The effect of oral feedback in an Armenian public school

Abstract

Public school teachers in Armenia use different types of classroom assessment. Most of them use summative assessment as a tool to learn about students’ achievement in the course, forgetting about the importance of formative assessment and feedback, which is the essential part of classroom assessment and language learning. The lack of formative assessment tools and feedback in public school EFL classrooms result in decrease in student motivation and engagement as well as reduced language practice in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to investigate what oral feedback is provided to the students in an EFL classroom in public schools and what attitude the students have towards oral feedback. Forty public school students and their teacher participated in the study. In the framework of action research, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with two groups: treatment and comparison groups. The treatment group was exposed to various types of feedback, while the comparison group was not. The research included both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data were collected through student surveys, and the qualitative data were obtained through classroom observations, teacher interview and a focus group interview with students. The analysis of the survey questions and classroom observations showed that there is not much difference between the treatment and comparison groups regarding their preferences and attitudes towards oral feedback. The students of both groups mentioned that they mainly received either direct or delayed corrective feedback. The survey and interview results revealed that the students’ attitude towards different types of oral feedback is mainly positive.