This classroom narrative describes the transformation of one beginning English/language arts (ELA) teacher's perspective and practice as the teacher enacted multimodal inquiry activities that were the focus of both traditional and action research projects. Drawing on field notes, transcripts of classroom discourse, and student-produced artefacts, the authors illustrate the ways in which the teacher's practice integrated the language of research with the language of practice in ELA as the teacher sought to incorporate multimodal inquiry activities into his daily curriculum. The process of collaboration that is described in this narrative represents one way in which beginning teachers and teacher educators might overcome what Mary Kennedy (1999) has called the "problem of enactment"--the challenge that many beginning teachers have translating into their own classroom practice pedagogical perspectives encountered in the research highlighted in teacher education programs. The article recounts how one teacher worked through the problem of enactment over two semesters of research and practice as he negotiated theoretical principles and practical dilemmas related to multimodal inquiry during a 12th-grade literature course in the eastern United States. The paper closes with implications for the integration of research and practice in ELA. (Contains 7 figures.)