction.

Educational Technology Research
and Development, 50 (3), 43-59.

Rossiter, M. J. (2003). "It's like chicken but bigger":

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Effects of communication strategy in the ESL

classroom. Canadian Modern Language Review,
60 (2), 105-121.

santosh@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in
(mailto:santosh@hyderabad.bits-
pilani.ac.in)

Santosh Kumar Mahapatra is a

Faculty Member at BITS Pilani,
Hyderabad Campus.

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