Teachers’ feedback-giving strategies in English language assessment: a study of urban primary schools in Bangladesh

Abstract

Feedback is a key component of the learning and teaching process as it helps students to understand their strengths, weaknesses, identity where they need to work for improvement, and develop their knowledge and skills effectively on English language. By exploring feedback giving practices of teachers this study aims to understand how feedback strategies and type of feedback are applied in the real classroom setting and how teachers support students’ learning outcomes in a meaningful way. The study adopted a qualitative approach, where the researcher used the purposive sampling technique to choose seven teachers from primary level. The findings of the study were collected through semi-structured interviews. The study shows that teachers’ feedback on students' performance works significantly because without feedback learners do not understand their strengths, weaknesses and their needs. Furthermore, teachers’ guidance and instructions offer learners a better understanding of their mistakes. However, several challenges were also identified, including large classroom sizes with several students, lack of teachers’ training on feedback, lack of resources, time limitations, varying needs and levels of the learners and so forth. The findings highlight the variety of feedback strategies used by teachers based on learners' needs and performance. The study also provides insight into the role of feedback in supporting learners' learning outcomes. The findings also suggest directions for further research and improvement in feedback practices.