Applied linguistics communities of practice: Improving the research-practice relationship

Employing the concept of practice-based research (Sato and Loewen 2022), this study argues for the creation of applied linguistics communities of practice (CoPs) as a capacitating space for researchers and practitioners, mutual exchange, and meaningful collaboration. This is needed given the existing gap between research and practice, which is particularly alarming in the field of applied linguistics. The study draws on eight in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with practice-oriented researchers from multiple country contexts zooming in on their identity negotiation between practitioner and researcher as well as their perceptions of and lived experiences with the research-practice relationship. The analysis showed that the relationship is indeed perceived as problematic even by very committed, practice-oriented researchers and that conditions to conduct meaningful, ethically responsible, and sustainable practice-based research need to be improved. The study proposes a practice-based research cycle to be used as template for joint projects, in which both practitioners and researchers are involved in and responsible for all stages from conception to implementation while capitalizing on the CoP members’ different strengths and mutual learning experiences.