Unit 6: Student Feedback

The ability to give good, constructive feedback is essential for student motivation and performance.

1. What do we mean by the term ‘feedback’?

Feedback is information that is given to the learner about her performance of a learning task, usually with the
objective of improving performance. While such feedback is generally verbal, your body language can also
provide the student clues about her performance.

The main purposes of feedback are:

 to motivate learners when they are doing well

 to help them understand what their problems are and how they can improve when they are not doing
so well

Some examples of feedback in language teaching might be:

 Yes, right! to a learner who has answered a question correctly

 An arched eyebrow in response to a mistake in grammar
 Comments written in the margin of an essay
 An Almost; do you want to try again? to a student who may not have provided a correct or full answer
to an exercise

Feedback can focus on learners' language or skills, the ideas in their work, their behaviour, their attitude
towards learning, or their progress. Sometimes we give feedback to the whole class, while at other times we
give feedback to small groups or individual learners.

2. Importance of constructive feedback

It’s critical that your feedback is constructive and not destructive.

Remember these key points:

 Feedback is a way of students learning more about themselves and the effect their behaviour has on
others.
 Constructive feedback increases self-awareness, offers guidance and encourages development, so it is
important to learn how to give it. Constructive feedback does not mean only giving positive feedback
(praise). Negative or critical feedback given constructively and skilfully can be very important and
useful.
 Destructive feedback, which is negative feedback given in an unskilled way, generally leaves the
recipient feeling bad with seemingly nothing on which to build and no useful information to use for
learning.

Here’s how to give constructive feedback to achieve a positive outcome:

Start with the positive

Students need encouragement, to be told when they are doing something well. When offering feedback, it can
really help the student to hear first what they have done well. It is often common for the giver of feedback to
emphasise the negative, therefore the focus is likely to be on mistakes more often than successes.

In a rush to criticise, we may overlook the things we liked. If the positive is registered first, any negative is
more likely to be listened to and acted upon.

Be specific

Try to avoid general comments which are not useful when it comes to developing skills. Statements such
as You were brilliant! or It was not so good! may be pleasant or upsetting to hear, but they don't give enough
detail to be useful sources of learning.

Try to pin-point what the student did that led you to use the label of brilliant or not so good:

Brilliant: The way you introduced your point just at that moment was really helpful and enabled us to resolve
that issue more quickly.

Not so good: By responding in that way you seemed to want to impose your opinions on the rest of the class.

Specific feedback gives more opportunity for learning.

Refer to behaviour that can be changed

It is not likely to be helpful to give a student feedback about something over which they have no choice or
control; in fact, it may be frustrating and even de-motivating.

Seek/offer alternatives

If you do give negative feedback then try to turn it into a learning opportunity by asking the student what they
could have done differently, or will do differently next time. It is always more powerful to get ideas coming
from the student.

However, if they are struggling to think what they could have done differently, offer some suggestions.

Be descriptive rather than evaluative

This is expanding on 'be specific'. Describing what you saw or heard and/or the effect it had on you is much
more powerful than just giving a judgement i.e. the way you kept calm, quiet and focussed during that
situation helped everyone cope rather than you handled that situation well.

Own the feedback

It’s easy to say to the student You are…, suggesting that you are offering a universally agreed opinion about
her rather than an individual one. It is important that you take responsibility for the feedback you offer.

Begin with I think … or I feel that...to avoid being the giver of a general opinion which you don't own.

Leave the recipient with a choice

Feedback which demands change or is imposed on the student may invite resistance, and is not consistent with
a belief in each of us being personally autonomous. Skilled feedback offers students information about
themselves; it leaves them with a choice about whether to act or how to act.

It can help to examine the consequences of any decision to change or not to change, but does not involve
prescribing change.

3. Different types of feedback

Key points:

 We can give feedback to individual learners or groups of learners.

