Examining ELF-aware teaching and learning: action research as a tool for ELF research and teacher education

Abstract This paper examines the role that action research – including both academic studies and action research undertaken by teachers for the purposes of professional development – might play in helping to close the existing gap between the pedagogical implications of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) research and the practical implementation of an ELF-oriented approach in the classroom. It is argued that the purposes and characteristic features of action research as a research methodology are particularly relevant and fitting to address the kinds of questions relating to pedagogy which remain at this stage of ELF research. To support this thesis, the heart of the paper presents findings from an applied linguistic study investigating the implementation of an ELF-oriented approach in a university-level pilot course in order to illustrate the kinds of insights which classroom-based action research studies can provide. Finally, the concluding section reflects on the role of action research as a part of teachers’ professional development, the potential contributions which such research might make to ELF research and the need for the wider ELF research community to pay more attention to findings from action research undertaken as part of teacher education programs.