THE
STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES
TOWARD THE USE OF SYMBOL
FEEDBACK IN WRITING CLASS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Put Ila Anasistia
112008153
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
THE
STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES
TOWARD THE USE OF SYMBOL
FEEDBACK IN WRITING CLASS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Put Ila Anasistia
112008153
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
THE
STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES
TOWARD THE USE OF SYMBOL
FEEDBACK IN WRITING CLASS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Put Ila Anasistia
112008153
Approved by :
Victoria Usadya Palupi, MA-ELT Dian Toar Sumakul, M.A
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THE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD
THE USE OF SYMBOL
Pros and cons in using symbol feedback in writing class have been discussed for years. The pro sides argued that using symbol feedback could motivate the students to be independent learners and improved their skills in writing. However, the cons side revealed that symbol feedback only focused on surface errors and it didn‟t give significant effect to the students‟ abilities in writing. Inspired by the pros and cons, this study has attempted to investigate the students‟ attitudes toward the use of symbol feedback in writing class. This paper is based on the interview of the students of Guided Writing in English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga. It aims at showing the students attitudes toward the use of symbol feedback based on their opinions and experiences. The finding suggested that the use of symbol feedback in writing class influences the students‟ attitudes toward their writing including cognitive, affective, and behavior aspects, which are recognized as components of attitudes.
Key words : Symbol feedback, Components of attitudes, Independent learners
Introduction
learners. One teacher of English Department said, “I like using symbol feedback because it is
simple and can help the students find the errors directly and learn from their mistakes.” According to Kavaliauskiene (2003) as cited in Mikume and Oyoo (2010), “Teachers should allow their students to do self correction, not to correct written work” (p. 339). Based on my experience when I took Guided Writing class, I needed to think independently in correcting the errors in my writing as my teacher only gave clues or symbols on the errors. In this case, I needed to understand the meaning of symbols that the teacher used before correcting the errors. I thought this kind of feedback could help me be an independent learner because I could learn how to do self-correction. On the other hands, symbol feedback made me be more careful in writing. I tried to be more careful on the grammar, spelling, punctuation, idea, and etc. to make my writing better.
In this study, I am interested to do research about teachers‟ feedback, especially symbol feedback. Budy (2011) stated, “Symbol feedback was found by Bruner (1915) who thought that education should pay attention on the development of the way the students think.” I am interested to do this study because I find some English Department teachers often use symbol in giving feedback. Moreover, I find one of them always uses symbol feedback as the main feedback to help the students correct their writing. It shows that the teachers believe that they can help the students improve their writing by dealing with this feedback. The question is how the students‟ can take advantages from the use of symbol feedback and how it influences the students‟ writing since they have their own way in learning something.
According to Lee (2004) as cited in Woods (2005), “Students should be independent
this study can find the advantages that the students can take from the use of symbol feedback and how it influences their writing. Besides that, the teachers of English Department can consider whether to continue using this kind of feedback or find other types of feedbacks in order to help the students deal with difficulties in writing class. Therefore, the study is important, especially for writing teachers as they can find the students‟ reactions toward the use of symbol feedback. In this case, the teachers can consider other things that they need to improve in giving feedback.
Another reason why I am interested to do this research is there are some experts who have different perception toward the use of symbol feedback. According to Leki (1990) as cited in Woods (2005), “It is important to know that students prefer error correction methods that identify the mistakes and let them correct on their own”(p.223). This statement is contradictory with Parsons (2001) as cited in Woods (2005), “Students will have difficulties to understand why the errors were indicated and simply guess the corrections as they rewrite”(p.223). These two different results of previous research remain a question about the quality of symbol feedback. According to Chiang (2004) as cited in Mahfoodh (2011), “It is hoped that more research can be conducted in an EFL setting so as to provide EFL teachers with more insights into giving effective feedback” (p.14). I believe by exploring the students‟ attitudes toward the
used of symbol feedback, the study can find the answer about the advantages and the influences of symbol feedback in writing class.
