Action Research for ELT Teachers

1
Action Research for ELT Teachers

• Empowering the teachers to help the students

2

• Action research is about understanding our own
  classroom first, and telling people about it
  afterwards.
• This presentation/workshop will investigate
  questions of
• how to carry out action research in our language
  classrooms
• how to employ various user-friendly methods of
  action research
• how to use results to make our teaching more
  effective and student-centred.
• But first, a joke .

3
The Statisticians
4 jet engines Time to NY 5 hours.
4
The Statisticians
3 jet engines Time to NY 7 hours.
5
The Statisticians
2 jet engines Time to NY 10 hours.
6
The Statisticians
1 jet engine Time to NY 18 hours.
7
The Statisticians
0 jet engines Time to NY Forever?
8
The danger of isolating factors
9
What is Action Research?

• Action research activities qualify as research
  by
• addressing questions of interest to other
  practitioners
• generating data
• containing analysis and interpretation.

10
What is Action Research?

• Action research is different from other research
  in that
• it is carried out by the practitioner (classroom
  teachers)
• it can be collaborative or individual
• it is situational (identification and solution of
  problems in a specific context)
• it can be aimed at changing things (improving the
  current state of affairs). (Nunan, Research
  Methods in Language Learning (199217))

11
Two basic types of research Measurement-based
and Descriptive
12

• Action research involves
• Planning action to improve what is already
  happening
• Acting to implement the plan
• Observing the effects of action in the context in
  which it occurs
• Reflecting on these effects as a basis for
  further planning, subsequent action and so on,
  through a succession of cycles. (Adapted from
  Kemmis McTaggart 19827)

13

• Types of AR data-collection instruments
• Questionnaires
• Self- and peer-assessment forms
• Observation
• Checklists/inventories
• Interviews
• Teacher-diary
• Learner-diary

14
Dangerous intersection
15
References

• This paper can be read at http//www.finchpark.co
  m/arts .
• The questionnaires can be found at
  http//www.finchpark.com/books/lj
• The presenter can be contacted at andrew _at_
  finchpark.com