Practitioner Research: Exploratory Practice workshop University of Leicester School of Education MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL / MA TESOL Continuing Professional Development 24 th February 2014 By Yasmin Dar The ELTU University of Leicester

6 Principles for Inclusive Practitioner research: The ‘what’ ‘who’ and ‘how’ issues

1. Focus on quality of life as the main issue. 2. Work to understand it before thinking about solving problem.

3. Involve everybody as practitioners developing their own understandings. 4. Work to bring people together in a common enterprise. 5. Work cooperatively for mutual development.

6. Make it a sustainable enterprise. PLUS two practical suggestions to keep going indefinitely: a) Minimise the effort involved. b) Integrate the work for understanding into normal pedagogic practice.

My MA dissertation The learners and the course Sharing the research

ESOL Class in an inner city area of Leicester Pre-intermediate level 2.5 hours twice a week 6 adult learners Settled in the UK Countries of origin: India, Iran, Somalia, Egypt

My research questions: 1. Is there a mismatch in language teaching and learning expectations between my learners and me in my ESOL classroom? 2. Why are my learners not taking responsibility for their language learning?

Normal classroom activities: Pairwork, group work Speaking task with questions for collecting data 1. Is it important for you to pass your speaking exam? Yes No 2. How do you feel about your speaking exam? Ok Not ok 3. Does your teacher tell you to practise at home for your speaking exam? Yes No 4. Do you practise speaking English at home? Always Yes No Sometimes 5. Do you think practising in the classroom is enough to pass your exam? Yes No My learners’ perceptions All six said yes for question 1. For question 2, all answered ok. All said yes to question 3. All said sometimes to question 4. All said yes to question 5.

Group discussion task Topic: Likes and dislikes Why do you like to learn English in class and dislike learning English at home? Topic linked to the discussion part of the speaking exam Students are expected to use language to talk about their likes and dislikes.

Understandings for research question 2 revealed the complicated realities of learners’ lives “My husband, he does not like English for me to speak at home. He is strict as well with my daughter. He says speak English at school and at work but not inside home.” “My children laugh at me if I try to speak with them in English. They say: ‘mum you can’t speak good English’ and keep laughing at me every-time, so that is why I don’t talk in English at home.”

Not all puzzles are problematic. Not all teachers are comfortable to admit that there is a ‘problem’. Puzzles from: long term concerns, learner questions, direct prompt.

Practical guidelines for using EP (Allwright and Hanks 2009) Choose an issue that is ‘puzzling’ Ask yourself ‘why’ questions to reduce the emphasis on looking for ‘solutions.’ If change is needed, it would be based on understanding the underlying issues that have been explored.

Workshop (20mins) 1.In a small group agree on one classroom puzzle that you could explore by using the principles of EP. Use the ‘poster’ chart paper and different coloured pens to identify: a classroom puzzle to explore in your teaching context; normal classroom activities for collecting your data 2. Display your posters on the wall Read each others posters discuss / give each other feedback on the puzzles that have been identified in the posters

Practitioner Research using Exploratory Practice: If you do decide to use EP, please let me know Miss Yasmin Dar

Allwright, D. (2003). Exploratory Practice: rethinking practitioner research in language teaching. Language Teaching Research, 7(2), Allwright, D. (2005) Developing principles for practitioner research: The case of Exploratory Practice. The Modern Language Journal 89 (3), Allwright, D. & Hanks J. (2009) The Developing Language Learner: An introduction to Exploratory Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Dar, Y. (2008) Unpublished MA dissertation An Exploration of Puzzles in an Adult ESOL Classroom in Leicester University of Leicester. References and further reading