EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK'S STRATEGIES

Effective Feedback’s Strategies

 

In the absence of feedback, you are not aware of what you need to do to make your language learning better. 

You do not know what to do for the next step after performing a language output. Unlike the concept of a language output, which are speaking and writing, feedback may be obscuring for language-learning beginners in practice.

In language-learning, just like any other sports, some people are better at one thing and others are good at another. 

For example, he or she is better at writing, and the other is better at speaking. Everyone has strength and weakness of his own and likes and dislikes by nature. 

This is generally recognized among us, and it is undoubtable. 

We are all not perfect and we are all different. 

We have a different mouth, different eyes, different ears etc. 

Therefore, it is necessary to have differentiated strategies to improve the quality of feedback based on a each person’s needs.

    

(1) Improve and Enhance

 

With regards to feedback in the context of a language-learning, you can choose either way or both ways: one is to center on the improvement of your drawbacks. For example, if you are not good at speaking, you try to focus on improving your speaking. You may start to correct your pronunciations by reciting. 

The other is to center on the enhancement of your advantages. If you are already better at speaking, you may join a speech contest or do some oral presentations to ameliorate your oral skills. 

Both of ways are challenging. However, each one of them has a distinctive nature. 

Aside the enhancement of your advantages, we need to be aware and consider why some people are not good at speaking, for example. 

We further need to pay a special attention to whether the improvement of drawback is viable or not within our estimation.

During my internship at an international organization, I attended plenty of meetings with the employees with a wide range of nationalities. 

They were all excellent in speaking and writing in English. However, each one of them has a distinctive manner to speak and select words with a distinctive intonation. 

At the end of the day, when you learn another language, you are not expected to be a native language speaker. 

For example, the pronunciation may not be deemed as a serious drawback as long as there is no substantive errors or confusions. Therefore, it is crucial to consider sufficiently how to frame your drawbacks.

Generally speaking, it is recommendable that you focus on the enhancement of your advantage since the improvement of drawbacks may discourage you from continuing to learn a language. 

That may result in defeating the purpose. 

On the other hand, with the enhancement of what you are already good at, you may feel more rewarded and joyous from practice. In short, it is more fun to ameliorate your strength.

In a broader sense of the enhancement of advantages, you may take advantage of the roots or the nature of your mother tongue. 

In my case, one of the main initiatives to learn Chinese was that I already knew it would have been easier for me to learn it compared with other languages. 

Whether you know or not, Chinese and Japanese have a partial commonality of writing letters. 

In addition, we have similar culture in a certain way. In doing so, the underlying concepts of the expressions of Chinese and Japanese are quite similar. 

Hence, it was undemanding for me to comprehend them. On that account, a language-learning of Chinese was very smooth. It did not take me to learn to speak Chinese as long a Spanish.

 

(2) Apply Depth and Extension Approach

 

Depth approach refers to attempting to understand feedback in depth. 

Certainly, it is essential to analyze the result of a language output substantively. 

But it should not be to what extent you get discouraged and tired out. Without knowing the mechanism of grammar, we can speak and write. 

The bottom line is that there are so many things to do to improve your language learning. 

Do not waste your time only for one part of a language learning.

In the feedback process, for instance, you may want to understand a certain grammar in depth and seeking an explanation in that respect. 

I must admit that this intent is not a bad thing to a certain extent. 

We should localize a way to improve your language output through web research, going over a textbook or simply asking your language teacher. 

However, having said that, you may possibly stop and wonder if it is necessary for you to understand every detail in depth (It may not sound compatible, but I normally want to understand the grammar in depth. However, my objective to do that is not to get better at a language but to compare with other languages to get some insights). 

Understanding a theory perfectly does not necessarily mean that you can do it in practice. 

The fact that you succeed in practicing one time does not mean that you can do it next time in the same way. 

Understanding grammar better is necessary for you to be a foreign language teacher who needs to articulate about grammar but may not be necessary for you to be able to speak and write in a foreign language. 

What you need to do is to be able to speak and write, not understand grammar completely. 

It is crucial to integrate a language output into feedback process. 

