How To Use Feedback Properly for English Teachers

                        广西桂林 吕老師 541004

  Abstract: The feedback from teachers is an important part of classroom teaching, and the class terms of feedback from teachers is also an important part of teachers’ speech.Therefore ,whether or not teachers use the terms of feedback properly can influence students’passion of pursuing knowledge directly.This essay only introduce the principles that teachers must abide by while using the words of feedback to arouse students’learning willingness.

   Key words:feedback;influence;principles;arouse

Feedback is important to students to be highly motivated in their learning.It lets students know how to do and how much progress has been made.So whether or not teachers give feeedback properly can influence students’learning willingness very much. This probably seems obvious, but teachers sometimes fail to give feedback.

During the teaching practice,the writer made a research on using feedback words of teachers according to making three records to three teachers’classes.The three teachers,one of them is an excellent teacher,the other is an common teacher,and the third is a student teacher.The contents of the records include the times of students’performances and answers , the times of teachers’feedback and the forms of the feedback from teachers. After counting up and analyzing, the writer got the final data of the records in the following table:

From the table we can see the times of the students’performances and answers are nearly the same,but the excellent theacher gave feedback every time and use different feedback English.Comparatively,the common teacher and the student teacher didn’t give enough feedback.According to the records, the feedback from the excellent teacher are various and detailed,but the common teacher and the student teacher always use simple words such as“Right”“Excellent”“Good”,they fail to give detailed feedback,especially to backward students.

Feedback can make students and teachers know the process of teaching learning,it is the baton of classroom teaching.All of the people hope hope to give a proper assessment to him, especially to the youth.While students make progress or succeed,they want teachers to give them praise and share their gracefulness,while they make mistakes or can not answer some questions,they need teachers help them and give some proper feedback,encourage them.But some teachers don’t pay attention to or usually neglect students’feelings and individualities.It makes the feedback useless or even negative,also students would be bored to answer question and fear to learn English.

Feedback has motivational effects.The aim of teachers’feedback is to motivate students’learning earness,reinforce students’competitive awearness.To use the teachers’feedback one must consider students’individualities,students’current capabilities and the proper moment one.That is to say,theacher who give feedback must obey the following principles.

I.Motivational principle

Verbal praise and encouragement are a more usefulway to stimulate students’learning impetus than criticism and scolding.They are also approval from teachers to students’achievement and learning attitudes.The pleasure brought by success a great emotion power.Youths want to be good students just because of the power.While teachers are enthusiastic to encourage students,the students will be more creative.

1.1 Theacher’s Feedback should aim at students learning attitudes and process but not at the result.

In the writer’s records record of the three teachers’classes,the student teacher’s feedback include only “Good” “Excellent” those kinds of simple words,and didn’t point out where students did well.This make students feel teachers’verbal praise is not sincere and not dear.While students made mistakes,the student teacher and the common teacherusually said:“Oh,no,this should be…”They only gave the correct answers to the students and didn’t express where the students were wrong. These kinds of feedback are not concrete not clear enough and students can not adjust their learning according to the teachers’s feedback.The feedback becomes useless.Comparatively,the excellent teacher can give a short but concrete feedback,he can catch students’points to give feedback: “Very good, your pronunciation is excellent.”“You made a beautiful sentence.”When student made mistakes,the excellent teacher usually said:“You are on the right lines.But the pronoun is plural.So what is verb?”The students get this kind of feedback would be more interested in learning and make more progress.Theachers give feedback just in order to maintainand improve students’activities to the teaching and learning.If students only get little acknowledgement from teachers’simple feedback for a long time,they will lose willingness their to learn.

1.2 Teachers should encourage students to have different opinions.

Some teachers like to redress the different answers or opinions of students.They always want students to give the same answers or opinions as the test.In dealing with students’new opinions different to the test,the teachers don’t give a positive agreement and encouragement.This makes students to give the answers which teacher want but not their own creations.As a result students don’t need to think by themselves any more.This act usually destroysstudents creativeness and students would lose their probing of new knowledge.Theachers should be lenient and able to accept different opinions.While students have different answers or opinions,teachers should encourage them to speak out reasonably reasons.Even if the reasons are not reasonable or objectivel enough,teachers should give positive feedback:“Your idea is new and interesting.” “Your answer is quite different but you seem to have thought the question deeply.”It is good to encourage students and cultivate their critical consciousness.

