This volume is the result of the two-day conference on language learner autonomy, "The answer is autonomy: issues in language teaching and learning", which was held in Graz, Austria in June 2012. Through its 19 chapters including a foreword by Ema Ushioda, the book explores themes such as the role of technology in autonomous learning environments; language learner autonomy and its demands on the teacher; language learner autonomy and the power of beliefs; new perspectives on (peer) evaluat...

How can language teachers create classrooms where students truly take ownership of their learning? Reforming the Foreign Language Classroom: Empowering Learners to Take Ownership explores this question through powerful examples of theory-informed practice and classroom innovation. Inspired by the pioneering work of Leni Dam and her collaborators, the book calls for a fundamental rethinking of language education, one that supports learner autonomy, inclusion, and intrinsic motivati...

This is the first book on language learner autonomy to combine comprehensive accounts of classroom practice with empirical and case-study research and a wide-ranging engagement with applied linguistic and pedagogical theory. It provides a detailed description of an autonomy classroom in action, focusing on Danish mixed-ability learners of English at lower secondary level, and reports the findings of a longitudinal research project that explored the learning achievement over four years of o...

This collection provides an overview of current issues, debates, and approaches in Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) presented by internationally prominent researchers, educators, and emerging scholars. Chapters address such issues as distance education, non-native English-speaking educators, technology, assessment, standards, and the changing contexts of contemporary language teaching and teacher education.

Written for anyone beginning a research project, this introductory book takes you through the process of analysing your data from start to finish.The author sets out an easy-to-use model for coding data in order to break it down into parts, and then to reassemble it to create a meaningful picture of the phenomenon under study. Full of useful advice, the book guides the reader through the last difficult integrating phase of qualitative analysis including diagramming, memoing, thinki...

This volume is devoted to the fascinating topic of social communication - fascinating because communication is ubiquitous, in that one cannot not communicate. And yet, the art of effective communication can be extremely demanding and elusive, because a tricky trade-off problem has to be solved. For communication to be successful, it must be at once informative - somehow indicating an intended direction of thought or action - as well as subtle - somehow concealing intentions and in...

Provides a unique and timely re-examination of key issues such as strategies in context, strategy instruction, and strategy research methods by numerous experts in the field. Offers an invaluable overview of what is known from empirical research about listening, reading, speaking, writing, vocabulary, and grammar strategies. Proposes a clear and focused research agenda for the next decades. Research into language learner strategies has the fundamental goal of improving the teaching and lea...

Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach provides researchers and students with a user-friendly, step-by-step guide to planning qualitative research. It shows how the components of design interact with each other, and provides a strategy for creating coherent and workable relationships among these design components, highlighting key design issues. Written in an informal, jargon-free style, the new Third Edition incorporates examples and hands-o...

Language Testing Reconsidered provides a critical update on major issues that have engaged the field of language testing since its inception. Anyone who is working in, studying or teaching language testing should have a copy of this book. The information, discussions, and reflections offered within the volume address major developments within the field over the past decades, enlivened by current "takes" on these issues. The real value of this collection, however, lies in its consi...

CALL Research Perspectives creates a foundation for the study and practice of computer-assisted language learning and provides an overview of ways to conceptualize and to conduct research in CALL. Its core assumptions are that all approaches to research have a place, and that researchers, teachers, and students all have a role to play in the study of computer-enhanced language learning.This is not a how-to-do-research text. Written by top researchers in the field, it offer...

It is now nearly thirty years since sociocultural theories of learning created great excitement and debate amongst those concerned with learning in diverse contexts. Since that time significant advances have been made in sociocultural theory and research. Various sociocultural approaches to the understanding of learning (for example, sociocultural psychology, sociocultural discourse, cultural historical activity theory) have been developed and consolidated and new challenges are currently ...

The need to show how and why counselling works has led to an explosion of research activity, and a growing focus on research in counselling and psychotherapy teaching and practice. Yet this book, even now in its second edition, stands alone in addressing qualitative research in therapy.Leading expert John McLeod helps readers through each stage of the research process, explaining techniques for gathering data, writing up the study and evaluating the findings. Each qualitative metho...