Feedback Matters: Current Feedback Practices in the EFL Classroom

200 Pages·2013·2.324 MB·English

by  Margit Reitbauer, Nancy Campbell, Sarah Mercer, Jennifer Schumm Fauster

Feedback Matters

Margit Reitbauer / Nancy Campbell / Sarah Mercer /
Jennifer Schumm Fauster / Renate Vaupetitsch (eds.)
Feedback Matters
Current Feedback Practices
in the EFL Classroom
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche
Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the
internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
The publication of this book was made possible
by the generous financial support of Graz University, Austria
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Feedback matters : current feedback practices in the EFL classroom /
Margit Reitbauer, Nancy Campbell, Sarah Mercer, Jennifer Schumm
Fauster, Renate Vaupetitsch (eds.). — Peter Lang Edition.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-3-631-64316-7 — ISBN 978-3-653-03442-4 (E-Book)
1. English language—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers. 2. Eng-
lish language—Spoken English. 3. Classrooms—Psychological aspects.
4. Feedback (Psychology) 5. Psycholinguistics. I. Reitbauer, Margit,
editor of compilation.
PE1128.A2F35 2013
428.0071—dc23
2013022667
ISBN 978-3-631-64316-7 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-03442-4 (E-Book)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-03442-4
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Frankfurt am Main 2013
All rights reserved.
Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH.
Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York ·
Oxford · Warszawa · Wien
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any
utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to
prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions,
translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in
electronic retrieval systems.
www.peterlang.de
This book is dedicated to our colleague, David Newby, who has inspired
generations of students, teachers and teacher trainers in Austria and abroad.

Contents
Chapter 1: A Global Perspective on Feedback
Guenther Sigott ................................................................................. 9
Chapter 2: Praising to Learn: Learning to Praise
Sarah Mercer and Stephen Ryan .................................................... 21
Chapter 3: Corrective Feedback in the Constructivist Classroom
Margit Reitbauer and Renate Vaupetitsch ...................................... 37
Chapter 4: Learner-centred Feedback on Writing: Feedback as Dialogue
Nancy Campbell and Jennifer Schumm Fauster ............................. 55
Chapter 5: Peer Reviewing in a Collaborative Teaching and Learning
Environment
Anja Burkert and Johannes Wally .................................................. 69
Chapter 6: Web-based Peer Feedback from the Students’ Perspective
Irena Meštrovi� Štajduhar .............................................................. 87
Chapter 7: Online Peer Review in the Teaching of Academic Business
Writing
Ian Clark....................................................................................... 103
Chapter 8: Feedback in Student Writing: A Closer Look at Code-
Marking
Martina Elicker and Ulla Fürstenberg ..........................................117
Chapter 9: Student Responses to Feedback on the Use of Sources
Alma Jahi� .................................................................................... 141
Chapter 10: Giving Feedback on EFL Learner Presentations
Michael Phillips and Nick Scott ................................................... 159
7
Chapter 11: Feedback on Pronunciation
Ingrid Pfandl-Buchegger, Isabel Landsiedler and
Milena Insam ................................................................................ 177
Index of Authors ............................................................................................... 197

8
Chapter 11: Feedback on Pronunciation Chapter 1
Ingrid Pfandl-Buchegger, Isabel Landsiedler and
A Global Perspective on Feedback
Milena Insam ................................................................................ 177
Index of Authors ............................................................................................... 197 Guenther Sigott

1. Introduction
In this first chapter, I would like to outline some of the key developments in the
field of assessment and feedback to help position the papers in this volume. I will
begin by answering the question of what feedback is or can be, considering in
particular the wide range of possible forms and types of feedback that exist. In
the next section, I outline the roles of norms of underlying linguistic competence
and the historical development of various ways of describing competences and
scales in assessment. I then focus in detail on specific examples of scales such as
the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (online 1)
and the Austrian educational standards for English reading (online 2). The final
section presents an overview of the chapters in this volume, indicating how each
chapter addresses key issues in feedback.
2. What is Feedback?
No matter what approach to teaching one is inclined to follow, teaching always
essentially proceeds through three stages. The process starts by the instructor
providing some kind of input. This may be acoustic, visual or a combination of
both. The students are then given the opportunity to use or produce language.
Finally, they receive feedback on the language they produce or on the informa-
tion they have retrieved or constructed from the language input.
Feedback can be provided in different formats. It may be more formalised,
when based on the results of a diagnostic test, or it may be more spontaneous,
taking the form of observations on a piece of writing or an instance of oral pro-
duction. Feedback may come from instructors or from peers (as in peer reviewing),
and can be negative or positive. Negative feedback points out features of the
learner’s language use which do not conform to a norm. Positive feedback, by
contrast, focuses on those aspects of the learner’s language use which fulfil ex-
pectations and established norms.
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