Theoretical Framework
The purpose of the study is to analyze :
Students‟ attitudes refer to the students‟ opinions or reactions toward the use of symbol
feedback. According to McLeod (2009), there are three components of attitudes :
1. Cognitivecomponent
It involves a person‟s belief or knowledge about an attitude object.
2. Affective component
It involves a person‟s feelings or emotions about the attitude object.
3. Behavioralcomponent
It is about a tendency or disposition to act in certain ways toward the attitude object.
Those three components have relationship with the use of symbol feedback as it is believed that feedback can influence the students‟ cognitive, affective, and behavior.
Grombczewska (2011) stated, “One of the indicators that influence our attitudes is feedback. Consequently, we can assume that feedback is closely connected with motivation. The way a teacher provides feedback to learners has the influence on their motivation towards learning”.
To be more precise, if the teacher gives positive feedback to the students, their attitudes will be positive in achieving the goals. On the other hands, when teachers‟ feedback is negative, it can discourage the students and create negative attitudes towards learning languages. It means that feedback influences the students‟ motivation, which can change their attitudes including their cognitive, affective, and behavior.
Cavana (2009), “Feedback is a process that guides students to close the gap between their
current and desired performance”(p.2). This statement shows that feedback can help the
students improve their skills and performances in order to make their writing better.
According to William (2003) as cited in Woods (2005), “The goal of teacher‟s feedback is to help the students improve their writing proficiency”(p.222). Hence, According to Hyland
(2000) as cited in Rowe and Wood (2011), “Feedback serves a variety of purposes including the grading of achievements, the development of students, understanding and skills, and in motivating students”(p.1). Schlossberg (2002) as cited in Efimova (2004) stated, “The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think”. From these statements, we can
identify that writing skill is very important. Therefore, when someone writes something, he or she should make sure that the readers could understand the ideas. Therefore, the writer should be more careful on grammar, punctuation, word choice, text organization, cohesive and coherence and other aspects in writing.
According to Paulus (1990) who did a research with 260 students as cited in Resor (2002), confirmed that “87% students make changes based on their teacher‟s feedback”(p.247). This idea was strengthened by Hyland (2000) who stated, “The authority of the teacher
influences the students to accept their feedback” (p.247). It means that teachers‟ feedback can be an effective way to improve the students‟ skills in writing as they can develop or make
changes in their writing. Cavana (2009) also stated, “The high quality of feedback provides opportunities for improving the quality of their work and the improvement of their results.” This statement gives clear identification that feedback, which can help the students improve their skills in writing, means that the quality of feedback is good.
Direct written teacher‟s feedback indicates the location of an error and provides clues
on how to correct it. Indirect written teacher‟s feedback indicates only the location of an error by underlining, circling, making marks where something is missing, or putting a question mark where something is unclear without indicating its nature. It is very common for some writing teachers to combine both direct and indirect written teacher‟s feedback once in a student‟s draft. (p.214)
According to Reesor (2000), “Symbol feedback is a kind of feedback that focus on form concerns more on the grammatical and language accuracy and its mechanical features”, such as: spelling and punctuation”(p.243). There are many symbols that the teachers usually use, for example, “p” means wrong punctuation, “sp” means wrong spelling, “Ro” means run on sentence, “underline” means wrong expression, and “circle” means wrong or not appropriate
words and etc. By using these symbols, the students can identify the mistakes specifically, so it is easier for them to correct their writing. Since the teachers focus on the students‟ grammatical errors and language accuracy, the students are expected to be more careful in writing. They need to pay attention on grammar and language that they use. Hence, according to Ferris (1999) as cited in Mimi (2009), “During commenting on students‟ writings, teachers may underline the grammar, spelling or mechanical mistakes which encourage students‟ self -correction”(p.61). In this case, the students need to correct and learn from their mistakes, so they can avoid the same mistakes in the future. The purpose of self-correction is to encourage the students to be independent learners. Therefore, the students can take advantages from the use of symbol feedback. According to Sinclair (2001), “Independent learner is a student who takes responsibility for thinking and learning themselves.” In this case, the teachers only give
The study
Context of the study
The setting of the study is an English Department in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. This English Department has four level writing courses, they are Guided Writing, Narrative and Descriptive Writing, Expository and Argumentative writing, and Academic Writing. In this case, every class has different teacher and every teacher usually has their own way in giving feedback, though most of them usually use symbol feedback. A further reason why I choose this university is that most of the students use English as their foreign language. It means that most of the students are still learning this language and it is possible for the learners to have some difficulties or make many mistakes in writing. Therefore, feedback is very important for the students in this university. Since it is believed that every student has his or her own way in learning English, this English Department can be a suitable place to find the students‟ attitudes toward the use of symbol feedback.
