Teachers' engagement with published research: How do teachers who read research navigate the field?

Prof Graham Hall, Professor of Applied Linguistics/TESOL, Northumbria University
Newlyn SR (GR.02) - Thursday 21 March 2024, 1-2:30pm (lunch served from 12:30pm).

In this talk, I will summarise a project which aimed to uncover the reported practices and attitudes towards published research of English language teachers who reported reading or being interested in research and research-oriented publications. Aiming to give voice to and learn from these ‘research-interested’ teachers, the project examined the role of research publications and research-oriented literature in the teachers’ professional lives and in the development of their professional understandings and practices. It examined those factors which facilitated or created a barrier to such engagement, and additionally sought to uncover those key areas of research that the teachers saw as priorities or of particular relevance to themselves. It also explored how, from the teachers’ perspective, such research findings might be made more accessible within the field. Ultimately, therefore, the project sought to find out how, from the standpoint of those teachers who are interested in engaging with research and research-oriented publications, the often-problematic relationship between research and practice in English language teaching (ELT) might start to be addressed.

The full paper can be found here.

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Graham Hall is Professor of Applied Linguistics/TESOL at Northumbria University, UK, where he teaches on the University’s M.A. Applied Linguistics for TESOL and M.A. TESOL programmes. He is the author of Exploring English Language Teaching: Language in Action (Routledge, 2011; 2nd edition, 2017), which was the winner of the 2012 British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) book prize. He also edited the Routledge Handbook of English Language Teaching (2016), and was editor of ELT Journal from 2013–17. His research interests range from classroom discourse and language teaching methodology to the ways in which English language teachers understand their practice and the role research might play in their professional development.