Chapter I. The role of feedback in learning english as a second language

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CHAPTER II.
THE 
METHODS AND MATERIAS TO GIVE FEEDBACK 
2.1The survey on giving feedback and the methods used during it 
The main aim of this survey was to find out what kind of corrective 
feedback is given when it comes to students' vocabulary errors in their written 
L2 English texts and to what extent second language learners and teachers 
believe students increase their vocabulary skills by means of such feedback. 
Another question this small scale study investigated is the teachers’ and students’ 
preferences for a certain corrective feedback method or methods. In order to get 
an answer to these research questions, three teachers were asked if they and 
their students were willing to participate in a survey. A teacher questionnaire 
and a student questionnaire were used as research instruments. 
Section 3.1 presents the participants, section 3.2 describes the material used in 
the survey and section 3.3 presents the ethical considerations. 
This survey was conducted in a Swedish upper secondary school in a 
small sized town in Sweden. The participants, aged 16 – 19, are from three 
different classes. Class 1 studied English 6 in the third year of a vocational 
program (construction and industrial) and consisted of ten male students. Class 
2 studied English 6 in the second year, attending a national higher education 
preparatory program (economy and social studies), and consisted of 17 female 
students and six male students. Class 3 studied English 5 and was in the first 
year of a vocational program (construction and industrial) and there were six male 
students in this class. In total there were three female teachers and 39 students 
who participated in this survey. The teacher in class 1 had been teaching for 32 
years and the teacher in class 2 had been a teacher for ten years. The teacher in 
class 3 had been an English teacher for twelve years. These classes will be 
subsequently named classes 1, 2 and 3; the teacher of class 1 will be referred to as 
T1, the teacher of class 2 as T2 and the teacher of class 3 as T3 in the results part. 
The intention was to collect data with the help of an interview with the 
teachers and a teacher and a student questionnaire. Due to an extended work load 
for all the teachers at the school where this survey was carried out, none of 

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the approached teachers were willing to participate in an interview, but they 
agreed to fill in a questionnaire. 
The teacher and the student questionnaires were made up mainly of 
multiple choice questions . Some additional questions were open and the students 
and teachers were asked to provide an extended answer. The survey used 
Chandler's typology 2003: 281) for written corrective feedback. Chandler names 
four types of such feedback . In order to make sure that every student was able to 
understand the questions, the students were given a Swedish version of the 
questionnaire. The investigator visited the classes in person, in order to introduce 
the survey and distribute the questionnaires. This presence gave the participants 
an opportunity to ask questions. 
The questionnaire directed at the teachers consisted of questions that dealt 
with issues concerning their feedback methods. Most of the questions 
included subquestions . The students were also given questions which included 
subquestions. Some of these questions were related to to what extent their teacher 
gave them corrective feedback in their written assignments and what kind of 
feedback they received when they had made vocabulary errors . Similar to the 
teacher questionnaire, the students were also asked which corrective method 
they preferred. Other questions aimed to find out whether students used the 
feedback received and which corrective method works best in their own opinion. 
As mentioned previously, this survey is concerned with corrective feedback 
directed at vocabulary errors.
The categories of vocabulary errors used in the questionnaires are compiled 
from the taxonomy of lexical errors as described in Saengchan and Schmitt 
Questionnaire questions should ideally be as short and straightforward as 
possible, and the same question should not be asked twice in the same way. 
After analyzing the collected data, two equivalent questions, 4a and 4b, were 
detected in the student questionnaire. The students had trouble answering these 
questions and since it is likely that the students did not understand what the 
categories represent, this study takes into consideration only the question where 

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the alternatives were explained (question 4b). 
This survey approached its task in an ethical manner, meaning that the 
data was handled with great care, that there was no unnecessary deception or 
distress caused during the data collection and that the participants had sufficient 
information to make an informed decision about their participation.
(Wray & 
Bloomer, 2006: 173)
Before handing out the questionnaires, the purpose and 
methods to be used were explained orally to the students and the teacher. The 
same information was also given in writing in the questionnaire and all