Appraisal in student-supervisor conferencing: a linguistic analysis

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Clinical Education
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Student-supervisor conferences are crucial for clinical education, guiding student work and feedback.
• Limited research exists on the linguistic strategies used to manage interpersonal dynamics in these partnerships.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe linguistic resources used by clinical educators and students for evaluating work and learning in routine conferences.
• To explore how language use reflects individual styles or varies across partners and time.

Main Methods:

• Descriptive study using case studies and grouped data from ten audio-recorded student-supervisor interactions.
• Linguistic analysis of Appraisal resources (Affect, Judgement, Appreciation) from a Systemic Functional Linguistics perspective.

Main Results:

• Educators proportionally used more Judgement, while students used more Affect evaluations.
• Positive Judgements were often direct; negative ones were implicit.
• Educators utilized diverse linguistic resources, not fixed supervisory styles.

Conclusions:

• Findings offer insights for clinical educators to reflect on their supervisory practices.
• Highlights the need for longitudinal research and studies on interactive learning in clinical education models.