Feeding forward with feedback at an Australian university

Richard WarnerJulia MillerAcademic Learning and LanguageCentre for Learning and Professional DevelopmentUniversity of Adelaide

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OutlineIntroductionLiterature review

◦Transiting to a new academic culture◦Feedback as an intercultural issue

MethodologyFindingsDiscussionConclusion

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IntroductionTransiting to a new academic

environment

But language ain’t the only issue!

(wemedia.com, 2011)

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The complexity of transition Functioning in different learning scenarios with

inherent cultural presumptions of the autonomous/self-motivated learner, and changes in discourse patterns and differences in learning format and delivery.

Expansion of inter/multi-disciplinary degrees necessitating EAL student management of academic discourse and register practices [academic literacies] and expectations (UWS 2009, p. 38).

English proficiency often seen as underlying source of the problems faced by EAL students yet transition issues to a Western academic environment can be seen as adaption based (Sinclair, 2000, p. 1) rather than indicative of linguistic capacity.

(healthcareitnews.com, 2011)

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Importance of acculturative transitionSuch transitional challenges for EAL students should

remain acculturative rather than assimilative. HE institutions need adaptive pathways to academic

literacies allowing students to maintain separate cultural identity (Castro-Abad 1995).

EAL student acculturation requires staged access to these pathways, if academic literacies are to be developed. It is important to remember that:◦ …language proficiency, like academic literacy, is …best

viewed as a contextually-specific continuum, along which language users move at varying rates (Dunworth 2010, p. 7).

EAL students’ development of academic literacies not necessarily in a binary lockstep with language development.

mpalac21.blogspot.com,2011

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Feedback in the acculturation processDevelopment of contextual academic

literacy does provide focal point for meta-linguistic growth.

Constructive feedback can play a vital role in EAL student academic literacy - a scaffold to ‘best practice’.

However, such feedback is a complex issue within the bigger picture of L2 [and metalanguage] development (Nazif et al. 2004-5, p. 166).

(englishworks.com.au, 2011)

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Feedback as an intercultural issue

Increasing internationalisation requires changing roles:• Students to be managers of own intercultural

learning• Teaching staff to manage environment for

intercultural development • Contextualised feedback to students can help

in the management of their own learning(bw.edu 2011)

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Adding to the mixNazif et al. (2004-5, p.166) point out :

‘the importance of feedback and the influence it has on the learning process is a multifaceted and complex process … and may be different for different learners in different contexts’.

Perhaps context is key driver for understanding feedback (p.166) , detailed marking schemes context specific- not easily generalisable (Adcroft 2011, p. 417).

Foregrounded for EAL students with growth in inter disciplinary courses in HE institutions, with increasing genre variations (Swales & Feak 2004).

Scant recognition of a priori social processes/human experiences in giving/receiving of feedback (Adcroft 2011, p. 406).

echarcha.com, 2011

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Cultural presumptions and expectationsSome examples:Feedback only the real thing if it takes the form of

the ‘teacher’s red penned periodic notations…’ and is from teachers not from peers (Rollinson 2005, p. 23).

Unsolicited e-mails apologising for low marks; the students seeing ‘feedback as a sign of their failure to meet teacher expectations’ (Enomoto 2010, p.5) rather than as a tool to inform future learning.

‘the elliptical nature of much written feedback’ (Ridsdale 2000, p. 272) to EAL students not ‘raised on a feedback diet of…questions like Sooo…?’ (p. 273).

(iranreview.org 2011)

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More cultural presumptions and expectationsIndirectness of rhetorical

questions not recognised by students (Hyland & Hyland 2001).

Strong suggestion (in US study) that feedback principally valued for error correction (Leki 1991) rather than as a tool for developing the: ‘highly culturally marked organisational patterns of the appropriate target discourse’ (Warner 2010, p. 358).

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Differences between what students wantA NZ study involving student interviews

found significant differences between what students wanted from feedback:◦Some highly valued positive comments◦Others saw them as a sop◦Similar variations were found regarding negative

feedback (Hyland & Hyland 2006).

Imperative that comments best received if tailored to individual student rather than one size fits all model.

This is the feedback amalgam of teacher/EAL student intercultural learning contexts (Leask 2004 in Oxley 2010).

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Feedback and the Introductory Academic ProgramThe IAP is a biannual 5 week pre-semester

program for postgraduate EAL students from developing countries (sponsored by AusAID).

Focus of the program is on acculturation to their new academic environment through a variety of experiences, both in generic and discipline specific contexts.

By their wide demographics, IAP students have experienced a variety of academic feedback domestically and are a rich source of research based information.