II. Theacher’s Feedback should aim at different kinds of students

Psychologically,every student has different individuality,and the capabilities are different.In order to get the efficientcy of the feedback,teachers should aim at students’ individuality and current capabilities.Teachers give the same praise or criticism to all students can make students feel teachers don’t think highly of them,the feedback as useless.Students with dissimilar category should be given different kinds of feedback from teachers.

2.1 Low-confidence students need much encouragement.

To low-confidence students,they always feel nervous whilr answering questions or playing performances in the class,and would make more or less errors.At this moment,teachers should not scold them.On the contrary,reachers should firstly try to find students good points to encourage them,speak some motivational English:“You are better than last time.You do a good jop in pronunciation.”“Your intonation is perfect. ”That does not mean avoid the the students’errors.To this kind of students,teachers should be more careful to redress their errors.Giving feedback to this kind of students,one must stress their continuous progress relative to previous levels of mastery rather than how they compare with other students or with standardized test norms.They would not like to be compared with other students who are better than them.Teachers’feedback should avoid comparing among the students.

2.2 Strengthening student’s sense of their self-esteem while they make errors,teachers should not scold them either.

Relieve the students’ nervousness and encourage them speak out the answers are teachers’ first work.This kind of students easily feel hurt from other’s a heart-absent words or even an expression in eyes.So teachers should be careful in giving feedback.Use more of these:“It doesn’t matter,think it over.”“If you are more careful,I’m sure you can do it better.”To express teachers trust in them.For example,in the records of the excellent teacher’s class,the teacher asked a student to make a sentence with “stop(verb).”The student said:“There is a bus stop near the park.”The teacher did not criticize him immediately and said:“You sentence is right.It is another meaning of ‘stop’.I want you to use it as a verb.Try again.”The student got the feedback and understood the requirement,he said:“The bus always stops at the bus stop.”

The students with strong self-esteem are very sensitive,teachers’ feedback should avoid unproperitive.

2.3 Backward students should also be taken seriously about.

Because of many failures,students who are backward in their learning always think themselves are stupid and can never catch others even work harder.They will lose confidence in their learning.In this case,teachers’feedback should be enthusiastic and full of love,and never make students think that teachers’praise and encouragement are cheap and just in order to dominate them to learn English.If they make some errors,teachers should give them some prompting in the feedback and sometimes to think over,say:“Think for a moment.”“Try it again.Don’t give up.”“You are half way there”etc.If the student have tried their best,even their answers are not completely correct,teacher should also confirm their good point.For example,a teacher asks some students to make sentences with ‘few’and ‘little’.A backward student answered:“There is few milk in the bottle.”and“There are little apples in the basket.”The teacher didn’t redress the sentences immediately but said:“Look at my desk.There is little water in my glass,but there are few pens in my bag .So,think it over,how should you say your sentences?”The backward student got the prompting from the teacher and gave the right answer quickly.In this way ,students can get deeper impression about the right answers and get a great encouragement.

2.4 Top students also need praise

There is a wrong concept that top students do not need praise.Sometimes,teachers’criticisms can change into a motivation to top students and arouse them work harder.But this doesn’t mean top students don’t like to be praise.Everyone has some sorts of vanity of being praise.To students,whili they are praised,they get a satisfaction of vanity,and then they know doing this kind of things can be praised,they will do better next time.So praise is a more efficient way to arouse top students study.Also,top students can thinkwidely,teachers should not only give positive feedback but also advance higher expectations,ask them to say more than the test,give more feedback like this:“You are right.But can you say more?”“Your sentences are perfect.Can you give more?”

III.Opportune Principle

Teachers should catch the opportune moment to give feedback according to the learning contents.While doing drill in oral-English.Tewachers’feedback should be prompt.Teachers should give approval feedback when students do well so as to strengthen their confidence and bring them pleasure.It is good for students to speak target language more fluently.But if studentshave difficulty or some errorsin dialogue or oral practices,teachers’feedback should be prudent.