Participants
The participants of the study were 18 students who had taken Guided Writing class and had experiences in dealing with symbol feedback. The participants were chosen because the students could be considered as new students where they needed more feedback than the students who had more experiences in writing. Besides that, the students also took the writing class for the first time, so they only experienced the type of feedback that the teacher used. Therefore, the students could identify how symbol feedback could influence the students‟ writing in writing class. The study started in the end of the semester in order to identify the students‟ opinions and reactions toward their experiences in dealing with the use of symbol
Since the participants were taken from the same class, the study could find the students‟
responses toward the issue with similar experiences. The similar experiences here meant that the students had similar symbol feedback from the same teacher and duration they dealt with symbol feedback, although their attitudes which included cognitive, affective, and behavior might be different. Therefore, this method could be effective since it was more efficient and could find various opinions or reactions from the participants.
In order to find these criteria of students, I had to find a Guided Writing class where the teacher used symbol as the main feedback in checking the students‟ writing. After that, I had to
meet the students in order to inform that I needed them to be my participants.
Instrument of data collection
In attempting to answer these research questions, the data was collected through semi-structured interview. The interview focused on the students‟ attitudes toward the use of symbol feedback. In this interview, the questions were divided into two categories :
1. General questions to find the criteria of the participants and the students‟ understanding about the use of symbol feedback.
2. Specific questions to identify the students‟ attitudes toward the use of symbol feedback in writing class.
The interview consisted of 8 questions, 4 questions to identify the students‟
understanding about symbol feedback and 4 questions to identify the students‟ attitudes
but some of the participants needed more times as they wanted to express everything about symbol feedback.
In order to conduct the interview, I had to make an appointment with the participants. Since the participants were still studying in English Department, I had to find the right time to arrange the meeting and interview them. The interview was done privately, so the participants could deliver their ideas without any influence from other participants. Therefore, the interview could find various opinions and ideas about symbol feedback.
Data Collection Procedures
In order to collect the data, I conducted interview and recorded it so I could transcribe and analyze the data. In the interview, I had to make sure that the participants recognized the meaning of symbol feedback. Therefore, before I did the interview, I asked them whether they had ever found marks like circle or underline in their writing. If the students had ever found these marks, I could give them information that these marks were belong to symbol feedback, so I could start the interview. In the interview, I asked the participants based on the questions that I have made, but I also asked some more questions in order to get more information.
Data Analysis Procedures
After I interviewed all of the participants, I listened to the recording and then transcribed the data. In analyzing the data, I made a list represented the students attitudes toward the use of symbol feedback. The attitudes were categorized into three aspect, which were cognitive aspect, affective aspect, and behavior aspect. After categorizing the data, I had to convert the students‟ attitudes into percentages, so the data could be easier to understand. It
interpretation and related it to the literature review about to the use of symbol feedback. The last one was drawing the conclusion of the study based on the data I have found.
Discussion
In the discussion, I differentiated the students‟ attitudes into three aspects. They were students‟ opinions toward the use of symbol feedback in writing class, students‟ feelings
toward the use of symbol feedback in writing class, and students‟ reactions after receiving
symbol feedback in writing class. The names of the participants were changed to keep their privacy and the quotations were translated and edited from Indonesian into English.
