Deanery Digests

Hamish Chalmers discusses his study asking teachers what kinds of research they think should be prioritised to help inform policy and practice in teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language (EAL). People who do research are not usually the people who use research. Therefore, if research is to be meaningful, relevant and useful to research users (in this case, teachers and other educators), it is important that those people are given a voice in telling researchers what questions they should try to answer. In conversation with Laura Molway, Hamish Chalmers from the University of Oxford’s Department of Education describes a research project in which he worked with teachers and other educators to develop a Top 10 list of research priorities for supporting the education of children who are learning English as an additional language (EAL). He discusses the process and summarises the results, and explores implications for future research that fosters collaboration between teachers and researchers to ensure that new research is meaningful, relevant and useful.

The Deanery Digest (a plain language summary of this research) can be viewed here: https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/deanery-digest/setting-research-priorities-for-english-as-an-additional-language-what-do-research-users-want-from-eal-research/.

The full published journal article can be viewed here: https://doi.org/10.1075/ltyl.00043.set.

The project website can be viewed here: https://ealpsp.wordpress.com.

Learn more about the Oxford Education Deanery here: https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/about-us/oxford-education-deanery/.

Laura Molway discusses her research on students’ attitudes and experiences of learning French in secondary schools. She explores the value of teachers seeking direct feedback from their students and how this can help develop policy and practice. To develop their practice, languages teachers need detailed feedback about the quality of their classroom teaching. Students have extensive, first-hand experience of their languages lessons and they can offer direct feedback to their teachers that is cheap and easy to collect. In conversation with Hamish Chalmers, Laura Molway from the University of Oxford’s Department of Education describes how she developed, tested and implemented a student survey tool, which languages teachers can use to help evaluate their own teaching. She describes the results of using the survey with 1,370 Year 8 pupils learning French in the South of England, and an accompanying survey of their teachers. She describes the implications of her research for teachers and modern language departments for reflecting on their policies and practice.

The Deanery Digest (a plain language summary of this research) can be viewed here: https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/deanery-digest/what-can-we-learn-from-asking-students-directly-about-their-experiences-of-french-lessons/.

The full published journal article can be viewed here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102440.

The tool can be downloaded from the IRIS database here: https://www.iris-database.org/details/hiUZN-cD4y3.

Learn more about the Oxford Education Deanery here: https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/about-us/oxford-education-deanery/.