Exploratory Practice in English Language Teaching

This book tracks the development of Exploratory Practice since the early 1990s as an original form of practitioner research in the field of English language teaching. Drawing on case studies, vignettes and narratives from teachers and learners around the world as they experienced Exploratory Practice in their different contexts, the author explores what practitioners experience when trying it out for the first time, what the principles really mean in practice, and what the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the Exploratory Practice framework really are. For language professionals considering investigating their classrooms and their teaching/learning practices systematically and thoughtfully, whether for formal study purposes or for personal or professional development, this book offers a thought-provoking and rigorous analysis of the impact of uniting pedagogy with research in creative and innovative ways. It moves from the already original ideas of research-as-practice, towards new ground, arguing for a fresh perspective: (exploratory) practice-as-research.

Judith Hanks is Lecturer in TESOL at the University of Leeds, UK. She started teaching EFL in 1987 and has worked in China, Italy, Singapore, Turkey and the UK. She has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer and teacher educator, as well as course director, programme leader and manager, and of course, she is a life-long language learner. Her work bridges specialist areas in language teacher education, intercultural communication, TESOL and EAP. She is a founder member of the Exploratory Practice group, and is co-author of The Developing Language Learner: An Introduction to Exploratory Practice (Allwright & Hanks, 2009). Her research interests lie in the areas of investigating developing intercultural understandings in language classrooms, eliciting learner and teacher understandings of their practice, with particular emphasis on practitioner research in language education, specifically: Exploratory Practice.