1. Students’ opinions toward the use of symbol feedback in writing class
Diagram 1 : The comparison of number of students and their opinions toward the use of symbol feedback.
a. Symbol feedback helped the students decrease the errors
more helpful on student‟s writing development because it encourages the student to do self-editing that contributes to their accuracy in writing”(p.400). Based on the interview, I found all
of the participants (100%) said they could decrease the errors as they found the markings on their papers keep decreasing, especially the errors that they had ever made. The students found that the errors in the third writing were fewer than the second and the first writing.
Students admitted that they could identify and decrease the errors when the teacher used symbol feedback in writing :
Extract 1 (Sandra)
“Symbol feedback motivates me to write more carefully, especially with some errors that I’ve
ever made before, so I can decrease the errors.”
Extract 2 (Tata)
“When the teacher uses symbol feedback, it makes me write more carefully, especially punctuation, because I often forget to use it. Now, when I write something, I usually check the punctuation, so I can decrease the errors.”
The data showed that the students could decrease the errors by using symbol feedback. According to Erel (2007) who did study about symbol feedback found that the group who received indirect coded error feedback had more accuracy in their writing. When the students found symbol feedback in their writing, they tended to be more aware with their writing. Symbol feedback could encourage them to avoid the error because they wanted to avoid any error symbol in their next writing. For them, receiving their writing without any error marking on it was a good achievement.
writings than the students who received mostly direct feedback (p.400). It showed that the students who received symbol feedback could decrease the errors because the students were accustomed with doing self-correction. The teacher only gave the clues and helped the students identify where the mistakes and then the one who were required to solve the problems were the students themselves. In contrast, students who received direct feedback could make more errors because the students had limited experiences in correcting their own mistakes. Therefore, the students‟ experiences in dealing with their own mistakes influenced the students to be more
accurate in writing and helped them decrease the errors. The result of the study is similar with the previous studies by Erel (2007) and Ferris (2000), so there was an evidence that symbol feedback was helpful for the students in decreasing the errors as the students could improve their accuracy in writing.
b. Symbol feedback improved the students’ skills in writing
According to Schlossberg (2002) as cited in Efimova (2004), “The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think”. In order to deliver the ideas, the writers
needed to make sure that their writing is comprehensible. Therefore, the writers had to pay attention on grammar, punctuation, word choice, text organization, cohesive and coherence, so the readers could understand what the writers wanted to deliver in their writing. This statement was supported by Mahfoodh (2011) who stated, “EFL students indicated that they paid great attention to their teachers‟ feedback because they needed help to develop their writing skills
and to improve their current and future written texts”(p.21). From the result of the interview, I found all of the participants (100%) said that the use of symbol feedback could help them improve their skills in writing.
Extract 3 (Felicia)
“Symbol feedback is important for the student’s progress in writing, especially on the idea in
expressing something. Now, I think I can arrange sentence in good order, so it can be
understood.”
Extract 4 (Lisa)
“At the first time, I do so many mistakes on my writing, especially grammar. Now, I see I can write sentences with correct grammar. Actually, not 100% correct but at least I can decrease the errors.”
The statements above showed that symbol feedback did not only help the students decrease the errors, but also could help them improve their writing skills. When the teacher used symbol feedback, the teacher did not only focus on surface errors like grammar or punctuation, but the teachers also paid attention on the ideas of their writing. In this case, the students had to make their writing good and easy to understand. Therefore, when the students wanted to express something in their writing, they needed to pay attention on the words that they used, so the expressions could be meaningful and understandable.
evidence that symbol feedback had positive impact to the improvement of the students‟ skills
in writing because it seemed impossible for the students to expect their teachers to use symbol feedback if there was no advantage that they could take.
c. Symbols feedback helped the students find their weaknesses in writing
Symbol feedback could help the students find their weaknesses in writing meant that the students could see what areas that they needed to improve. When the teacher used symbol feedback, the students could identify the kind of symbols that appeared in their papers. Therefore, the students needed to improve their skills in order to deal with their weaknesses. Based on the interview, 12 students (66%) said that symbol feedback could help them identify their weaknesses.
Students admitted that they could find their weaknesses by identifying what kind of symbol that often occurred in their writing :
Extract 5 (Windi)
“I often see many circles on my paper, especially on the use of conjunctions and prepositions
like in, on, or at. I realize that I can’t use those preposition correctly. I am always confused to
use that, so I should learn to solve that.”