I acknowledge that it is better for you to be able to speak and write with correct knowledge about grammar. 

Nevertheless, which do you choose, you want to be the one who understands a grammar perfectly but not able to speak and write or the who does not understand a grammar at all but able to speak and write. 

Lots of native speakers do not understand well grammar but they can speak and write. 

Therefore, it is important to understand anything about a language and do not forget the purpose of a language-learning!

Extension approach can be an instrument for feedback. This may require a substantive skill of problem-solving approach. 

This may not be for beginners. 

However, you can apply it to your feedback process. 

Extension approach refers to pattern changing. We are likely to find an answer in the textbook or language relevant materials in the face of the improvement or the enhancement of a language output. 

By and large, it is normal to practice it because that is the way it is. 

However, have you ever heard that Selena Williams, excellent tennis player, applied dancing techniques to improve her tennis skills? Or nowadays, more and more automakers are replacing engine with electric batteries to drive a car.  

Depth approach in this context is to develop the traditional engine of less CO2 emissions, which is predictable and explainable. Therefore, it is a further away on singe line. 

On the other hand, extension approach is to recreate old patterns and fabricate a completely new pattern to solve the problem. 

We never expected that batteries drive a real car and contributes to zero CO2 emissions.

  

In the context of a language learning, you could record your voice to improve your pronunciation as feedback just like singers record their voice to improve a way of singing. 

You may learn a non-verbal communication instead of a language itself. 

If you are in a foreign country and like a football, you may join a local soccer club while improving your conversational skills. 

There is no single answer in this regard.

However, it is fun to be creative. 

Therefore, my advice is step backwards and look around. Though it rests on the nature of the problems that you have, you may find an alternative solution to your language output in your daily life since we speak and write every single day. 

The answers could be everywhere.

 

(3) Lay the groundwork for assistance

 

It is not simple to have an objective point of view to criticize oneself. 

We, human beings, are likely to be subjective to anything. 

Even though you may think that you are impartial, but we are biased within an impartiality of our own. 

The most practical way to get feedback is ask for advice to anyone who has more knowledge than you regarding a language that you are learning.

For example, if you learn Spanish, attempt to know Spanish teachers, native Spanish people and people who study Spanish like you. 

You are surrounded by a wide set of Spanish language advisors. 

As the previous examples indicated, your advisors can be a language teacher, your classmate if you go to a language school or a native language speaker. 

You can find anyone who is better than you at a language that you are learning. 

However, if you find a right person for it, you can ask him or her to get feedback all the time since the trust between you and your advisors matter as well.

Considering that you need to practice a language repeatedly, it is more crucial to lay the groundwork for having a wide set of language advisors than find a good teacher since the approachability of your teacher is another factor as well. 

This enables you to obtain feedback whenever you want. Moreover, it is true that your teacher may be unlikely to give you feedback in a way that you can comprehend. 

Or he may be considered a good teacher in explaining a grammar but not good enough to provide you with an applicable approach to improve your weakness.

If you are a language-learning beginner, a language teacher who speaks your language and a language that you are learning is a right person for you since he already knows the potential difficulties that you are likely to face. 

They further can articulate your problems and his feedbacks in your language. 

Your classmates who are better than you at the language tend to be approachable and are likely to spare their time with you whilst having fun together and discuss any type of questions. 

For speaking and writing, a native language speaker would be a right person.

 

(4) Call into Question

 

Questioning is a beginning of the improvement and the enhancement. 

The fundamental question is how do we make it better? 

If you do not ask why, you continue making the same mistakes with your same language skills. 

You may feel hesitated when you ask someone for feedback on your language level but from my experience, people are more than happy to help you! 

However, it is you to take initiative in that regard. Another aspect is that it would be nice to have a native language real friend who can do a language exchange with your mother tongue. In doing so, you can discover more things in a fun way.

Consequently, it is a good sign that you keep a list of questions concerning any language relevant issues since that is a part where you can improve or enhance. 

On the other hand, if you are not aware of the problems that you have, you cannot even make it better neither solve it. Therefore, overall, the feedback process is unavoidable for a language output.

 

Thanks for reading,

Hilano Aquihisa