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Methodology 53 international students enrolled in an Introductory

Academic Program◦ 48 postgraduate coursework◦ 3 undergraduate◦ 2 PhD

Demographics: 13 female, 35 male, 5 did not specify gender. Ages ranged from 19 to 46, with an average age of 32. Countries: Bangladesh (4), Cambodia (3), Fiji (1), India (1),

Indonesia (11), Iraq (12), Lao PDR (1), Liberia (1), Maldives (1), Mongolia (1), Mozambique (2), Nigeria (3), Papua New Guinea (5), Solomon Islands (1), Vietnam (3), Zambia (3)

First languages represented: Arabic (11), Bangla (2), Bengali (2), Dhivehi (1), English (3), Hausa (1), Indonesian (11), Khmer (3), Kurdish (1), Lao (1), Mano (1), Mongolian (1), Pidgin (5), Portuguese (2), Punjabi (1), Tonga (a Zambian language) (1), Tumbuka (1), Vietnamese (3), Yoruba (2)

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Findings1. What do you think the term

‘feedback’ means? Error correction (15%) Advice to improve my work (most

students) Information interchange between

lecturer & students which the lecturer uses to adjust his teaching methods. (Nigeria)

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Findings (continued)2. Where do you think feedback fits in the

process of producing an assignment? Every stage (15%) During an assignment (45%) Draft stage (15%) After an assignment (43%) ‘Feedback’ should be at the end of each

period in the process of producing an assignment: feedback (1) for the study question, (2) for the outline, (3) for the draft or parts of assignment, (4) and finally for the official assignment. (Vietnam)

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Findings (continued)3. Feedback on academic assignments

before you came to Australiad) What is the purpose of feedback in your academic culture? Improving or developing skills (58%) Only error correction (11%) just to evaluate one's performance.

The process was not so fair most of the time as partiality often took place. (Bangladesh)

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Findings (continued)3 e) Is a colour traditionally used to give

written feedback in your culture? If so, please give details. Red (32%) – correction or bad mark Green – Nigeria and India Blue – Indonesia and Iraqf) Is there a colour which would offend or

upset you if it was used to give written feedback on your work?

No findings established I have never faced a COLOUR!

(Bangladesh)

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Findings (continued)3 g) What kinds of feedback have you received

before coming to Australia? Grade – 79%Comments at the end of the assignment – 66%Comments throughout the assignment – 51%Corrections – 72%

Verbal in person – 68%Electronic: written – 34%Electronic: verbal – 1%

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Findings (continued)3 h) Now think of one particular example of academic

feedback you remember. It can be positive, negative or neutral. When did you receive this feedback? Before an assignment (9%)During an assignment (21%)After an assignment (64%)i) Who gave you the feedback? Lecturer/teacher/tutor (85%)Peers (4%)j) How important was that person to you?Very important (62%)Most important, I consider them like my parents. (Iraq)

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Findings (continued)3 k) How did the feedback make you feel? Happy/encouraged (64%)

Unhappy/upset (11%)honoured and cared for (PNG in

Australia)l) Did you share the feedback with other

students? Yes – 83%m) How did you use the feedback?

Improvement – 68%n) Did your performance improve as a result of the feedback? Yes – 92%

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Findings (continued)4. Feedback on academic

assignments in Australia (part 1)c) Do you expect your experiences of feedback here to be similar to your previous feedback-related experiences? Better – 68 %My previous experience is that master-slave. You don't ask or contribute until you are told to. (Nigeria)

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Expectations in Australia I expect it would be better. I grew up in a conservative

society, where positive feedback is not common. I think it [Australia] has an open and positive feedback system. (Bangladesh)

. . . more improved than previous, given then the access of computers and a more advanced society. (Liberia)

I expect it to be more personalised. (Zambia) I don’t expect corrections as a feedback. Because

Australian academic culture is based on independent learners. (Mongolia)

I expect it to be more critical and blunt, given the high standards of Australian universities. (Papua New Guinea)

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Findings (continued)4. d) How important do you think

feedback on your assignments is in Australian academic culture? Very importante) How often do you expect to receive feedback? Every step/End of termf) How often would you like to receive feedback? Very frequentlyg) Who do you expect to receive feedback from? Lecturersh) Who would you like to receive feedback from? Lecturers (Peers)

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Findings (continued)5. Previous feedback on academic

assignments in Australia a) If you have studied in Australia before, what kinds of feedback did you receive? Written/verbal

6. ConcernsDo you have any concerns about receiving feedback while studying for your degree at the university? If so, please give details.