Extract 6 (Ema)
“When I read my writing, I look for the mistakes, so I can find my weaknesses by identifying the
symbol that often occurs on my writing. For example, there are many circles on my writing, so
Extract 7 (Mela)
“If the teacher gives me many symbols, it can help me find my weaknesses, so I should try
harder to make my writing better.”
From these statements, I could see that symbol feedback helped the student recognize their weaknesses. It was very important for the students to know their weaknesses because it could make them know the areas of writing skills that they needed to improve. Therefore, the students could learn from their own mistakes.
According to Chen (2009), “The purpose of providing feedback to the students is to
help students identify their strengths and weaknesses, so that they can learn and improve those areas”(p.162). It showed that helping students to identify their own weaknesses was very important as it allowed the students to cover their weaknesses. Furlgor (2006) as cited in Hany (2009) found that indirect feedback was very useful in encouraging the students to reflect on aspect of their writing and to improve their performances by solving the problem themselves (p.70). Hence, Hany (2009) also found that feedback was very useful in teaching and learning process, besides students would learn how to do self-evaluation, it also helped students to take greater confidence of their learning and increasing the students‟ performances (p.10). When the students knew what areas that they needed to improve, then the students could be more focus on certain areas that they needed to make it better so they could cover their weaknesses.
d. Symbols feedback helped the students achieve their expectations
learn from their mistakes to get better result. Since there was progress in their writing, the students deserved to get good marks as what they were expected. Based on the data, 90% students said that symbol feedback could help them get good grades.
Students felt that symbol feedback helped them get better grade and it was very important for them because they could achieve their expectations :
Extract 8 (Ema)
“Symbol feedback has an impact to my grades, it helps me get better and better grades, because
when I write something I try to be more careful to avoid the mistake.”
Extract 9 (Mela)
“Symbol feedback can make my writing better, so I can get better grades. Yes, I think that’s the
important point.”
These statements showed that the students understood the impact of symbol feedback to their grades. They felt that they could get better grades because they could improve their writing. Based on the participants‟ experiences, symbol feedback was not only focus on
grammar, but also on the idea and how to use the words and language appropriately. One of the participants said that, “I received symbol feedback that identify wrong punctuation, idea,
organization, and also word choice”. Therefore, there were many aspects that the students
needed to pay attention on in order to achieve their expectations. This result was supported by Nicole (2006) as cited in Wingate (2010) who thought that feedback which encouraged the students do self-corrections enabled students‟ goals and device action to achieve these goals”(p.529). If there were more efforts from the students, as it was experienced by the
Gibbs (2004) as cited in Murphy (2010) stated, “Feedback produces the most powerful single effect on achievement”(p.42). It meant that feedback influenced students‟ achievements
in learning, but if I related it to the use of symbol feedback, I found that symbol feedback had very big impact on the students‟ improvement as this feedback provided more aspects to be
corrected. According to Cavana (2009), “Feedback is a process that guides students to close the gap between their current and desired performance”(p.2). When the students realized their current positions, in this case were their abilities in writing, then the students made a target how much they needed to improve the quality of their writing. By using symbol feedback, all of the students had the same expectation that was to decrease the errors, so they could receive the papers without any mark on it. Indirectly, this expectation could encourage the students to make their writing better as they wanted good grades.
2. Students’ feelings toward the use of symbol feedback in writing class
Diagram 2 : The comparison of number of students and their feelings toward the use of symbol feedback
a. Students were motivated to be better writers
The students could enhance their performances in writing through symbol feedback. This kind of feedback represented the students‟ abilities in writing. It meant that the more
mistakes the students made, the lower the students‟ skills in writing. That is why the students
Students found that they did many mistakes at the first time, but after they dealt with symbol feedback, they admitted that it could motivate them to write better :
Extract 10 (Ema)
“Symbol feedback can help me, I mean motivates me to write better. It means that I can
decrease the errors step by step.”
