Students' and teachers' perception on the use of praise and feedback in the English lesson

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate students? and teachers? perception towards the use of praise and feedback in the English lesson. Apart from that, this study seek to identify the type of feedback that students prefer and the type of feedback that is most likely to be used by the teachers. Moreover this study also examined teachers? use of praise and feedback in their English lesson. By using the semi structured interview, the researcher collected data from year 5 students and the English teachers? perceptions on the use of praise and feedback. The students? interview mainly seeking how the students feel about praise, how they prefer to be praised and how they like to be praised. On the other hand, teachers? interview mainly seeking their perceptions about the use of praise, how they praise the students and for what behaviour the students are likely to be praised for. In addition, the result on the types of praise and feedback used in the classroom was attained from the classroom observation checklist. The findings from the students? interview indicated that the respondents liked to be praised. However, they had different preferences on the types of feedback. The teachers interview gathered teachers? perception and they way they used praise vary according to individual. The teachers? interview also depict that teachers have knowledge on the use of feedback and praise as a source of motivation. This study also demonstrated the types of feedback actually occur in the classroom. It was suggested in the findings that changes should be made in terms of providing feedback in the language classroom so the students will be able to evaluate their own learning.