Responding to Experiences of Second Language Teaching (RESULT)

This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a research-informed, subject-specific Pupil Perception Survey (PPS) as a tool for languages teachers’ professional learning.

Could a simple pupil survey help teachers to support pupil engagement and attainment in languages? This project addresses an urgent need to support the professional learning of in-service languages teachers in secondary schools in England, at a time when pupil uptake, motivation, and attainment in languages remain persistently low. It responds to a nationally identified need to improve teaching quality in scalable, sustainable ways and introduces an innovative, research-informed mechanism, Pupil Perception Surveys (PPS), to support professional learning in a subject-specific, personalised, and practical manner. While PPS tools have been used internationally in high-stakes accountability contexts, this project reframes them as developmental instruments, offering new insights into the feedback loops that can enhance teacher reflection, agency, and effectiveness. It will generate theoretical and practical knowledge about teacher engagement with feedback, the dynamics of subject-specific pedagogical change, and the reliability of pupil voice as a quality indicator.

The project aims to offer all languages teachers in England’s secondary schools a practical, low-cost, and personalised means of enhancing their teaching. This has the potential to:

• Improve pedagogical practice through timely, pupil-informed feedback.
• Empower teachers to focus professional learning on actionable areas.
• Raise pupil engagement and attainment in languages.
• Serve as a scalable model for PPS implementation in other subject areas.