What a brilliant teacher. She gave me precise corrections and at the end of the lesson, a totally original message that clearly pointed out my weaknesses…. Added her to my favorites and definitely taking her lesson again!

- A Japanese student on her social media account

Giving students the feedback that they want is a surefire way to ensure they book another lesson. How can we make sure we’re meeting their expectations for feedback and what does professional feedback look like? 

The answer to that can be found below, alongside some examples of great feedback given to English learners preparing for speaking tests.

Sample 1: Conversational Feedback

This sample shows a teacher giving feedback in the form of a conversation. In other words, instead of simply jumping to the feedback, he starts by asking the student how she felt about her performance. This gives her a chance to voice her concerns and then helps him address them with specific feedback.

For example, the student is concerned about her vocabulary being too basic and the teacher then follows up by asking her why she felt that way. This prompts the student to think more deeply about what she could have done better and then makes her more receptive to his advice (i.e. how to vary her vocabulary).

When giving the advice, he stays conversational. For example, instead of directly telling her synonyms for “good,” he asks her to come up with some: “[In] ‘good infrastructure,’ what word could we use instead of ‘good’ for infrastructure’?”

While some students prefer that we directly tell them the feedback, many enjoy this more interactive approach! Just keep in mind that this works better with regular students, who already feel more comfortable with you.

Sample 2: Clear Framework

You’ll notice the feedback is very thorough which is not totally necessary in our case. And in fact, being this thorough can even be overwhelming for our students (unless they were preparing for a standardized test).

Now onto a more applicable aspect of this feedback session: the teacher uses a clear framework, the IELTS scoring guidelines, which are:

• fluency and coherence
• lexical resource (vocabulary)
• grammatical range and accuracy
• pronunciation

The full IELTS Speaking exam rubric can be found here. We don’t have to use this exact framework. Other approaches to feedback are also very useful,such as the following: 

• CAF, which stands for “complexity,” “accuracy,” and “fluency.”
• ACTFL’s 10-level Proficiency Guidelines. 
• TOEFL iBT Speaking rubric.

An advantage of becoming familiar with the IELTS, TOEFL, or ACTFL rubrics is that many of our students take these tests (the ACTFL rubric is used for the OPIc test). However, learning a test rubric isn’t absolutely necessary. In fact, many tutors have their own systems! 

Whatever the case, it helps to have a framework to guide your feedback and make sure you’re being comprehensive. (For example, after learning the IELTS guidelines, I realized that I tend to give more feedback on vocabulary and pronunciation and less on grammar and fluency.)

However, different students want different kinds of feedback, so it’s better to give feedback on many different aspects of their language use, let them have some choice over what weaknesses to focus on, and then hone in on them.

Sample 3: Specific, Positive Feedback

Out of the three samples, this one gives by far the most specific feedback. Along with each of the student’s responses, a speech bubble appears, pointing out some mistakes, but also aptly-used specific words and phrases. 

This is a good reminder that feedback can also be positive. However, positive feedback needs to be specific as well. If it’s too vague, it can come across as fake and also be ineffective. 

A report by Cambridge University explains that “praise is least effective when it is general (such as praise for having completed a task), because it does not provide any information which learners can use to further their learning.”

In other words, if you praise a student about something in particular (e.g. “great pronunciation of the ‘r’ sound!”), they’ll know to keep doing that.

Tutor Royaltyunen (🇧🇯) shares one way to provide this sort of specific feedback: “Sometimes when I hear a student use an expression well, I start clapping, and say, ‘I like that expression’ or ‘I’ve never seen a student use that expression’.”

📌 Takeaways

To sum up, here are some ways to deliver professional feedback:

1. Keep it conversational: Ask the student what they thought before telling them the answer.
2. Use a framework: This way you won’t miss anything.
3. Be specific with positive feedback: Don’t just say “good job” say “good job with X.”

However, remember that every student is different. Some students want extensive feedback, while others don’t care about it and don’t read post-lesson notes at all. As Tutor Asja (🇧🇦) suggests, “Instead of guessing based on the student’s level, reasons for studying, or personality, I usually just ask them what kind of feedback they want.”

So always remember to ask. Then if the student says they want feedback, try to use the advice in this piece to help craft a good one. Happy tutoring!