Extract 11 (Mela)
“At the first time my writing is poor, then after getting symbol feedback, my writing is better.”
Extract 12 (Gary)
“Symbol feedback is good, at the first time I did many mistakes, then, next time I can correct it. So, from my poor writing, I can make good writing.”
From these statements, I could conclude that symbol feedback could give motivation to the students. Since symbol feedback helped them decrease the errors and improve their skills in writing, it was identified that there was something that encouraged and motivated them to achieve that. Every error that the students made could make them believed that they could make their writing better. It was proved by 100% of the participants who had the same opinion that symbol feedback could help and motivate them be better writers. It was supported by Cavana (2009) who stated, “The high quality of feedback provides opportunities for improving
the quality of their work and the improvement of their result” (p.3). This statement showed that
b. Students felt comfortable with the use of symbol feedback
Symbol feedback was simple as it could help the students found the clues directly. Symbol feedback was easy to understand because the students only read their papers and corrected the errors based on the symbols given. When they forgot about the meaning of the symbols, they could see the meaning on their notes. When they found the meaning of these symbols, they could find the clues how to correct the errors. Students did not have any difficulty in finding the meaning of symbol feedback because the teacher explained the meaning of those symbols at the beginning of the class. Therefore, the students could learn the meaning of those symbols from their knowledge, experiences, or by analyzing the sentences.
According to Chandler (2003) as cited in Erel (2007), “Students want error feedback and think that it helps them improve their writing skills in the target language”(p.398). This statement showed that the students really needed error feedback because they believed that they could improve their skills by dealing with it. When the students said they wanted a certain kind of feedback, it meant that they found this kind of feedback was useful and they must feel comfortable with it. From the interview, 66% students showed their pleasure in dealing with symbol feedback.
Students found symbol feedback as a simple feedback which was easy to be corrected and regarded it as teacher‟s care as they believed that the teacher read their writing carefully :
Extract 13 (Ema)
“Symbol feedback is good, I think symbol feedback is easier to be corrected. Yes, I think it is
Extract 14 (Mela)
“I’m very happy when I find there are some teachers use symbol feedback in here. I think native
teachers like using symbol feedback, that’s why I take native teacher in writing class so I can
find symbol feedback on it.”
“I like symbol feedback, especially when I find many symbols on my writing. It seems like my
teacher cares with my writing.”
These statements showed that the students felt comfortable with the use of symbol feedback. The students liked symbol feedback because it was simple, practical, and easy to understand. Moreover, a student took a class with a certain teacher in order to get symbol feedback as the student thought that it was important for her. This response represented how good symbol feedback was as the students really wanted to deal with it.
There was previous study by Chandler (2003) as cited in Erel (2007) which found that students wanted error feedback and thought that it could improve their writing skill in the target language (p.398). It meant that the students liked learning from their mistakes and believed that it could be an effective way to write better. If students wanted a certain kind of feedback, it meant that the students felt comfortable with the use of this feedback. Therefore, it was found that the students felt comfortable with the use of symbol feedback.
c. Students had negative feelings toward the use of symbol feedback
(2011) also found that the students feel frustrated when they find their drafts full of error marking (p.21). Based on the interview, 6 from 18 (33%) students said that symbol feedback could make them down. The word down here meant that the students felt disappointed with themselves. They judge themselves that they were not good enough in writing. However, this feeling was not their problems, even it encouraged them to improve their writing.
Some of the students found symbol feedback could make them disappointed with themselves. Surprisingly this feeling could motivate them to write better :
Extract 15 (Rena)
“When I see many symbols in my paper, I feel so disappointed because I make so many
mistakes. Actually it makes me feel that my writing is not good, so next time I should delete all those symbols. I mean make my writing better, so there is no more symbols.”
Extract 16 (Stefani)
“I feel so disappointed because there are too many errors in my writing. So, I just disappointed
with myself.”
harmful effects of feedback might lead the students to ignore teachers‟ feedback (p.22). This research found opposite finding that the student tended to ignore the feedback because they thought that the teacher did not really understand about their writing. Based on the data, it was found that the students did not ignore the feedback. It was true that they felt frustrated when they found marks in their writing, but it gave the students lessons that could motivated them to write better.
