Mrs Tanja Bloss

Research project: How might learners' experience of assignment feedback be enhanced in a German course at A-level in a sixth form college?

Abstract

The study is an investigation into students' interpretation of feedback on written work and into their responses to the feedback in a German A-level course. It is carried out with the aims to investigate how students reflect and process feedback on their written responses at a 6th form college to find out how students utilise the comments to move their language learning forward. The enquiry is an investigation of my own practice and it will focus on written feedback on written work. Whilst students usually receive the feedback in class, there is a tendency that the processing of the feedback happens away from the classroom. The study will try to articulate this processing of feedback that is usually invisible to inform my understanding as a practitioner. The research aims to answer the following research questions: How do students of German experience teacher feedback on their written tasks? – How might the feedback process be improved for students of German at a 6th form college. 

  • Research degree: EdD
  • Title of project: How might learners' experience of assignment feedback be enhanced in a German course at A-level in a sixth form college?
  • Research supervisors:

Biography

I studied German and English at the University of Bremen, Germany to gain a teaching qualification for secondary schools, the so called "First state exams". I completed my PGCE in Modern foreign languages at the University of Bristol and worked for 10 years in a secondary comprehensive school where I taught German, French and Italian. I subsequently moved on to a sixth form college, where I teach German A-level.

Areas of research interest

  • language acquisition
  • foreign language teaching
  • feedback as part of teaching and learning
  • professional knowledge

Qualifications

  • First state exams in German and English
  • PGCE in Modern foreign languages
  • BA in Modern foreign languages (French and Spanish)
  • Master in Education