The role of intuition and the part it plays in effective pedagogical responses has barely been recognised in the field of English language teaching, or indeed in education more generally. This is likely to be because intuition is a slippery concept difficult to define, understand and investigate. With this challenge in mind, through narrative…

Over the past decades, research on language teachers' engagement in action research (AR) and more recently on their emotion labor has exponentially grown. However, little research is available on how AR and emotion labor intersect to shape language teacher professional development. This study addressed this gap by reporting on how four Iranian…

The article reflects on ways in which the use of participatory action research (PAR) in a study to improve the teaching of English as a second or additional language, promoted knowledge democracy. In the article, we pay special attention to how nine Senior Phase/Junior Secondary (Grade 7-9) school-teachers of English as a second or additional…

The number of reports and publications about exploratory action research (EAR) has been increasing in recent years; however, there is still a dearth of studies that examine its effectiveness for improving teaching and learning. This study explores Nepalese EFL teachers' perceptions of EAR, the ways they explored their classroom issues, and how…

This article addresses the critical need to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical skills in pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher education in Egypt. It argues that a more practical orientation in teacher preparation is essential for addressing the specific challenges and opportunities present in Egyptian EFL…

Within English supplementary tutoring centers in China, the professional development teachers are afforded is limited due to time constraints and the qualifications of teacher trainers within those centers. To facilitate a novel means of engaging teachers in their professional development related to guided reading, an innovation configurations map…

Despite the growing body of studies on action research (AR) in second/foreign language (L2) education, little is known about teachers' beliefs about AR among different age groups. Hence, this study investigates whether L2 teachers' beliefs about AR vary by considering teachers' age. The Inventory on Teachers' Beliefs about Action Research (ITBAR)…

This article reports the impact of an exploratory action research (EAR) project on developing teachers' action research competencies. Through various face-to-face and online activities, the project facilitated four English language teachers to conduct EAR in their teaching contexts. Qualitative data were collected through reflective journals and…

This article analyses the practices, beliefs, and challenges of in-service Nepali EFL teachers who are required to carry out action research and submit a written report for their performance appraisal. We have analysed action research reports (n = 88) and interviews (n = 6) with public-school EFL teachers. The findings show that speaking,…

In several studies, collaborative action research has been shown to be a productive approach to enabling teachers to incorporate critical thinking into their pedagogy; however it has not been investigated in the Indonesian context. To address this gap, we facilitated a collaborative action research project with a small group of English language…

The constraints and demands on teachers and students, related to implementing English medium instruction (EMI), mean that teachers need to be able to reflect on their practice and make appropriate adjustments. Reflective practice generally means that EMI teachers subject their philosophy of practice, principles, theories and practices to a…

This paper investigates four teachers' efforts to innovate during a semester of English language teaching at a university in China. At the end of a mentor-facilitated action research cycle, the teachers wrote their 'Story of Innovation' in order to construct deeper understandings of their experiences. These stories were examined for themes and are…

This paper reports the professional journey of an English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher from teaching older learners to teaching younger children at a primary school, and the impact of mentoring on the teacher in facilitating the transitioning process. The participant is a Turkish native-speaker male English teacher with 23 years of teaching…

Purpose: Although action research (AR) is considered essential for teacher development in second/foreign language (L2) education, no validated scale has been designed for its measurement. With that in mind, this study attempted to develop and validate an Inventory on Teachers' Beliefs about Action Research (ITBAR). Design/methodology/approach: For…

Despite empirical evidence in support of the effectiveness of using tasks in young learners' classrooms, task implementation has been repeatedly reported as a thorny problem. An essential but under-researched issue is how in-service teacher education programme can be conducted to facilitate teachers' implementing tasks in their classrooms. This…