Author: Martha Partridge

by Martha Partridge

Introduction 

Feedback is often identified by students as among the most important aspects of a course, and there is abundant literature showing the impact of quality feedback on student learning (see Hattie and Timperley, 2007, for a summary of meta-analyses on feedback). Most of this research is about the traditional written form of feedback, but I want to learn more about alternative modes such as audio and audio-visual. Surely some students would find these forms of feedback more effective than written, just as some people are better able to follow written instructions, while some need visuals and some prefer a spoken explanation. (more…)

by Martha Partridge and Agnieszka Tarnowska

Introduction

At the very beginning of the 2022 pre-sessional course, a colleague I had not previously worked with – Agnieszka Tarnowska – shared an idea for encouraging students to engage with reflection. She used Flipgrid – a free video-sharing platform – as a space in which students could record reflective videos throughout the course, to which the teacher would respond with written comments (read her explanation below. This had worked very effectively with her class last year, she explained, with her students choosing to regularly use it of their own accord. My own attempts at incorporating Flipgrid had consistently been far less successful; I was impressed, and curious. (more…)

by Martha Partridge

Introduction 

Corpus Linguistics (CL) appears to intrigue people. Associations of forensic analysis and archaeological investigation seem to abound: examining collocates; digging for words; mining language. CL studies often refer to indecipherable statistical measures and linguistic abbreviations, too: n-grams, LogLikelihood, T-score, chi-squared test, lempos, KWIC – the list goes on. CL could therefore seem a little intimidating, and perhaps curious teacher-researchers are deterred from trying some corpus-based experiments themselves. Approached systematically and with curiosity however, CL offers an accessible and adaptable method of language study.  (more…)