John Field is Co-ordinator of the IATEFL Research SIG. He currently teaches at Birkbeck College London and is the author of several books on psycholinguistics.

Nothing is worse than teaching that has stagnated. It is bad for the teacher, bad for the learners and bad for the institution. Practitioners get out of ruts by reflecting on their teaching and asking serious questions about its impact upon the learner. What they discover may sometimes be painful or challenge deeply-held beliefs, but it leads to renewal and change. It is perhaps unfortunate that we give the forbidding label ‘research’ to this process of enquiry and reflection. But, whatever we call it, teacher-led research is not a hobby, nor a way of pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. It is a professional duty. Only by assessing what we are doing from time to time can we be sure that it is right—right for our individual style of teaching and right for the group of learners that we are currently dealing with. Some teachers may indeed wish to circulate research findings to colleagues or to publish them in journals. But many do not: they might just want to investigate specific circumstances: a specific class with a specific teacher attempting to put across a specific language point using specific materials.

Another compelling argument is that, by conducting classroom research, teachers free themselves from the constraints of tradition and precept. Far too much of our practice derives not from our own insights but from the instructions we were once given by trainers, inspectors and directors of studies—and for that matter, from the theories freely dispensed by academic researchers. We need to recognise that much of what passes as good practice in ELT has no scientific evidence to back it up: it is simply the result of an amalgam of experience, myth and wishful thinking. Let us, instead, try to find out for ourselves what works for us and what does not. Classroom research is indeed empowering, liberating teachers from the prescriptions of others.

There should be no suggestion that teachers make less effective researchers than academics. The fact is that much academic research is conducted by an alien presence in the classroom. Whether that presence is simply an observer or somebody who takes over the class temporarily, it is not part of the normal everyday learning context. The situation is an unnatural one. On this analysis, the teacher is in a better position to conduct research than the professional researcher, and the research findings of teachers may in some cases be more reliable than those of academics. The most dependable insights into language teaching and learning may well in future come from studies undertaken by insiders who know and understand the dynamics of the classroom, rather than by outsiders who form conclusions on the basis of a brief visit.

Classroom research by EFL teachers is far more widespread than many commentators realise. Indeed, in some parts of the world there is now a national requirement that secondary teachers incorporate small-scale research projects into their practice. Nevertheless, the activity can be a lonely affair for the teacher involved. It can also be frustrating, with teachers feeling that they lack the knowledge of appropriate methods and approaches that would enable them to make informed decisions. For most teachers, time is a scarce commodity; and nothing is worse than committing some of it to a research project without any certainty that the findings of the project will be valid and can be trusted.

So teacher-researchers need a forum where they can discuss problems of classroom research, share their findings, reflect on what they have discovered and exchange ideas about the design of the projects they have undertaken. That is the function of the biennial TDTR series of conferences, run jointly by IATEFL Research and TD SIGs. Since 1992, they have provided practitioners and academic researchers with the opportunity to explore the ways in which teacher-led research in ELT can lead to personal and professional development.

(The TDTR 2005 conference will be held in Santiago de Chile, 22–24 September; see Calendar of events for details. Ed.)

Why Classroom Research

Further reading