3.1 While students’coherent speaking or dialogue can not go on,teachers should give feedback immediately.

When students tell stories about pictures,retell the text,or practise dialogue,if they could not get the right point of the requirement,they would go other side.At this moment,it is very necessary for teachers to repeat the requirement immediately.While one of the speakers can not understand his partner and has no response,the speaker will keep silence and the dialogue could not be continued.Teachers must give some immediate prompting to avoid embarrassment and delay.For example,a pair of students role-play using future tense.

Student A:What are you going to do tomorrow?

Student B:I’m going to the zoo/su:/.

(Here,student Bmade an error in the pronunciation Zoo/zu:/,student A could not understand.Both of them stop talking).At this moment,the teacher interferes:“The zoo?Are there a lot of animals?”Student B :“Yes .”Student A gets the point of the answer,they continue their dialogue fluently.

3.2 Sometimes teachers should minimize disruption

While students make some errors in pronunciation,grammar or words in their answers, some teachers often take notes of every error and then redress or frequentlydisrupt students’answers.This kind of actions are usually less advantageous.Though student’s several errors are redressed,their self-esteem is attacked,This“very error must be redressed,”ignore the different learning contents and the differences of learning rules,despite what kinds of practices students do.This is not the acquistition theory of foreign language on Monitor hypothesis.A study by Hulstijin shows that when a person speaks a foreign language,if he put his attention in grammar,his expression speed would go down 30 percent,and the information amount willdrop 14 percent.His speech soundsis not continous,and makes listenersboring.This also reinteract the speaker,he gets a heavy pressure and speaks worse.If this situationlast for a long time,the students will lose the interest of answering questions or role-play.Usually,as long as students’grammar mistakes or pronunciations do not effect listeners’understanding,teachers should seldom redress in the class.For example,a pair of students practise dialogue,student A says:“He goes to school.”When he is supposedto use the present form.He makes a grammatical error but his partner understands him and go on their drill.Teachers can point out after they finish their conversation but not to disrupt their practice.If teachers disrupt,students would become nervous and can not do the rest well.

IV. Teachers should pay attention to the feedback speed and the feedback density

In order to get a better coordination with other teaching method,improve class-room teaching’s efficiency and quality and give full play to students’activity,teachersshould also pay attention to the feedback speed and the feedback density.

4.1 Speed-Teachers’feedback English speed can affect students’spirits of ansering and performing.

Teachers want to improve the teaching efficiency and quality must get full use of the time of the classroom so teachers must pay attention to cultivate students’speed of anwsering and performing .In this case,teachers should have a sensitivityof giving a quick and fluentfeedback.It should not be broken or indistinck.If 80% students could not get the information from teachers’feedback,then teachers could not coordinate students’activities well.Usually,teachers give a fluent feedback to can keep a tense and active atmosphere in the classroom for teaching and learning and students’attention in the class.Students can acquire ability in oral English arround such a surrounding.

4.2 Density-Teachers’feedback must be able to keep most student in practice of oral English.

Language teaching must pay attention to oral practice.Students have more opportunities to practise,they are quick in using target language.Teachers feedback should not only aim at top students,and put the middle level and backward students in a “forgotten corner”.It will make students be averse to teachers.Teachers should try best to give feedback every tiome after students’answering or performance.This can not only cultivate students’good habit in answering and participating in teaching,but also avoid polarization of students.

Conclusion

Teachers’feedback is so important to students learning.Feedback from teachers has great impact on students’activityof participation into classroom activities.Teachers must use feedback to express their concern,love,instructions,expectations to students,and form a good relationaship with students.Teachers must have abundant psychological knowledge,study every student’s individuality,improve their own full-scale qualities.Only in this way can teachers master feedback well.

参考文献

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[2]胡春洞.英语课堂没面面谈[M].湖南大学出版社

[3]王才仁.英语教学交际论[M].广西教育出版社

[4]徐章英.教学反馈与测试分析[M].电子工业出版社

[5]颜震华.教育激励的理论与实践[M].吉林大学出版社

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