 Feedback can be oral or written.
 Feedback can be linked to formal or informal assessment and can be given to learners in the classroom
or during individual meetings.
 You can also write regular feedback in the form of comments, grades or marks on a learner's record
sheet. You can use this feedback when you make your end-of-course assessment.
 When learners give feedback to one another, this is called peer feedback.
 Peer feedback is useful for all learners. The learners who give the feedback reflect on the work of their
classmates. The learners who receive feedback are given information on how they can improve. The
learners are often guided by a feedback observation sheet.
 Peer feedback can have a positive effect on classroom dynamics and can help to train learners in skills
they need to become autonomous.
 Young learners, though, are not able to give very detailed peer feedback because they are not yet able
to think about their classmates' work very carefully.
 Learners can also give you feedback about the lessons, activities and materials. They can tell you
when they like what they are doing and when they are not so interested in the materials or activities, or
when they are having problems with the language. They can also make suggestions for materials and
activities to use. Be open to this.

Summary and some examples

When we talk about feedback we don’t just mean writing ‘well done’ at the end of a student’s written
homework.

Although written feedback is essential, oral feedback can be equally constructive.

We as teachers need to comment (in a variety of ways) on the students’ work, their language skills, their
progress and their attitude not only in order to help them understand their weaker areas and give them the tools
to improve but also to praise good work/behaviour and give them the motivation to continue in that vein.

Giving useful feedback is an essential part of how you manage a class and allows the students to know
that their individual learning is being monitored whilst being encouraged by gaining an understanding
of how they can constantly develop.

As far as the option of not giving feedback at all is concerned, what is the difference between this and the
teacher leaving the classroom for the duration of the activity?

Learners expect the teacher to listen to them and the vast majority will welcome feedback and error correction,
if such correction is constructive and comes at an appropriate point in the lesson. They expect their written
work to be corrected so why not their spoken language?
Feedback, whether written or oral, should aim to be balanced and useful. This can be by praising an
achievement and identifying an area of weakness (with specific information on how to get better) or by
praising current efforts compared to past errors.

The comments given should also concentrate on one or two specific fields to give the learner direction and
avoid confusing them. This could include any of the following:

 Language
 Content
 Progress
 Effort
 Behaviour
 Achievement
 A few examples…
 Oral: “I’m not sure all of you have fully understood today’s grammar point, let’s go over it again
together on the board.”
Written: “Well done, excellent use of prepositions in your work, now just focus on using the past
simple and past perfect correctly. Have another look at the last chapter in the textbook and make sure
you know when to use each.”
 1. The feedback here focuses on…?

 
 A. Progress

 
 B. Achievement

 
 C. Language
 Check answer
 Correct


 Oral: “You’ve understood that exercise really well, the pairwork was much better than last time.”
Written: “81%! Excellent that’s a whole grade higher than your last story, I can see you’ve really
taken on board the comments I gave you last time.”
 1. The feedback here focuses on…?

 
 A. Behaviour

 
 B. Effort

 
 C. Achievement
 Check answer
 Correct


 Oral: “Some great ideas came out of your brainstorming session but quite a few people weren’t
speaking English at times! Remember to try and express your thoughts in English as much as possible,
even if it takes that bit longer.”
Written: “What you’ve done so far is good but the work is incomplete: make sure that you’re
focusing on the task during the lesson rather than chatting to your partner and if you’re struggling to
get the activity done in the set time then don’t be afraid to ask for clarification.”
 1. Mrs Smith, who is very nosy, lives in the house with the blue door.

 
 A. Behaviour

 
 B. Effort

 
 C. Achievement
 Check answer
 Correct


 Peer feedback
Another way of giving your students feedback is by asking them to assess each other (constructively!).
For example, while one student is giving a presentation, you can get the others to make notes on the
successful aspects as well as highlighting any areas for improvement. This helps to engage the
students and actively involve them in a task where they would otherwise be passive listeners. It also
helps them to think about their own work and allows them to feel more secure that they aren’t the only
ones who ever make mistakes.
 To do this you need a relatively mature class, however, and watch for any feedback which is unhelpful
rather than constructive.
 Remind students that this is a time to reflect on each other’s learning and facilitate their peers’
improvement, not to just criticise.
 Shy students may find it especially difficult to tell their classmates about the weaker areas of their
work. If you think this might be the case in your class then it is useful to prepare a handout asking the
students to make notes on certain areas, for example structure, fluidity of speech etc. rather than just
general comments.
 Young learners may also find it too difficult to assess their contemporaries effectively because they
aren’t always able to think properly about their classmate’s work.
 The way you use feedback should be tailored to the particular group and to the individuals in it
but remember that it should always be fair, focused and constructive.