Action Research For Language Teachers

Description: This practical guide can be used by teachers who wish to develop their professional expertise by investigating their own teaching in a systematic and organised way. It is also invaluable for teachers or trainee teachers who have to produce a professional project or dissertation as part of a training programme. This will help teachers to design and implement a research project which is derived from their normal practice, with results which should be of direct relevance to them. It is user-friendly and includes: - exemplar articles and extracts which show how the research techniques can be implemented - 'Personal review' sections which help readers to think about the ideas being discussed and relate them to their own situation - commentaries which follow up issues raised in the 'Personal review' sections - chapter summaries - a glossary of all technical terms.
Review: 'Wallace's comprehensive book provides a better understanding of what AR is about. It is realistic, pragmatic and well-structured and may inspire a lot of teachers and teacher trainers/trainees. An asset to any teacher's library.' V.V.L.E. Newsletter, Belgium, 1998 'In my opinion, the following features of the book make it invaluable. Firstly, the Further Readings section is very helpful as it provides the reader with a sensible, not too extensive, updated list of books, including a short comment on their content. Secondly Action Research for Language Teachers is very teacher-friendly, more so than, for example, Seliger & Shohamy's volume (1989), as it offers the teacher-researcher the necessary tools to carry out action research and sets a clear path away from the more academic types of research required for PhD studies. Thirdly, I found the the choice of exemplar articles excellent.' Modern English Teacher vol 8 No 3 July 1999
Contents: 1 Why action research?; 2 Selecting and developing a topic; 3 Collecting the data; 4 Field-notes, logs, journals, diaries and personal accounts; 5 Verbal reports; 6 Observation techniques: recording and analysing classroom skills; 7 Interviews and questionnaires; 8 The case study approach; 9 Training and evaluation: teaching materials; 10 No teacher is an island: some approaches to sharing ideas; Concluding remarks; Glossary of research terms; Suggestions for further reading; Bibliography; Index.