What is giving feedback?

Feedback is giving information to someone about

their learning and/or showing them that you have
understood (or not) what they have said. In the
classroom, teachers can give feedback to learners,
and learners can give feedback to the teacher.

When teachers give feedback to learners, they give

them information about their learning. Teacher
feedback can focus on:
• learners’ language or skills
• the ideas in their work
• their behaviour
• their attitude to learning
• their progress.
 What is giving feedback?
• Sometimes we give feedback to the whole class, at other times we give feedback to
small groups or individual learners.

• We can give oral feedback or written feedback.

• The purposes of feedback are
• to motivate learners
• to encourage learner autonomy
• to help learners understand what their problems are and how they can
improve.

• When learners give feedback to each other on aspects of their learning this is
called peer feedback.

• Learners can also give feedback to teachers, for example on different aspects of the
course and the lessons, such as materials, methodology (methods and procedures)
and activities used in class.
GIVING FEEDBACK

Oral Feedback:
Well done! That was very good!
It was much better than the last
time. You really thought about
the presentation.

Focus:

Purpose:
GIVING FEEDBACK

Oral Feedback:
Well done! That was very good!
It was much better than the last
time. You really thought about
the presentation.

Focus:
Progress, Effor and Achievement.

Purpose:
Encouraging the learner and
telling him she did well. (Praising).
GIVING FEEDBACK

Oral Feedback:
Have another look at number 4.
There’s a problem with spelling
and I think there are more than
two people.

Focus:

Purpose:
GIVING FEEDBACK

Oral Feedback:
Have another look at number 4.
There’s a problem with spelling
and I think there are more than
two people.

Focus:
Language and content

Purpose:
Identifying where there was a
problem and prompting what the
learner needs to do to correct his
own answer.
GIVING FEEDBACK
Written Feedback:
What an amazing story! You’ve
used adjectives very well this
time, but there were a few
problems with past tenses. Have
a look at the irregular verb list at
the back of the text book.

Focus:

Purpose:
GIVING FEEDBACK
Written Feedback:
What an amazing story! You’ve used
adjectives very well this time, but there
were a few problems with past tenses.
Have a look at the irregular verb list at
the back of the text book.
Focus:
Content, ideas, language, both
strengths and weaknesses.
Purpose:
Giving personal response to the piece of
work in order to encourage the learner
identifying a positive aspect of the work
and also giving exact information about
one problem area and about where the
learner could find reference material.
GIVING FEEDBACK
Written Feedback:
B/70%. Have a look at gramar
section 5 at the back of the
coursebook and check again
the difference in meaning
between the past simple and
the past perfect.

Focus:

Purpose:
GIVING FEEDBACK
Written Feedback:
B/70%. Have a look at gramar
section 5 at the back of the
coursebook and check again
the difference in meaning
between the past simple and
the past perfect.
Focus:
Language
Purpose:
Giving a grade and informing the
learner of what the problem was
with their work and telling them
exactly what they need to review
and how.
GIVING FEEDBACK TO
THE TEACHER

Teachers can also elicit feedback from

their learners. This feedback can
give information on whether learners like
what they are doing, whether they are
interested in the materials or activities, or
whether they are having problems with the
language. Learners can also make
suggestions for materials and activities to
use.
 PEER FEEDBACK

Learners can also give feedback to their

classmates. This is called peer
feedback. Peer feedback can be oral or
written, and can cover the same focus
areas as teacher feedback. Peer
feedback is useful for all learners. The
learners who give the feedback reflect
on (think about) the work their
classmates have done. The learners
who receive feedback are given
information on how they can improve.
 TOP T IPS / T IP TOPS

• Wherever possible, feedback should be balanced, focused and helpful. It needs to

be balanced so that there is comment on positive aspects of a learner’s work as well as areas
he/she needs to improve; focused so that the learner knows exactly what the good points are
and what the problems are; helpful so that the learner knows what steps to take to improve.
This is particularly important for weaker or less confident learners.

• Feedback can be given at different stages of a lesson, for example at the beginning of the
lesson when we comment on work we have marked, during an activity, while we monitor
learners doing pairwork or group work, at the end of an activity when we tell learners how
they did, or correct their common errors at the end of or after the lesson when we are marking
some written work.

• During class or individual feedback it is possible to revisit or recycle language that learners are
having problems with, by providing learners with written exercises, or by including the
language for review in an oral activity in the following lesson.
 TOP T IPS / T IP TOPS

• Small-group feedback sessions are useful for the teacher and learners to give and receive
feedback on classes and on teaching and learning.

• Feedback which is particularly personal or sensitive should be given to

learners privately and not in front of the whole class.

• Written or oral feedback can be given to learners after formal assessment in addition to a
mark or grade. This feedback should include guidance on how learners can improve their
work.

• Learner diaries provide teachers with an opportunity for individual, private two-way
feedback (learner to teacher as well as teacher to learner).
 TOP T IPS / T IP TOPS

• Learners often need guidance to help them provide teachers with feedback. If we say to
learners, for example, “Write some feedback for me about the lesson and about your
learning styles in your learner diaries. You have ten minutes,’ it is likely that learners will not
be able to provide much useful feedback because the task is too general. It is better to
give learners guidance or a framework to work with. For example, we can review the
activities in the lesson, what they did in each activity and the types of interaction. We
can then ask learners to write about which activities they preferred and why. Over a
number of lessons we can introduce other elements so that learners become more
familiar with reflection and with giving feedback.