Action research (AR) is becoming increasingly popular in ELT contexts as a means of continuous professional development. The positive impacts of AR on language teacher development are well documented, but the important question of how those impacts can be sustained over time is virtually unexplored. Drawing on findings from a study of teachers in…

Language teachers constantly create, adapt and evaluate classroom materials to develop new curricula and meet their learners' needs. It has long been argued (e.g. by Stenhouse, L. [1975]. "An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development." London: Heinemann) that teachers themselves, as opposed to managers or course book writers,…

This study explores how two language teachers constructed and reconstructed their professional identities through their action research (AR) facilitated by university researchers in China. Informed by the theory of 'community of practice', the findings of the study show that AR exerted a transformative impact on the teachers' identity development.…

Accounts of how teacher educators begin to plan, develop, and support action research programmes for language teachers are rare, as are descriptions of the responses of the teachers who participate. This article documents and analyses the initial processes of introducing and supporting a new programme of action research for language teachers at…

Describes a recent national project focusing on involving teachers in carrying out action research in their teaching of vocabulary and the vocabulary learning of their own students. Teachers are given the opportunity to raise their professional knowledge and awareness of vocabulary issues and then to investigate their own classes. (Adjunct ERIC…