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Hello all Last Thursday we had a very interesting meeting of the ESOL Research Group here in Leeds, led by my colleague Simon Borg. The summary of the session is below, and I also promised to forward the handouts and the .ppt slides, which are attached to this message. Cheers James ***** Teachers' views of research in English language teaching Simon Borg University of Leeds ***** What does 'research' mean to language teachers and what role does it play in their professional lives? I have been asking teachers of English around the world these questions and in this session I will discuss some of their answers. More specifically, I will consider the following questions: According to teachers, what counts as research? How do teachers judge the quality of research? To what extent do teachers say they read and do research, and why? How do teachers rate the research culture of their institutions? Teachers' answers to these questions provide interesting insights into their views about research; they also help us understand why, for many teachers, research seems to be an irrelevant activity which is remote to their professional concerns. After considering the answers to the above questions, I will consider their implications; one key question for discussion relates to the conditions which need to exist to enable teachers to engage productively with and in research. ---------------- Dr James Simpson School of Education University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT UK [log in to unmask] http://www.education.leeds.ac.uk/people/staff.php?staff=39 +44 (0)113 343 4687 Visit the ESOL Research home page: http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~edujsi/ Join the ESOL-Research discussion list: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html *********************************** ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of Education, University of Leeds. To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html A quick guide to using Jiscmail lists can be found at: http://jiscmail.ac.uk/help/using/quickuser.htm To contact the list owner, send an email to [log in to unmask]