Table Of Content

CAMBRIDGE TEACHER TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Series Editors: Marion Williams and Tony Wright This series is designed for all those involved in language teacher training and development: teachers in training, trainers, directors of studies, advisers, teachers of in-service courses and seminars. Its aim is to provide a comprehensive, organised and authoritative resource for language teacher training and development. Teach English - A training course for teachers by Adrian Doff Trainer's Handbook Teacher's Workbook Models and Metaphors in Language Teacher Training Loop input and other strategies* by Tessa Woodward Training Foreigra Language Teachers - A reflective approach by Michael,. Wallace Literature and Language Teaching - A guide for teachers and trainers· by Gillian Lazar Classroom Observation Tasks - A resource book for language teachers and trainers· by Ruth Wa;nryb Tasks for Language Teachers - A resource book for training and development· by Martin Parrott English for the Teacher - A language development course· by Mary Spratt Teaching Children English - A training course for teachers of, English to children· .; by David Vale with Anne Feunteun A Course in Language Teaching' - Practice and theory by Penny Ur Looking at Language Classrooms A teacher development video package About Language - Tasks for teachers of English by Scott Thornbury Action Research for Language Teachers by Michael J. Wallace * Original Series Editors: Ruth Gairns and Marion Williams t.,,':' 1'<0. . ·.·....4i.9.; .·-~C· ..... .. W.A...... : .. ~~)' :;-·,:~~·!¢.~·I·~C(1J •• ,13~~?" Action Research for Language Teachers Michael]. Wallace ,',' CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA http://www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1998 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception aDd to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreemenrs, no reproduction of any parr may take place withom the written permission of Cambridge University Press. Reprinted 1999 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeset in Sabon 10V12 pt [eEl A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Wallace. Michael J. Action research for language teachers I Michael J. Wallace. p. em. - (Cambridge teacher training and development) Indudes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 554950 (hb). - ISBN 0521 55535 3 (pb) 1. English language Study and teaching Foreign speakers Research. 2. Language and languages - Study and teaching - Research. 1. Title Il. Series. PEl128.A2\V228 1997 428' 007'2 - DC21 97-33569 CIP ISBN 0 521 554950 hardback ISBN 0 521 55535 3 paperback For Eileen Contents Acknowledgements X Thanks xu Introduction 1 1 Why action research? 4 2 Selecting and developing a topic 20 3 Collecting the data 35 4' Field-notes, logs? i,?uplals, diari,es and personal accounts 54 5 Verbal reports , 76 6 Observation tech,niques: recording and analysing classroom skills 104 7 Questionnaires and interviews 124 " 8 The case study approach 160 9 Evaluation an'd trialling: teaching materials 181 10 No teacher is an island: some approaches to sharing ideas 207 Concluding remarks 253 Glossary of research terms 255 Suggestions for further reading 262 Bibliography 266 Subject index 270 Author index 272 IX Acknowledgements The author and publishers are grateful to the authors, publishers and others who have given permission for the use of copyright material identified in the text. While every endeavour has been made, it has not been possible to identify the sources of all the material used and in such cases the publishers would welcome information from copyright owners. City Polytechnic of Hong Kong for the extract on p. 63 from 'Journaling together: collaborative diary-keeping and teacher develop ment' by M. N. Brock, B. Yu and M. Wong (1992), in J. Flowerdew, M. Brock and S. Hsia (Eds) Perspectives on Second Language Teacher Education; Oxford University Press for the following: the article on pp. 68-75 'An experiment in role-reversaf: teachers as language lear ners' by T. Lowe, ELT Journal 41 (2), © 1987; the article on pp. 92-103 'Six writers in searchof texts: A protocol-based study of Ll and L2 writing' by V. Arndt, ELT Journal 41 (4); © 1987; the extracts on pp. 139-141 and pp. 143-145 from 'Language development pro-· vision in teacher training curricula' by C. Murdoch, ELT Journal 48 (3), © 1994; the article on pp. 153-159 'Learner strategies and learner interviews' by E. Pearson, ELT]ournal42 (3), © 1988; the article on pp. 172-180 'Developing a course strategy for learner autonomy' by S. Cotterall, ELT Journal 49 (3), 1995; the article on pp. 195-206 'Survey review: two series of Business English materials' by B. Reed and S. Nolan, ELT Journal 48 (1), © 1994, all by permission of Oxford University Press; Cambridge University Press for· the extract on pp. 121-123 from Teaching Talk: Strategies for Production and Assess ment by G. Brown, A. Anderson, R. Shilkock and G. Yule (1984) and the extract on pp. 220~221 from Language Teaching; The international abstracting journal for language teachers ana applied linguists, 28 (4)', 1995; British Education Index for extract (a) and ERIC Document Reproduction Service for extract (b) on p. 219; Multilingual Matters Ltd. for the extracts on pp. 224-225 from Introspection in Second Language Research edited by C. Faerch and G. Kasper (1987); the artide on pp. 243-250 'Research Update on Teaching L2 Listening' by R. L Oxford, System 21 (2), 1993, is reprinted by permission of x