Exploring the relationship between high school EFL students' level of extraversion and their preferences for oral corrective feedback

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

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HOANG PHUONG TIEU ANH

EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

HIGH SCHOOL EFL STUDENTS' LEVEL

OF EXTRAVERSION AND THEIR PREFERENCES

FOR ORAL CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Major code: 8 14 01 11

MASTER THESIS

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

Supervisor: Dr. NGUYEN THI THANH HA

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2021

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM

THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc

KHOA ĐÀO TẠO SAU ĐẠI HỌC

GIẤY XÁC NHẬN

Tôi tên là: HOÀNG PHƯƠNG TIỂU ANH

Ngày sinh: 26/11/1995 Nơi sinh: Tiền Giang

Chuyên ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp giảng dạy bộ môn Tiếng Anh

Mã học viên: 1781401110002

Tôi đồng ý cung cấp toàn văn thông tin luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ về bản quyền cho

Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Thư viện trường đại học Mở

Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh sẽ kết nối toàn văn thông tin luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống

thông tin khoa học của Sở Khoa học và Công nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.

Ký tên

Hoàng Phương Tiểu Anh

CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM

Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc

Ý KIẾN CHO PHÉP BẢO VỆ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ

CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN HƯỚNG DẪN

Giảng viên hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hà

Học viên thực hiện: Hoàng Phương Tiểu Anh Lớp: MTESOL017A

Ngày sinh: 26/11/1995 Nơi sinh: Tiền Giang

Tên đề tài: Exploring the relationship between high school EFL students' level of extraversion

and their preferences for oral corrective feedback

Ý kiến của giáo viên hướng dẫn về việc cho phép học viên Hoàng Phương Tiểu Anh được bảo vệ

luận văn trước Hội đồng:

Đồng ý cho học viên Hoàng Phương Tiểu Anh bảo vệ luận văn.

Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, ngày 04 tháng 10 năm 2021

Người nhận xét

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hà

ii

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “Exploring the relationship between high school

EFL students' level of extraversion and their preferences for oral corrective

feedback” is my own work.

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain

material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which

I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main

text of the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or

diploma in any other tertiary institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2021

Hoang Phuong Tieu Anh

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha for her patient

expertise support, guidance and supervision.

I sincerely thank the Board of Truong Dinh high school in which I have been

working, for providing me with a chance to pursue further study and creating

favorable conditions that helped me complete my thesis. I would like to thank my

colleagues in the English department and my MA peers who supported and

encouraged me during the process of my study completion.

I would like to acknowledge the 367 Grade 10 students who kindly agreed to

participate in this study despite their heavy learning schedules. The pilot study and

main data collection would not have been completed without their support and

willingness.

I would like to dedicate this MA thesis to my late grandfather who always cared for

me and believed in my ability to succeed. My special thanks are given to my

beloved family members, my parents, my aunt, my elder sister and my niece for

their love and support throughout the years that promoted my strength to complete

the present study.

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ABSTRACT

The present study is an attempt to explore high school students’ preferences for oral

corrective feedback in terms of whether, when, how, by whom and which errors

should be corrected. It also aims at examining the possible relationship between

students’ level of extraversion and their preferences for oral corrective feedback in

the communicative classroom. The study was carried out in a Vietnamese public

high school with the participation of 314 Grade 10 non-English majored students.

The study adopted a mixed methods design with data collected by two self-reported

questionnaires and follow-up interviews. It was found that most Truong Dinh High

School’s Grade 10 students in the study had an average level of extraversion. In

terms of their preferences for oral corrective feedback, it was revealed that the

majority of participants agreed on the necessity of oral corrective feedback and they

preferred a selective approach to error treatment. Besides, students preferred

delayed error correction; they favored input-providing feedback strategies and

explicit error correction. In addition, most students highly valued teacher correction

and their least preferred errors to be corrected during class time were grammatical

oral errors. Interestingly, six statistically significant correlations were found

between students’ level of extraversion and their preferences for oral corrective

feedback. Specifically, extraversion level was found to correlate negatively with

learners’ preferences for all-error correction and correlate positively with learners’

preferences for the correction of frequent errors and stigmatizing errors to native

speakers, immediate correction, teacher correction and peer correction. Findings

from the study research reflect students’ desire to receive corrective feedback and

their varied preferences towards error treatment, which possibly and partially

resulted from individual differences factors, such as extraversion. These findings

offer pedagogical implications and suggestions for future investigation.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .......................................................................... ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................... iii

ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... iv

LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. viii

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. ix

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1

1.1. Background of the study ............................................................................. 1

1.2. Rationale for the study................................................................................ 3

1.3. Research objectives and research questions ................................................ 4

1.4. Scope of the study ...................................................................................... 5

1.5. Significance of the study ............................................................................ 5

1.6. Organization of the research ....................................................................... 6

LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................ 7

2.1. Error Correction in the foreign language classroom .................................... 7

2.1.1. The Concepts of Errors ........................................................................ 7

2.1.2. Error Treatment of Different Approaches to Foreign Language

Teaching ............................................................................................................ 8

2.2. Corrective Feedback in the foreign language classroom ............................. 9

2.2.1. Definitions of Corrective Feedback ...................................................... 9

2.2.2. Five Fundamental Issues of Oral Corrective Feedback ....................... 11

2.2.3. Learners’ Preferences for Oral Corrective Feedback .......................... 19

2.3. Extraversion and Language Learning ....................................................... 23

2.3.1. Extraversion as a Psychological Dimension ....................................... 23

2.3.2. Extraversion as an Affective Factor in Classroom Setting .................. 24

2.3.3. Summary ........................................................................................... 26

2.4. Extraversion and Corrective Feedback ..................................................... 26

2.5. Research Gap ........................................................................................... 29

2.6. Summary .................................................................................................. 30

vi

METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................ 32

3.1. Research Design ....................................................................................... 32

3.2. Research Setting ....................................................................................... 32

3.2.1. Research Site ..................................................................................... 32

3.2.2. Participants ........................................................................................ 33

3.3. Methodology ............................................................................................ 35

3.3.1. Research Instruments ......................................................................... 35

3.3.2. Research Procedures .......................................................................... 41

3.4. Data Collection Procedure ........................................................................ 47

3.5. Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 48

3.5.1. Quantitative data analysis .................................................................. 48

3.5.2. Qualitative data analysis .................................................................... 50

3.6. Reliability and Validity ............................................................................ 51

3.6.1. Questionnaires ................................................................................... 51

3.6.2. Interviews .......................................................................................... 57

3.7. Summary .................................................................................................. 58

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ......................................................................... 59

4.1. Grade 10 students’ level of extraversion ................................................... 59

4.2. Grade 10 Students’ Preferences for Oral Corrective Feedback .................. 61

4.2.1. The Necessity of Oral Corrective Feedback ....................................... 61

4.2.2. The Timing of Oral Corrective Feedback ........................................... 66

4.2.3. Oral Corrective Feedback Strategies .................................................. 68

4.2.4. Oral Corrective Feedback Providers ................................................... 72

4.2.5. Types of Oral Errors to Be Corrected ................................................. 74

4.3. The Relationship between Grade 10 Students’ Level of Extraversion and

Their Preferences for Oral Corrective Feedback .................................................... 76

4.3.1. Level of Extraversion and Necessity of Oral Corrective Feedback ..... 77

4.3.2. Level of Extraversion and Timing of Oral Corrective Feedback ......... 78

4.3.3. Level of Extraversion and Oral Corrective Feedback Strategies ......... 79

vii

4.3.4. Level of Extraversion and Oral Corrective Feedback Providers ......... 80

4.3.5. Level of Extraversion and Types of Oral Errors to be Corrected ........ 81

4.4. Discussion of findings .............................................................................. 82

4.4.1. Research question 1: What are Truong Dinh High school’s Grade 10

students’ levels of extraversion? ............................................................................ 82

4.4.2. Research question 2: What are Truong Dinh High school’s Grade 10

students’ preferences for oral corrective feedback in terms of necessity, timing,

feedback strategies, feedback providers and errors types? ...................................... 83

4.4.3. Research question 3: Are there statistically significant correlations

between students’ level of extraversion and their preferences for oral corrective

feedback in terms of necessity, timing, feedback strategies, feedback providers and

errors types? .......................................................................................................... 89

4.5. Summary .................................................................................................. 93

CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................... 94

5.1. Summary of findings ................................................................................ 94

5.2. Implications.............................................................................................. 96

5.3. Limitations and suggestions for future research ........................................ 97

5.4. Summary .................................................................................................. 99

References ........................................................................................................... 100

Appendix A: QUESTIONNAIRES (English version) .......................................... 123

Appendix B: QUESTIONNAIRES (Vietnamese version) .................................... 128

Appendix C: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL (English version)................................. 133

Appendix D: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL (Vietnamese version) .......................... 135