Evaluating written versus audio feedback in formative assessment of consecutive interpreting
An exploratory qualitative investigation
In formative assessment, teacher feedback can enhance student learning. To reap such benefits, educators need to
deliver feedback in such a way that arouses students’ learning interest, invites their active engagement, and inspires follow-up
action. We report on an exploratory qualitative study that compares two modalities of teacher feedback, namely, written versus
audio feedback, provided to a group of 41 students in a consecutive interpreting course. Our qualitative content analysis of the
students’ responses to the questionnaire reveals 25 lower-order themes, categorized into seven higher-order themes concerning
inherent properties (informational, structural, and prosodic) and consequential aspects (communicative, functional, affective, and
metacognitive) of written/audio feedback. Overall, the results seem to show the students’ preference for the audio feedback,
because of its informativeness, specificity, interactivity, and affective/cognitive benefits. We discuss these results in terms of
students’ learning gains, learning style, task-feedback alignment, and relationship between feedback specificity and modality for
interpreter training.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature review
- 2.1Written versus audio feedback in higher education
- 2.2Feedback in translator and interpreter training
- 3.Method
- 3.1Background to the study
- 3.2Research questions
- 3.3Research design
- 3.3.1Participants
- 3.3.2Assessment criteria
- 3.3.3Formative teacher feedback
- 3.3.4Data collection
- 3.3.5Data analysis
- 4.Results
- 4.1Potential trends and patterns
- 4.2Lower-order themes concerning the audio feedback
- 4.3Lower-order themes concerning the written feedback
- 4.4Suggestions for the feedback practice
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusion
-
References