Effectiveness Of Teacher’s Feedback On Web-based Autonomous Listening

With the development of technology and the increasing needs of society, profoundchanges have taken place in the learning environment of college English. Teachers andstudents experience from traditional class to web-based class, from teacher’s leading in thewhole process to student’s autonomous learning. As for teachers, all kinds of teachingproblems brought by the change of the learning environment are worth thinking. How toadapt to the new environment and how to play an effective role are the problems both teachersand students should be faced up to in this transitional period. This empirical study laysparticular emphasis on the effectiveness of teacher feedback on web-based college Englishautonomous listening in order to explore how teacher can play his role effectively and whatproblems students have. That is, how teacher gives feedback for the purpose of promotingstudents’ web-based autonomous listening competence. Feedback in this paper mainlyfocuses on teacher feedback on the performance of students. According to students’performance of online listening quizzes and their listening practices, teacher gives themface-to-face feedback from the aspect of listening methods and skills. As for the questionsraised by students in the process of web-based autonomous listening learning, teachercommunicates with students and gives feedback to them through internet teaching platformand e-mail. Types of teacher feedback in this study include explicit corrective feedback andevaluative feedback. Research questions are:1. After giving face-to-face teacher feedback on the quizzes in eight units experimentalclass completes, pre-test and post-test experimental class finishes, supplemented listeningpractices experimental class takes, and providing teacher feedback for students’ questionsthrough internet teaching platform and e-mail, can the mean score experimental class gets inpost-test be higher than the one control class gets?2. Can web-based autonomous listening learning competence of experimental class behigher than that of control class?3. Compared with control class, how teacher feedback affects the students at highproficiency level, at medium proficiency level and at low proficiency level in experimentalclass differently in their web-based autonomous listening learning and what are the web-basedautonomous listening learning results in control class? Through two semesters’ teaching experiment of teacher feedback, all together115non-English major sophomores of two classes in Northwest Sci-Tech University ofAgriculture and Forestry are involved. In the first semester, both of these two classes receiveteacher feedback. At the end of the first semester, they are examined on listening and theirscores are regarded as the scores of pre-test. After these two classes are randomly named asexperimental class and control class, in the second semester, teacher feedback is only carriedout in experimental class. At the end of the second semester, experimental class and controlclass are both examined by post-test on listening. Questionnaires are used at the end of thefirst semester and at the end of the second semester. After finishing post-test,30students(randomly chosen according to their listening scores after their average scores of pre-test andpost-test are divided by high proficiency level, medium proficiency level and low proficiencylevel) coming from experimental class and control class are interviewed. In this study, teacherdiary is also used to record the detailed information about the performance of students inweb-based autonomous learning class and the reaction of students in the process of teacherfeedback. The content design of questionnaires and interviews focuses on the researchquestions and three elements in Little (1991)’s definition of autonomy are employed.SPSS16.0is used to analyze the quantitative data got in pre-test, post-test and questionnaires.In addition, the results of interviews and teacher diary are also researched qualitatively. Themajor findings can be summarized as follows:1. The results of the analysis in the global scores and the scores in the part of compounddictation in pre-test and post-test prove that explicit corrective teacher feedback andevaluative teacher feedback have some effects on students’ web-based autonomous listeninglearning. Although they did not bring great changes in experimental class’ post-test scores,the mean of experimental class’ post-test scores is significantly higher than that ofcontrol class’ post-test scores. Besides, control class’ mean score in post-test decreasessignificantly.2. The results of the questionnaires analysis prove that explicit corrective teacherfeedback and evaluative teacher feedback can affect students’ competence of learningcontents and methods determination and learning objectives and goals determination slightly.They have more effects on students’ competence of learning objectives and goalsdetermination than on their competence of learning contents and methods determination. Theycan affect students’ competence of self-assessment greatly.3. The results of the interviews analysis prove that compared with explicit correctiveteacher feedback and evaluative teacher feedback conducted for one semester, explicitcorrective teacher feedback and evaluative teacher feedback conducted for two semesters can make the students of high proficiency, medium proficiency and low proficiency inexperimental class become more active in web-based autonomous listening learning. Explicitcorrective teacher feedback and evaluative teacher feedback conducted for one semester canhelp the students enhance their competence of learning contents and methods determinationgreatly. For the students of medium proficiency and low proficiency in experimental class,explicit corrective teacher feedback and evaluative teacher feedback conducted for twosemesters are very beneficial for them on the aspect of learning methods. For the students ofhigh proficiency and low proficiency in experimental class, explicit corrective teacherfeedback and evaluative teacher feedback conducted for two semesters can also enhance theircompetence of self-assessment. In control class, without explicit corrective teacher feedbackand evaluative teacher feedback in the second semester, control class’ learning autonomy andleaning initiative both decrease significantly. Compared with the students of mediumproficiency and low proficiency in control class, the learning autonomy of the students ofhigh proficiency in control class is comparatively high. They took more positive learningattitudes and had more great learning initiative.4. The analysis results of the interviews, teacher diary and the questionnaires indicatethat the significant difference of post-test scores between experimental class and control classlies in the competence of self-assessment and learning attitudes. This proves the importanceof having strong competence of self-assessment and keeping active learning attitudes inweb-based autonomous listening learning. The indistinctive change in experimental class’post-test scores indicates that in order to further increase the effectiveness of teacher feedbackin web-based autonomous listening learning, explicit corrective teacher feedback andevaluative teacher feedback should be carried out constantly according to the needs of thestudents at different proficiency levels and the means of teacher feedback the students prefer.It is also necessary to combine face-to-face teacher feedback and teacher feedback throughinternet more effectively. Besides, the students need to correct their improper listeningmethods and learning attitudes with the help of teacher.The research findings mentioned above show that although most students desire forteacher feedback during the course of web-based autonomous listening learning and want toenhance their listening proficiency level, they lack better autonomous learning competence atthe same time. Students’ web-based autonomous listening learning is not mature and problemsstill exist in their listening methods and learning attitudes. During the transitional period ofweb-based autonomous learning, in order to get better learning results, trying to reach thebalance between the learning environment and the students’ autonomous learning competenceis quite important. The main learning objective of most students in web-based autonomous learning class is to pass examinations. They would not like to spend time and energy tomemorize everyday words and expressions. Therefore, teacher’s supervision, guidance andhelp should not be ignored. Explicit corrective teacher feedback and evaluative teacherfeedback have some effects on students’ web-based autonomous listening learningcompetence and can strengthen their learning initiative. On the other hand, the students needto exert their learning autonomy and combine web-based autonomous listening learning withproper learning methods and active learning attitudes.