Understanding student engagement with teacher feedback in Chinese-to-English consecutive interpreting courses

Abstract

While research on student engagement with oral and written corrective feedback (CF) in second language acquisition (SLA) is well established, the study of such engagement within the context of interpreting, which requires bilingual conversion, is not as developed. Building on Ellis’ tripartite conceptualization of student engagement – comprising affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses – this study explored the engagement of 30 students with teacher feedback in three Chinese-to-English consecutive interpreting courses. Data were collected through classroom recordings, semi-structured interviews, stimulated recall sessions, and students’ in-class notes. The findings indicated that, affectively, all students highly valued and presented overall affirmative emotions towards teacher feedback. Cognitively, students employed various cognitive strategies, including active attribution, mental rehearsal, and information categorization in processing feedback information; however, they encountered challenges in fully understanding the content and process-focused feedback. Behaviorally, two predominant note-taking patterns emerged: ‘language-oriented’ and ‘skill-oriented’. The findings emphasize the critical role of interpreting practice in language acquisition and underscore the need to refine pedagogical approaches in interpreting courses to support both language learning and interpreter training.