Teacher Classroom Feedback And EFL Learners' Affect

The study reported in this thesis is out of concerns of the author as a language teacherabout students' affective problems in English study and her research interest in theimpact that teacher classroom behaviors exert on student affect. The conceptualframework of the study has been formed under the influence of a number of importanttheories of education and second language acquisition study. They are humanisticeducation theory, second language acquisition theories, social interaction theory andconstructivist theory of learning, the main ideas of all of which are reviewed in thethesis. Based on the theoretical and empirical literature review, a research is proposedwhich is aimed at examining whether and how teacher feedback modifications lead tostudents' affect enhancement and how teacher's beliefs and knowledge change at thesame time.The experimental study, which is a multi-case study and bears the features of actionresearch, is conducted under a working model of three modules: problemidentification, action and interaction, and outcome assessment.The participants involve both a teacher and six students she is teaching, three beingGLLs and the others ULLs; and the teacher who experiment with various feedbackforms is the researcher herself.Instruments for data collection include questionnaires, structured interview, anddiaries.The study is carried out in three steps: identification of problems at the beginning ofthe semester, adjustment and refection around the midterm, and further adjustmentand further reflection after midterm.The study lasted about four months, and came to the following conclusions: Individual student has his individual preference for teacher feedback forms, whilemost of them prefer positive and specific feedback from teacher. The adjustment of teacher feedback to cater to student needs will result in positivechanges in students' affect in learning. The teacher's views about teaching and students' learning affect have alsoundergone significant changes in the process of action research. Drawing on these conclusions, the writer tried to put forward some suggestions for classroom teaching. Teacher should try to build up a warm and non-threatening atmosphere in classroom teaching, which is believed to play a decisive role in their language learning. Teacher should try to take into consideration students' reaction to his teaching behaviors, namely feedback forms in this study, and provide individual feedback to individual student, so as to simulate students' positive affect in learning. Teacher, if reflecting upon his own teaching, will surely discover some problemsunthought of before, and can thus make adjustments accordingly. The thesis contains altogether six chapters.Chapter I presents the theoretical background, paving the ground for the current study. Chapter II gives a selected review on empirical studies on both students' affect and teacher feedback. Based on the previous chapters, Chapter III presents a working model for the present study, and introduces the designing for the research, while chapter IV provides the process of action and reflection of the teacher upon her teaching. In chapter V, the writer reported the results of the study, which can support the idea that the purposeful adjustments of teacher feedback manners are sure to result in the positive changes in student learning affect.The last chapter, chapter IV, is the conclusion part. It is concerned with the major findings, pedagogical implications, and limitations of the present study, and suggestions for the future research.