Research On The Preferences And Opinions On Teacher's Feedback In Junior High School English Class

In China,according to English New Curriculum Standard,the objectives of English teaching can be divided into five parts,that is,language skills,language knowledge,learning attitudes,learning strategies and cultural awareness.Students should form basic comprehensive learning abilities through English learning in classes.Therefore,much more attention has been paid to the interaction between teachers and students,and the classes become more student-centered.Mackey(2006)held that interaction motivated the development of language in language teaching.So teacher's feedback,as a main part in English classes,helps realize the interaction between teachers and students better.In fact,many researchers and scholars have done lots of researches on teacher's feedback at home and aboard.However,those former researches about teacher's feedback focus mostly on either types or functions of teacher's feedback,and the researches have always been conducted in college or senior high schools.As the providers and receivers of teacher's feedback,teachers' and students' preferences and opinions on teacher's feedback in junior high schools have been ignored by most researchers.Therefore,the author thinks it is an urge to do an empirical study on this issue in junior high schools.The empirical research has been conducted in the Middle School Attached to Huazhong University of Science and Technology.Data were collected from the research through three instruments including the classroom observation and classroom recording,questionnaires as well as interviews.In this research,8 English teachers and 2 students were chosen to do the interviews.At the same time,150 students(three classes of students)were chosen to do the questionnaire research.Since it is a study conducted in a junior high school about teacher's feedback,it's important to answer the following questions:1.What are English teachers'preferences and opinions on teacher's feedback in junior high schools?2.What are students,preferences and opinions on teacher's feedback in junior high schools?The findings of this research can be summarized from two aspects.As for teachers'preferences and opinions on teacher's feedback,first of all,teacher's feedback is of great significance in teachers'eyes.Secondly,verbal and non-verbal feedback as well as positive and negative feedback are all adopted by teachers.But positive and verbal feedback are used more frequently.Thirdly,positive feedback includes simple praise,simple praise plus comments and repetition,but the simple praise is the most frequent in English classes.Fourthly,direct negative feedback such as criticism is rarely adopted by teachers,so they prefer to give negative feedback implicitly.Ignoring,correcting or denying students' answers directly is not an ideal choice of negative feedback in teachers'eyes.They prefer to correct students either by repeating students' answers or give students' some clues to help them think out the correct answer.Lastly,non-verbal feedback also works in the classroom and even can be more valid than other forms of feedback in some certain situations.On the other hand,as for junior-high school students,firstly,students do not like being ignored by teachers in classes.Secondly,students are willing to get praises,comments and instructions from teachers.And they don't like being criticized directly or ignored by teachers.Thirdly,verbal feedback and non-verbal feedback are both liked by students.Lastly,when they don't answer the question correctly,students hope that they can think out the answer or correct themselves with the help of teachers,and they don't like being criticized directly or ignored by teachers.Furthermore,most of the students think teacher's feedback is of great significance,and students like teacher's positive feedback in classes.As for non-verbal feedback,it can't be ignored by teachers because of its influence on students.In light of these points,some implications are as follows:1.Teachers should adopt more kinds of feedback rather than just using their preferred and fixed feedback.2.When giving teacher's feedback,students' characteristics,personalities,learning levels,and preferences for feedback should be taken into consideration.3.Students are the main receivers of teacher's feedback in classroom,so they should be put in the central status in classroom activities,4.Teachers should consider students' preferences and needs of teacher's feedback.Besides,in light of the limitations of this study,some suggestions are listed as follows:1.It is suggested that further researches be conducted in different grades in junior high school.2.Students from different junior high schools can also be investigated at the same time.3.Camera can be used when it comes to classroom observation part,which can provide direct and convenient data in classroom.4.More variations can be investigated in English classes next time.