Tag: research

Methodological monocultures or ecosystems? A few reflections and cautions on an IATEFL plenary

Posted in Applied linguistics, communicative language teaching, ELT, Language teaching, Uncategorized23 Comments

I very much enjoyed Neil McMillan’s witty and creative plenary on the last day of the IATEFL Edinburgh Conference (McMillan, 2025), in which he lamented the lack of interest in methodology in recent IATEFL plenaries and made a convincing case for task-based language teaching (hereafter TBLT). I shared his shock that a key icon in…… Continue reading Methodological monocultures or ecosystems? A few reflections and cautions on an IATEFL plenary

Empathetic observation

Posted in Applied linguistics, Teacher education, Teacher training, Uncategorized2 Comments

I sometimes think that educational researchers, particularly applied linguists, would benefit greatly from taking occasional time out from their work to engage in what we might call ‘empathetic observation’. It’s rather a simple idea: An academic shadows a teacher at their place of work for a few days to learn as much as possible from…… Continue reading Empathetic observation