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ConcernsFeedback is crucial for study, but feedback

should be improve persons not upset them. (Iraq)Feedback should be mean to encourage and not

discourage learners. (Zambia)Might not be able to understand and if it is too

critical and too blunt maybe disappointed and discouraged from asking for further feedback. (Papua New Guinea)

I do not have any serious concern. Because, ‘Feedback Process’ must be fair here. It is a matter of quality education and my university has no ‘culprit’ to make the process an ‘waste’. (Bangladesh)

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Concerns (continued)Written feedback that is not followed up

with a verbal feedback, as parts of written feedback may not be properly understood. (Papua New Guinea)

There is a kind of fluidity on the part of the teachers that make me uncomfortable. The teacher seems to have room for all kinds of suggestions from the student. I think this leaves the student without any benchmarks. It looks like the teacher is not assessing the contribution of the student before accepting it. (Nigeria)

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Focus groupAustralian lecturers need to be more criticalSome things are a bigger issue here.

Feedback is transferable beyond the task. (Ghana)

In Iraq, the course is an end in itself. Here, people keep learning.

Indonesian lecturers have a formal consultation schedule.

Lecturers in Ghana have informal, unscheduled consultations.

Written and face to face feedback both valuable.

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DiscussionFeedback purely as error correction (Leki

1991)◦Only 15% agreed with this.

Clarity (Ridsdale 2000)◦All students wanted clarity, preferably via

personal interaction with the lecturer.Feedback from peers (Rollinson 2005)

◦Only 4 students mentioned peer feedback.Frequency

◦Students wanted as much feedback as possible.

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Discussion (continued)Forms of feedback

◦Students wanted verbal, face-to-face feedback combined with written feedback.

Colours◦Students associated red with

negative comments.

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ConclusionComplexities of intercultural/interactional

nature of feedback pose challenges for EAL students.

Only by gaining understanding of philosophical underpinnings can EAL learners best acculturate to the idiosyncracies of given feedback scenarios.

Strategy provision requires intercultural understandings of the roles/types of feedback and expectations, which demands the EAL students’ voices be heard in informing the process.

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ReferencesAdcroft, A 2011, ‘The mythology of feedback’, Higher Education Research and

Development, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 405-419.Castro-Abad, C 1995, ‘A human development workshop on cultural identity for

international students’, Princeton University, Mid-Career Fellowships Program, Princeton, NJ. Available: ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. Ed 384 382.

Dunworth, K 2010, ‘Clothing the Emperor: addressing the issue of English language proficiency in Australian universities,’ The Australian Universities' Review, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 5-10.

Enomoto, K 2010, ‘Promoting self-regulated learning: a feedback-based study skills action plan for students from diverse cultural, linguistic and disciplinary backgrounds’,  in E.Morrel & M Barr (eds), Crises and opportunities: Proceedings of the 18th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, 2010, Adelaide, ASAA, Inc., Canberra.

Hyland F & Hyland K 2001, ‘Sugaring the pill: praise and criticism in written feedback,’ Journal of Second Language Writing, vol.10, pp. 185-201.

Hyland K & Hyland F 2006, ‘Interpersonal aspects of response: constructing and interpreting written teacher feedback’, in K Hyland & F Hyland (eds), Feedback in second language writing, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 206-224.

Leki 1991, ’The preferences of ESL students for error correction in college-level writing classes’, Foreign Language Annals, vol. 24, pp.203-218.

Nazif, A, Biswas, D & Hilbig, R 2004-5, ‘Towards an understanding of student perceptions of feedback’, Carleton Papers in Applied Language Studies, vols XXI/XXII, pp. 166-192.

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Oxley, L 2010, ‘Academic acculturation for international students: how can we help? Proceedings of Teaching Matters 2010, Cultures of Learning, University of Tasmania, November 24-25 2010, viewed 12 October 2011, <http://www.utas.edu.au/teachingmatters/2010/Presentations/Session2b-FS2-Oxley.pdf>.

Ridsdale, ML 2000, ‘“I’ve read his comments but I don’t know how to do”: international postgraduate student perceptions of written supervisor feedback’, in K Channock (ed.), Sources of Confusion. Proceedings of National Language and Academic Skills Conference, La Trobe University, 27-28 November, pp. 272-282.

Rollinson, P 2005, ‘Using peer feedback in the ESL writing class’, ELT Journal, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 23-30.

Sinclair, A 2000, ‘When I say “describe” I don’t mean that you should just describe…’ , in K Channock (ed.), Sources of Confusion. Proceedings of National Language and Academic Skills Conference, La Trobe University, November 27-28, pp. 304-312.

Swales, J & Feak, C 2004, Academic writing for graduate students: essential tasks and skills, 2ndedn, University of Michigan Press, AnnArbor, Michigan.

University of Western Sydney. 2009, Preparing students for learning through written assessment: A toolkit for Learning Guides, viewed 10 May 2009, <http://www.uws.edu.au>.

 Warner, R 2010, ‘Giving feedback on assignment writing to international students - the integration of voice and writing tools’, in WMChan, KN Chin, M Nagami & T Suthiwan (eds),  Media in foreign language teaching and learning, Centre for Language Studies, National University of Singapore, pp. 355-381.