Dr Iria Gonzalez-Becerra was appointed Acting Languages Field Leader in Spring 2024 and meetings were held with student reps to ensure that the reports they had compiled with her predecessor were taken into consideration. As only 26 students responded to MEQ, other sources of feedback such as the I-Explore survey have been used to compile this report.   

Dr Gonzalez-Becerra would like to extend her thanks to student reps for ensuring the feedback received was granular. It included numbers of respondents and specified the levels to which this feedback pertained: this has been very helpful to understand the areas of improvement. While in several cases reps were only able to gather feedback from a small sample of peers, the two meetings conducted were productive to understand what we can do to improve the learning experience.  

Course content

The offer of free language lessons that could cost thousands if done outside of Imperial is amazing and I am always so confused as to why everyone doesn't take this opportunity.” (respondent, I-Explore survey) 

In the I-Explore survey, students reported a positive relationship with their learning experience and allocated a high value to language learning praising how it provided them with intellectual stimulation, opportunities for joyful learning and useful skills which they would have otherwise missed. Students perceive our subjects contribute to their global graduateness and intercultural awareness, either through an increased proficiency, through the cultural content of the lessons or through the opportunity to interact with peers from diverse backgrounds. The below Wordcloud summarises how our courses are perceived using students’ own words:  

Communication opportunities

While most languages score highly or very highly in how they develop communication skills, during the staff student-committee, further communication opportunities were requested. We continue providing our students with interactive sessions and multimedia materials on the VLE. Many languages have now reviewed their assessment to ensure that practical communication is well represented.  

The CLCC Language Exchange (formerly Language Pairs) has been highlighted to students  alongside other initiatives run within each language ranging from talks by visiting speakers to the Japanese speech contest.  

Assessment and Feedback

Student reps confirmed that the preference is for more pieces of assessment with lower weighting, avoiding high stakes examinations at the end of the academic year and offering more flexibility for students to plan their revision in smaller chunks. This approach is standard in language learning, and it allows for feedback to be received across the academic year, supporting students’ development. 

Students enjoy having the opportunity to receive comments on their work at different points during the academic year and praised the feedback received from their teachers. We have been alerted to a couple of cases where feedback may have been received late: we will continue reminding colleagues that coursework feedback should be returned within 2 weeks. However, examinations feedback is a different matter as we need more time to conduct second marking. Most languages now publish a calendar of assessment which includes when feedback will be provided at the start of year; this will be rolled over across the board.  

There were some concerns in terms of overlap between deadlines for coursework and exams with some students’ own departments’ assessment. This is unavoidable as we cater for students from every department across the college and each has their own timetable. 

In a handful of modules students have reported that the content of exams was above what they expected as it included vocabulary not seen in class; it is important to note that independent study outside of the classroom, using the materials that teachers provide on the VLE, is key to succeed in language learning. Some of these materials may contain extra grammatical information or vocabulary which should be covered to ensure readiness for real life communication.    

Technology

Feedback pertaining the VLE was mainly positive. The negatives focused on difficulties navigating the main page where information is held in folders lacking clear signposting or where old materials were still available. The timeliness of materials publication was also an issue in several modules. We are hoping to roll over a common blueprint which has been trialled in Spanish and French courses during the 2020-2022 academic years - students have praised its clarity and user-friendly design as they find the same organisation of materials throughout the different courses they attend, and/or because it clearly separates assessment materials from weekly materials and signposts all relevant information on the CLCC website.  

Online assessment and feedback tools are now used more effectively across several teams and we hope to roll out shared rubrics across some of the larger languages. We have also been trialling new editorial guidelines for the Grade Centre which we hope to apply across some of the larger languages in the next academic year. Editorial guidelines and minimum expectations of engagement with the platform will be designed both for teachers and students.   

We know the VLE is not a perfect platform and try to work within its limitations; we are also learning as we go! We encourage our students to give us feedback and raise any issues as soon as these are found. 

Other

Individual concerns about textbooks, class materials or specific teachers have been passed on to the relevant coordinators. We’d like to encourage students to raise these concerns in conversation with the relevant teacher or coordinator. To note, however, that materials are selected sometimes by their fit to the syllabus, to the topics or because of their coherent pedagogical approach and clarity: these materials may not be the preferred option for some students, but they will have been curated by your teachers and chosen because they work for the relevant outcomes. There has been some debate on the value of games and quizzes – mixed feedback – and on whether we should map the syllabus to that provided by learning apps. Learning apps are a good tool for independent learning, but they do not develop the academic outcomes that our courses achieve. Do please use them to review during the summer! 

Workload

The issue of workload usually features in student feedback, however, after the curricular alignment exercise where assessment was rationalised in the larger languages and a more formative culture established, we have observed that the levels of anxiety from students on this matter in aligned modules have lowered. References to an overburdened curriculum in the I-Explore survey were limited: 8 participants (15% of responses received in this field) described their relationship with languages in I-Explore with terms such as ‘tasking’, ‘burdensome’ or ‘too much work’. Student reps reported that the languages workload overall is acceptable and even perceived as lighter / better distributed than in other subjects, signalling that the steps we have taken are working.