Providing feedback: theory and
practical ideas
According to Professor Yuen Kwong (2001), ‘Monitoring learners’ thinking processes, giving them feedback and
motivating them to learn are not only very important tasks of a teacher, but they are also intimately related.’
Feedback is providing learners with information on their performance. Feedback has been wrongly associated
largely with error correction, but that is only one reason for its use. Equally important is the opportunity it gives
the teacher to praise learners for effective language use or task completion and discuss how well they have
achieved their communicative goals and contributed on a personal level.
Although feedback can be given to an individual, a group of learners or the whole class, it is more efficient if the
entire class knows about the monitoring process and feedback so that learners can learn from one another.
In order to be effective, feedback should:
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be prompt, closely following the event. The longer the delay between work and feedback, the less effective
the feedback becomes.
contain encouragement. Positive feedback generally provides more information than negative feedback and
strengthens a learner’s motivation and self-confidence.
be specific about why something was good or was not up to standard and what the learner can do about it.
Some tips for giving feedback:
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Focus on one or two essential errors depending on your learning goals.
Try to involve the learner in self-assessment so that they set their own goals and can tell you how they think
they are measuring up. They can then ask for advice and take some responsibility themselves.
Give learners time to reflect on their work. For example, are they pleased with the activity they have just
done? How can they improve it?
Use the board for the language feedback. Write sentences with the mistakes you want to focus on and
encourage the class to spot them and suggest possible ways of correcting and improving them. Afterwards,
you can reinforce correct forms with competitions and remedial games.
Select samples of correct and incorrect language that learners have produced. Write them up on cards. Give
out the cards and ask them to do the correction individually, in pairs or in groups.
Set individual mini-meetings with your learners. These involve face-to-face conversations with the learner.
Give the learners some questions to think about beforehand, e.g.
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What is the main point of your written piece?
Who are you writing to?
What is your audience?
How have you organised things?
Do you feel that you have achieved the set task?
What specific area(s) do you want me (the teacher) to look at?
Are there any parts that you feel insecure or unhappy about?
After the meeting, learners could rewrite the work and hand in both versions.
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Use learner diaries. Diary writing is a very effective and natural tool for learners and teachers since it enables
learners to reflect on what they have learnt, how they have learnt it, what kind of difficulties they have when
they write or what helps them to overcome difficulties in the process of learning English. In addition, teachers
can learn from learners’ diaries about their constraints in writing and help them to remove them.
Make feedback consequential. This means learners will not just read or listen to your feedback. They will
have to act upon the feedback and address your comments. When they submit the revised text, it might be a
good idea to have them explain exactly how the revision addresses the previous feedback they received.
© Cambridge University Press 2019
Teacher’s Resource Providing feedback: theory and practical ideas
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Peer review and feedback
Learners mostly write with the idea in mind that the main audience is the teacher. Shifting this mindset will allow
them to take on writing with a much larger scope. They should see their peers as audience as well.
Learners benefit from peer feedback in that they are able to teach others about the tasks and provide feedback
that they would consider relevant. In seeing that their peer feedback is relevant, learners will be more engaged
in working to complete the task successfully. Peer feedback also gives them an opportunity to have their voices
heard and to listen to each other.
However, some learners may reject the idea of having another learner read and judge their work. Therefore, you
will need to make it clear from the start of the lesson that peer review is not about judging each other’s work,
but helping each other out. Also, remind learners that it is important for the peer feedback space to be safe and
judgement-free in order for everyone to truly benefit from the feedback.
Always have learners focus on the positive aspects of the work before pointing out areas of improvement. It may
be a good idea to brainstorm ways in which positive feedback can be given. Show them how they can phrase
things constructively. Instead of ‘I don’t understand the point of the introduction’, they can say, ‘Your argument
can be stronger. Can you give some examples?’
Good feedback begins before learners submit anything. Learners need guidelines for assessment criteria in
advance. This provides a roadmap to success and helps to clarify the features of good performance. It will help
learners give useful feedback to peers. They can also use it as a checklist against which they can assess their
own work.
Reading list
Hedge, T. 2000. ‘Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom’. Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kwong, P. 2001. ‘Motivating Students by Providing Feedback’. CDTL brief 4/2. National University of Singapore,
viewed 27 July 2019, <http://cdtl.nus.edu.sg/brief/v4n2/default.htm>.
Zamel, V. 1983. ‘The composing processes of advanced ESL learners: six case studies’. TESOL Quarterly 17/2:
165–87.
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Teacher’s Resource Providing feedback: theory and practical ideas
© Cambridge University Press 2019