3. Students’ reactions after receiving symbol feedback in writing class
Diagram 3 : The comparison of number of students and their reactions after receiving symbol feedback
a. Students tried to do self-correction
work more independently or not depended on their teacher. All of the participants (100%) said that they always tried to do self-correction because they knew that they could take advantages from doing it.
Students preferred self-correction when they received symbol feedback from their teacher. They thought that it could help them in the next or future writing :
Extract 17 (Julie)
“When I receive my paper and found symbol feedback on it, I usually correct it by myself
because I want to learn from it, so next time I am accustomed to deal with it”
Extract 18 (Mela)
“I usually correct it by myself, because I think it can help me learn from the mistake itself.”
These statements showed that the students were encouraged to solve the problems more independently. They wanted to learn from their mistakes, so they could improve their future writing. From this situation, I could see that symbol feedback could encourage the students to learn to be independent learners. They did not only depend on the teachers‟ corrections, but they tried to find a way to improve their writing by their efforts and ideas. According to Ferris (1999) as cited in Mimi (2009), “During commenting on students‟ writings, teachers may underline the grammar, spelling or mechanical mistakes (treatable errors) which encourages students‟ self-correction”(p.61). It showed that the teacher wanted the students to avoid this kind of error. Based on the participants‟ experiences, symbol feedback was not only focus on
grammar, but also on the idea and how to use the words and language appropriately. One of the participants said that, “I received symbol feedback that identify wrong punctuation, idea, organization, and also word choice”. Therefore, the students needed to learn how to deal with
It was important to be independent learners in improving their writing because writing was about expressing writers‟ ideas, so the writers needed to know how to express their
feelings or deliver their ideas to the readers. In this case, every writer was expected to be able to make their writing understandable. In order to achieve that, the writers needed to understand their strengths and weaknesses and had abilities to deal with their weaknesses. There was previous study by Hany (2009) who found that when the students received symbol feedback from their teacher, they tended to reflect on aspect of their writing and improved their performance by solving the problem themselves. This finding supported the data, which the students felt that doing self-correction was important because they could learn from their mistakes that it would be useful in future writing. Therefore, they needed to learn to be independent learners in order to be able to write good writing. When the students were accustomed to do self-correction, it was believed that the students were able to deal with any difficulty in writing.
b. Students learned from their mistakes
When the students found symbols in their papers, they usually read and tried to find the reasons why there were some marks in their writing. When they found symbols in their writing, they analyzed them in order to understand the meaning of symbol feedback so they could correct the errors. Through this process, the students could learn from their own mistakes so they were able to decrease the same mistakes in the next writing. According to Mikume (2010), “Both self-correction and self editing are closely related for them broadly refer to the process
of writers reviewing their writing to improve on their clarity or to correct mistakes” (p.339). This statement was supported by Mahfoodh (2011), “Indirect feedback helped the students to
often dealt with this feedback. From the result of the data, all of the students (100%) could decrease the errors by learning from their previous mistakes.
Since the students liked doing self-correction, they could learn from the errors and believed that it would be useful for next writing :
Extract 19 (Mela)
“I usually correct it by myself, because I think it can help me learn from the mistake itself. So,
in the next writing, I can avoid the same mistake.”
Extract 20 (Gary)
“I think I must do revision. It is like my responsibility to correct it by myself. I think it is
important for me to learn from my mistake, so I won’t do the same mistake again next time.”
Extract 21 (Vivin)
“I know my weaknesses. Because I know what mistake that I often make in my writing, so I
could learn from that and I try to be more focus on that.”
failures is genuine education.” This statement confirmed that the students could take advantage from errors that they had ever made. In a similar study, Erel (2007) compared two groups: one with direct feedback and the other with indirect feedback using correction codes over a semester. All students were required to write a second draft by using this feedback. It was found that the group which received indirect coded error feedback had more accuracy in writing by the end of the semester. Therefore, feedback that could encourage the student to correct their failures could be an effective way for the students to avoid the same mistakes.
c. Students tried to write more carefully
Students tried to be more careful in doing the revision or next writing. They did that because they did not want to see any mark on their papers. Therefore, they tried to write more carefully and checked their works again before they submitted it to their teacher. It showed that symbol feedback had good impact as it influenced the students to write as good as possible. Based on the data, 100% students confessed that they always tried to write more carefully in order to get better results.
