The book is aimed at teachers who wish to be more actively engaged with research in ELT, and it seeks to continue the conversation between researchers and practitioners.
Edited by Jessica Mackay, Marilisa Birello and Daniel Xerri, the book is divided into three sections and consists of contributions by a wide variety of authors from different international contexts.
The book starts with an overview of some of the current debates in the research-practice divide. For example, Scott Thornbury conducts an analysis of his research into the important role of methodology writers as 'mediators' between the research and practice communities.
The book's second section reviews projects that translate theory into classroom practice. For instance, Jill Hadfield illustrates the process of adapting theory to practice by presenting her own experiences of writing a teacher's resource book based on motivation theory.
The final section identifies some of the practical problems that we encounter as practitioners and how research can help us to explore these issues from an insider perspective. An example of this is Matthew Evans's chapter, in which he analyses learner demotivation and highlights some potential causes of dropout in a large language school in Spain.
In his preface to the book, Zoltán Dörnyei applauds "the care with which the content has been edited and put together as well as the passion of the contributors to try and identify areas and approaches where research and teaching efforts can not only complement each other but can also produce something unique that neither approach would be able to achieve on its own." The book is relevant to teachers and researchers alike and aims to contribute to bridging the gap between research and practice in ELT.
The book is free to download from:
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