In this article an educational action research study, based on a phenomenographic approach, is reported in which unexpected results have been possible to gather thanks to the inductive design of the study. The aim is to describe the ways in which contrasts of critical aspects of a learning object affect the students' generative learning found by…

This article describes and critically reflects on an action research project used for professional development purposes in a Middle Eastern Gulf State. The aim of the project was to improve professional development experiences for a group of in-service teacher educators, who were English as Second Language advisers. The initial discussion…

This article problematises representations of professional practice. It investigates assumptions behind received accounts of professional practice, including professional standards that purportedly capture what accomplished English teachers "should know and be able to do", "scientific" studies that construct accounts of classrooms from the…

This article examines the problems that many beginning L2 learners encounter when dealing with the German case system. It isolates three elements that make case usage challenging: understanding the concept of case itself, identifying grammatical gender, and selecting the correct case marker from a set of overlapping forms. Data from an action…

Professors at the "Institucion Universitaria Colombo Americana" (UNICA) have aimed to deliver lessons for second language learners which integrate content and language, resulting in an "integrated lesson" design. The Center for Applied Linguistics (Washington, DC) recommends the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP)…

This article describes a programme of autonomous language learning (ALMS) introduced at Helsinki University Language Centre in 1994. The programme was developed to encourage students to become actively involved in their own learning in terms of deciding what they need and wish to learn, setting goals and objectives, achieving these objectives, and…

For teacher educators, genre-based pedagogies offer a valuable resource for assisting both pre- and in-service writing instructors to assist their students to produce effective and relevant texts. Instead of focusing on the process of composition, the content of texts, or the abstract prescriptions of disembodied grammars, genre pedagogies enable…

The article starts by defining teacher research and a summary of its benefits. In reviewing teacher research in the field of ELT, the author points out that such research is not enough. The author then suggests ten conditions that would increase the incidence of teacher research. Additional questions for consideration are suggested at the end that…

This paper describes an action research project that investigated the pedagogical applicability of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools for collaborative projects. The research involved two groups of students studying to become ESL/EFL teachers, one group at a university located in the US Midwest and the other in the Catalan region of…

Suggests that Spanish teachers consider a new role as researchers of their own professional environment through a number of successful research techniques and strategies. The process of teacher-initiated research begins with the description of realistic teaching and learning situations in which a teacher could conduct research in the Spanish…

Although the research literature on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has increased exponentially over the last few decades, it is not at all clear how its findings may or may not contribute to teacher growth or otherwise influence actual classroom praxis. The case study presented here shows one instructor, a native speaker of German, translating…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 10th Annual Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society, held in Kyustendil, Bulgaria, 12-15 June 2012. The overall goal of the 10th BCES conference is to facilitate discussion of different perspectives on international education providing a forum for scientific debate and constructive…

This article summarizes teacher action research for the teaching of subjective culture in the foreign language classroom. It begins with a literature review, followed by a description of Milton J. Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennett, 1993), the theoretical paradigm upon which classroom activities and experiments…

This paper looks at young ESL writers in Hong Kong and describes an action research project which involved the implementation of a new ESL writing programme designed to enhance students' motivation and engagement by taking more account of the young learners' own socio-cultural context. The study examined both the students' and teacher-researcher's…

The author encourages colleagues to engage in action and classroom research as part of teaching. (CNP)