Students admitted that symbol feedback influenced them to be more careful in writing. They did that because they tried to avoid any error in their writing :
Extract 22 (Rena)
“I think my writing is better, my next writing is always better than the previous one. Because I
write more carefully, I want to delete all the error, so I expect that tomorrow I will receive my paper clean, without any symbol on it, so I write very carefully and check my writing many
times before I submit it.”
Extract 23 (Tata)
“When the teacher uses symbol feedback, it makes me write more carefully, especially punctuation, because I often forget to use it.”
These statements showed that symbol feedback had a big impact for the students to achieve better results. In order to get that, the students needed to make their writing good. Clean papers could be the most satisfying thing for the students as it told them that their writing was good or perfect, so they did not need to do some revisions. Since every student wanted his or her paper clean, he or she needed to write as good as possible. The students must be more careful in writing, which meant they needed to pay attention on every aspect such as grammar, punctuation, spelling, word choices, and many other things related to writing. Since there were many aspects that the students needed to pay attention on, there must be carefulness in making good writing. This complexity was the reason why the students tried to write as careful as they could so they could get good results as what they had expected.
Jackson (2006) as cited in Nicole (2009) stated, “Students want feedback to help them for future work”. Every feedback could help the students in future works, but symbol feedback could be very special because it focused on every aspect in writing. Therefore, the advantage of the use of symbol feedback was the improvement on every aspect on the students‟ writing itself. Besides that, William (2007) as cited in Cavana (2009) also stated, “Feedback must enable students to act on the current or future learning outcomes”(p.3). Since symbol feedback could help the students write more carefully, there should be better outcomes on the future students‟ writing. It could be a reason why symbol feedback had a positive impact for the
accuracy more than direct error feedback (p.400). This finding supported the data that the students could write more accurately when they dealt with symbol feedback. The students tended to write more carefully because they tried to avoid the same mistakes and to write as good as they could as they had expectations to receive their papers without any marks on it.
Conclusion
This research‟s purpose is to find the advantages that the students can take from the use
of symbol feedback and how it influences their writing. From the result of the study, there was an important thing about symbol feedback. It was about how symbol feedback gave impact to the student‟s attitudes, which include cognitive, affective and behavior in writing. The study
found that symbol feedback could give positive impacts towards those three aspects. In was found that the affective aspect influences the students‟ behaviors, which also gave positive impacts to their achievements in writing. Both of students‟ positive and negative feelings could
motivate them to be better writers. Therefore, the students knew what to do to after receiving feedback. The study found that after receiving symbol feedback, the students tried to do self-correction and write more carefully. Therefore, the students could decrease the errors, improve their skills, find their weaknesses, and achieve their expectations in writing.
There were various students‟ attitudes toward the use of symbol feedback, but most of
Hence, the students also needed feedback that focused on both surface errors and ideas to help them learn how to write properly. Since there were many advantages that the students could take from the use of symbol feedback, this feedback must be important for the students in order to improve their skills in writing and motivate them to be independent learners and better writers. I hope there will be further research about the use of symbol feedback, especially about how it influences the students‟ achievements since it is believed that the students have different
way in learning something and improving their writing.
Acknowledgement
Appendix
Questions (Interview)
1. Have you ever got symbol feedback from your teacher?
2. What kind of symbol feedback that your teacher uses?
3. Do you understand the meaning of symbol feedback that your teacher uses?
4. Have you ever found your classmate have difficulties and then asked you to help them
related to symbol feedback?
5. What do you feel when you receive symbol feedback from your teacher?
6. Based on your opinion, how is symbol feedback?
7. What do you do when or after you receive symbol feedback from your teacher?
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