Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Separated by a common language of assessment? Undertaking a linguistic analysis of assessment documentation

West, Harry; Rudge, Luke

Authors

Profile Image

Dr Harry West Harry.West@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in Geography & Environmental Management

Luke Rudge Luke2.Rudge@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics



Abstract

Assessment and feedback are a key part of the student experience in higher education. Despite advances in practice in recent years, universities still frequency receive low student satisfaction scores in this area. Reasons for this may include discrepancies in the understanding and interpretation of the language used in assessment. As part of a wider QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project, this paper reflects on the process of performing linguistic analyses across a broad range of assessment documentation with four partner institutions in the UK. Corpus linguistic analyses were undertaken using Sketch Engine to identify frequently used and salient terms in assessment documentation across the partner institutions. This informed the next stages of the project to measure student comprehension and levels of understanding of the language identified. This paper presents the findings of the linguistic analysis and reflects on the process of working in collaborative partnership across different institutions.

Citation

West, H., & Rudge, L. (2021, December). Separated by a common language of assessment? Undertaking a linguistic analysis of assessment documentation. Paper presented at Society for Research into Higher Education Annual Conference, Online

Presentation Conference Type Conference Paper (unpublished)
Conference Name Society for Research into Higher Education Annual Conference
Conference Location Online
Start Date Dec 10, 2021
End Date Dec 10, 2021
Deposit Date Dec 13, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/8256801