Part 3 Understanding Theory and Issues in the Field

Part 3.3 Reflection on action research proposal: Effective Oral Feedback in EFL
This action research project proposal was written for my AL 6961 Practicum I in TESOL
course during spring semester 2013. This course requires students to choose a specific area of
interest for action research based on language class observations. Through my observations of
many different classes, I became impressed by how teachers used various activities and provided
a comfortable and relaxed classroom environment for their students. At the same time, I looked
back on my first English teaching lessons at an elementary school in Japan, and I remembered
how nervous I was and how I just followed the teaching manual. I could not check how my
students acted or felt or give them encouraging feedback during the lesson. Gradually, I got used
to teaching and I could see that the students enjoyed our class more. Still, I had questions about
how to respond to my students, particularly since they were not all the same in their levels or
personalities. Based on this past experience, I chose my topic to be about giving effective oral
feedback.
From my reading, I learned one way to make a positive learning environment is to
provide different types of feedback depending on the students, their level, and the purpose of the
lesson. With sensitive feedback, they will be able to understand the class and will not have
anxious feelings during the class. The class environment will improve because they can maintain
their motivation. I also imagined my former classes and students in Japan and decided that my
action research proposal would focus on them. They will be 5th and 6th graders in an elementary
school in Japan. There are 20 to 30 beginning level students in one class. Although each student
is different, in general, all of them will have a high motivation to learn English.

There are some strengths in this paper. Since I chose the research topic from my teaching
experience, I had a clear objective for this paper and high motivation to do the research because I
would like to improve and develop my teaching methods. It can be said that this paper is really
meaningful.
Another strength is I was able to offer detailed examples about my methodology showing
how I would try to conduct my research. For example, I explained that I would collect data on
how I give feedback using a questionnaire. I might also try to give one specific form of feedback
over a period of time for each class and ask students how they feel about it. Through this
experiment, I will be able to compare different forms of feedback to see which ones are effective
for my students.
There are also some weaknesses in this paper. I struggled with wordiness and repetition
of words and phrases which made my writing seem less academic. After I received feedback
from my mentor and reader, I revised it and I hope my revised paper reads more professionally
than before. If I have the chance, I would like to practice and continue to write this type of
academic paper in the future in order to develop my skills.
In conclusion, I would like to use oral feedback for my future classroom teaching. In the
process of writing this paper, I faced a lot of difficulties, as well as gaining knowledge and
insight through the literature review. However, I believe that this research is just the beginning of
my being able to give appropriate oral feedback, and that it will be better and more developed if I
can find some more effective ways to implement this strategy in the future.