Student Reflections

LinguaThinking places academic integrity, thoughtful learning, and intellectual development at the centre of its work.

The comments on this page and in the document below are offered as an insight into past students’ experiences of language learning. They illustrate themes that matter deeply to LinguaThinking: developing confidence and precision in language usage, improving analytical and critical thinking, engaging rigorously with literature and culture, and preparing for the demands of advanced study. 

“Thank you for developing my analytical and writing skills, which have continuously been praised in my academic work”.

- Former student of Italian.

A wider selection of student reflections can be found here, in this downloadable document for those who wish to explore them in more detail.

Student reflections

The following comments are drawn from anonymous student feedback questionnaires and are included to illustrate aspects of the learning process discussed elsewhere on this page.

How has the academic support you have received supported you to progress with your learning? 

“I received academic support for my French A Level oral exam. I was struggling with this a lot beforehand as I had limited help from school, but Catherine helped me feel so much more confident. My sessions with Catherine made me truly enjoy speaking French for the first time and made the subject something I enjoyed - I always looked forwards to our sessions when in the past speaking French felt so much more scary.”

 “Having lessons multiple times per week was very beneficial to my French GCSE speaking exam. I was given lots of useful structures and feedback that I can now hopefully input into my following French exams. The support that I received helped with confidence immensely."

What did you particularly like about working with LinguaThinking? 

“I liked how Catherine was such a lovely person to work with - she clearly is an expert in her field, and is just so friendly and supportive. It felt like a very nurturing, non judgemental environment. And I appreciated how well structured the sessions were - they always felt very productive.”

“I really liked the app that we used during the sessions. It stored all the information that we had covered in the sessions and it was accessible outside of tutoring. I really appreciated the feedback I was given as well, as even when I was corrected, I felt motivated to try again until I could get it right. Very enjoyable, thorough sessions.”

Would you recommend Linguathinking to other students? Please state why and what could be improved.

“Yes she is excellent, thoroughly knowledgeable, patient and kind.”

“Yes definitely - Catherine was always so friendly and supportive, and her help was so valuable. I don't have any improvements because I feel like when I was working with Catherine she would always ask for my feedback and what I wanted to go through in the next session, so everything was tailored to me as we progressed through the sessions.”

“I definitely would recommend Dr Buckwell. She was very flexible with timings and able to squeeze me into her schedule at short notice which I found especially convenient. The feedback was very useful and supported my learning. I also felt enthusiastic about speaking French as the lessons were very enjoyable. I don't really have anything to criticise as I really enjoyed the sessions and found them extremely useful both for my oral and in improving the quality of my French writing.”

Outcomes : long term academic and intellectual development

Through their own hard work and dedication, and sustained engagement with language, literature and culture, students have achieved a range of strong outcomes in public examinations and university admissions. These include places on highly competitive courses including Oxford, Cambridge and other Russell Group universities, pursuing doctoral research in languages, linguistics, or related fields, full marks in individual examination components, and significant improvement in A Level, (I)GCSE and IB performance.

It is hoped that these reflections speak not only to thorough preparation for examinations, but also to the development of confidence, serious study habits, intellectual curiosity, and readiness for real-world language usage.