CONDUCTING ACTION RESEARCH TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF OUR CLASSROOM PRACTICES WHEN TEACHING EFL

Revista del Centro de Investigación de Lingüística y de Didáctica de la Lengua Inglesa (CILDLI)

Instituto de Formación Docente ´Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Corazón´

Lugar: Córdoba Capital; Año: 2014; p. 21 - 28

Action research is not only a way of researching about teaching, but of understanding it. Action research entails understanding teaching as an ongoing research process because it considers that human interaction and social intervention (both essential parts of any educational practice) cannot be treated as mechanical processes, but should be treated as permanent processes of collective building. Consequently, action research is a way of understanding the teaching profession that integrates reflection and thinking to the analysis of the experiences that are carried out, as an essential element of what makes up the educational practice itself. In this regard, according to Carr (1995), action research is an active process whose centre of attention is the improvement of practices. That process is focused on the positive transformation of practices with the aim of providing means to translate it into actions; that is to say, it always aims at improving education, especially the learning and teaching processes, through analysis and optimization of the educational practice. Thus, in this paper, we will discuss the way in which action research may work as a useful instrument to optimize the quality of the teaching and learning processes when teaching EFL.