Teaching English to speakers of other languages teachers’ views on the relationship between research and practice

Abstract

This paper reports on a study investigating teachers’ views and beliefs about the relationship between second language (L2) research and practice. Although a gap has been frequently reported between the two, there is little empirical data to show what teachers’ views on this relationship are or how these views and beliefs influence their use of research. A total of 60 teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) teachers in England responded to a questionnaire which sought both qualitative and quantitative data. Results of the data analysis suggest that although their views on research and its usefulness are positive, teachers are mainly sceptical about the practicality and relevance of L2 research. More importantly, they expect research to originate from rather than end in classrooms and maintain that the prime responsibility of bringing research and practice together is to be shared by teacher training programmes and educational policies of the institutions they work in. Our analysis of the data further implies that there are differences between teachers’ epistemological assumptions and the more established notions of research.

Keywords:

• teacher views
• research
• practice
• TESOL

Notes

1. TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

2. The study reported here is part of a larger study aimed at investigating issues related to the divide between research and practice.

3. It is worth noting that, as we have been aware of the multiplicity of interpretations of the term ‘theory’ and are concerned with the implications it could have on teachers’ responses, we have intentionally avoided such use in the questionnaire and instead limited our use to ‘research’. We are conscious that this limitation might have impinged on the data that we have collected through the questionnaires. However, this restriction was addressed in the interviews.

4. Strength of the correlation coefficients is based on Cohen’s (1988) classification.