Use of Teachers’ Feedback on Students’ English Language Compositions in Public Secondary Schools in Murang’a County, Kenya
Wanjiku, Matheri Janet
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The main aim of this study was to highlight the use of teachers’ feedback on students’ English language compositions in public Secondary Schools in Kahuro Sub- County, Murang’a County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the research were: to establish types of feedback the teachers used on their students’ compositions, to establish students’ attitude towards teachers’ feedback in their compositions and finally to investigate the factors that influenced the types of feedback used by teachers of English in compositions. The study was based on the Model of Feedback by Hattie and Timperley (2007). It adopted descriptive survey design targeting 63 teachers of English language and 2,520 form 3 students’ compositions. Simple random sampling method was used to choose 184 form three students and 10 teachers from 3 public schools in Kahuro Sub-county, Murang'a County. The research employed questionnaire and interview schedules as the main tools for data collection. Before actual data collection, a pilot study was carried out in one school which was not incorporated in the actual analysis. The aim of the pilot study was to assess the clarity of the questionnaire items so that those items that were found to be insufficient were amended to improve the quality of the research instruments. Data collected was both quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative data was evaluated through descriptive statistics such as standard deviations, means, percentages, and frequency counts. On the other hand, qualitative data was analyzed thematically in proportion to the research objectives. The results of the study were put forward using bar graphs, pie charts and tables. Then conclusions and recommendations were presented. The study found out that the most recurring type of observations given by the teachers on the students’ compositions were on general comments which majorly focused on grammatical errors. The study further revealed a significant relationship between the students’ attitudes towards teachers’ feedback on English language composition and their rating for various types of comments given by the teachers. The factors that influenced the various types of comments that teachers gave on English language compositions were: the students’ handwriting, the students’ spelling of different words, grammatical errors in the students’ compositions; wrong use of language by students; the teachers’ workload and strict deadlines. The study recommends that teachers should be more detailed and specific with the comments that they give to their students and should avoid giving their students general comments on compositions. Students should practise composition writing and initiate a culture of using English language as their mode of communication. The school management should ensure that they equip the schools with the necessary reading materials that will help students improve their composition writing.