"Research for Super-difficult Circumstances: Where to Start and How to Go On"

Video recording and PowerPoint slides (as pdf).

References and links (in order of mention) are below:

 

Prologue

• IATEFL Research SIG
• Mark A. Clarke . (1994). 'The dysfunctions of the theory/practice discourse'. TESOL Quarterly 28(1).
• Michael West - Life, Career, Archive, Extracts (Warwick ELT Archive)

 

1. Contextualized TESOL Research

• Directory of UK ELT Research
• Survey of ELT Research in India
• Amol Padwad. (2020). Review of 'Innovations in English Language Teaching in India: Trends in Language Pedagogy and Technology' ELT Journal 74(4): 515–516.
• H.G. Widdowson. (2000). ‘On the Limitations of Linguistics Applied’. Applied Linguistics, 21(1): 3–25.
• Robert Phillipson (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Alastair Pennycook (1994). The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. Harlow: Longman.
• Alastair Pennycook (1998). English and the Discourses of Colonialism. London: Routledge.
• Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). 'Postmethod pedagogy'. Chapter 9 in Understanding Language Teaching: from Method to Postmethod. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Cochran-Smith, M. & Lytle, S.L. (1993). Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge. New York: Teachers College Press.

 

2. Difficult and Super-difficult circumstances

• Michael West (1960) Teaching English in Difficult Circumstances. Published by Longmans (1960). Extracts here.
• Jason Anderson, Amol Padwad & Richard Smith. (In press.) Entry for ‘Language Teaching in Difficult Circumstances’. In Coombe, C. & Mohebbi, H. (eds.) Research Questions in Language Education: A Reference Guide for Teachers. Springer.
• Richard Smith (2011). 'Teaching English in difficult circumstances: A new research agenda'. In Pattison, T. (ed.) IATEFL 2010 Harrogate Conference Selections. Canterbury: IATEFL. Pre-publication version here. Associated talk here
• Smith, R. 2015. 'Teaching English in difficult circumstances: a conversation'. NELTA ELT Forum (July 2015). [The entire issue is devoted to 'Teaching English in difficult circumstances'].
• TELCnet: Teaching English in Large Classes research and development network. Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/telcgroup/
• Prem Phyak (2015). 'From ‘schooled pedagogy’ to ‘pedagogy of disaster’: The role of EFL teachers in the super-difficult circumstance of post-disaster Nepal'. ELT Choutari (July 2015). [The entire issue is devoted to 'EFL Teachers in super-difficult circumstance'].

 

3. Some ways forward for (contextualized) TESOL research

 

a. Identifying, understanding and sharing successful practice (an ‘enhancement approach’)

• Richard Smith (2008). 'Taking the bull by its horns: Zakia Sarwar's pro-autonomy approach to large classes in Pakistan (Part I)'. Independence 44: 7-13. Pdf

• Kuchah, K. and Smith, R. (2011). ‘Pedagogy of autonomy for difficult circumstances: From practice to principles’. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 5/2: 119-139.

• Smith, R., Kuchah, K. and Lamb, M. (2018).'Learner autonomy in developing countries'. In Chik, A., Aoki, N. and Smith, R. (eds). Autonomy in Language Learning and Teaching: New Research Agendas. London: Palgrave Pivot.

• Quotes from Michael West: https://warwick.ac.uk/elt_archive/halloffame/west/extracts/

• Smith, R., Padwad, A. and Bullock, D. (2017). Teaching in Low-resource Classrooms: Voices of Experience. London: British Council. Associated video

• Crisis-ELT website
• Teaching Children in a Post-Earthquake Situation: Chetan Kumar Timilsena's Experience
  (adapted by Richard Smith (n.d.), with the author's permission)

 

b. TA-research and teacher-research for difficult circumstances

• Smith, R. and Kuchah, K. 2016. 'Researching teacher associations'. ELT Journal 70/2: 212-221.
• CAMELTA (Cameroon English Language and Literature Teachers Association) - Teacher Association Research questions and responses to survey
• Sarkar, B.C., Hedges, C. Griffiths, M., Mathew, R. & Biswas, S.K. (eds) (2017) Teachers’ Voices: Capturing the Dynamics of Change. Dhaka: English in Action.
• Richard Smith & Paula Rebolledo (2018) A Handbook for Exploratory Action Research London: British Council.
• Paula Rebolledo, Richard Smith & Deborah Bullock (eds) (2016). Champion Teachers: Stories of Exploratory Action Research London: British Council.
• J.S. Negi (ed.) (2019) Exploring for Action, Acting for Change: Stories of Exploratory Action Research in Nepal. Melauli: Support Society Nepal.

• Richard Smith (2020) Mentoring Teachers to Research Their Classrooms: A Practical Handbook. New Delhi: British Council. Associated video interviews with mentors.

• Teachers can join this TESOL Electronic Village Online set of five sessions as an introduction to Exploratory Action Research (starting in January 2021). Teachers interested in teacher-research can also join this Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/teachersresearch/

 

c. Enhancement mentoring for teacher-research

[I didn't have time to cover this recent initiative - but you are welcome to sign up to a presentation about it in January: details here]

 

Responses to questions

• Decentring ELT: blog post by Richard Smith (2019)
• Decentring ELT: Hornby Trust initiative