Introduction to Part II: What the Past Has Provided

Abstract

This chapter shows how Part II will:

• establish our twin purposes for research: (a) to further our general understanding of the learners’ role in classroom language learning, and (b) to develop understandings in a way that actually helps learners develop as learners;

• survey research in the field, making a broad comparison between third-party and practitioner approaches, to determine the most suitable general approach for our purposes;

• consider the special case of classroom research as a form of third-party research, and show how it has established the essentially social nature of classroom language learning;

• consider the even more special case of Action Research as a form of practitioner research, and show how it has not adequately met the second of our aims;

• propose principled and fully inclusive practitioner research as our response.