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Abstract
Action research (AR) – as a participatory, problem-oriented methodology – has been employed recently in Egypt to resolve complicated classroom and learning problems, and provide context-based solutions. Simultaneously, new ‘special education’ courses have been included recently in the university bylaws of Egyptian colleges of education. This imposes challenges, especially on course design and content selection. The present study therefore aimed at negotiating and improving the structure and delivery of a new special education language-learning course entitled ‘TESOL/TEFL for Special Needs’ taught to English majors (English as a foreign language [EFL] student-teachers) at Assiut University College of Education, and reaching a final framework. Therefore, an AR methodology of two cycles was employed with two different groups of English majors throughout two successive semesters during the academic year 2012/13: the first group included 106 junior general-section EFL student-teachers (first semester, 2012); and the second group consisted of 51 senior primary-stage EFL student-teachers (second semester, 2013). Data collection tools were used for both formative and summative evaluation purposes, and thus varied both at the initial stage and during iterations. They included questionnaires, online diaries, semi-structured interviews, final feedback reports and follow-up logs. The two AR cycles resulted in a final framework of course structure/content along with some suggestions and guidelines on how to deliver it. Moreover, some implications for teaching EFL to students with special educational needs as well as some conclusions related to using AR in Egypt to resolve many teaching/learning problems were presented.