ELT developments in schools [antikvár]

Introduction Preamble During the 1995-1996 academic year a number of teachers of English in the KözépDunátúl region were involved in projects which took place in their schools. These förmed part of a larger project which aimed to broaden the base of the terms advice and adviser through promoting a 'bottom up' approach to INSET. This initiative raised a number of interesting practical and theoretical issues for all of the participants involved. Somé of these will be looked at in this introduction. Others will appear in the individual accounts of teachers which follow. Each 'Mini-Project' had its own characteristics, but they shared the four common overall project aims, to develop teaching solutions at a school level to empower teachers to develop alternative patterns and channels for advice for teachers to disseminate results through presentation and publication (Proposal:4) The teachers were, therefore, involved at all stages and took the bulk of the responsibility for the outcomes of the projects. What follows is not intended as a theoretical account of this initiative, though theory is always present. Neither is it intended to be very technical. Rather, in the pages which follow the main purpose is to offer teachers encouragement and to see somé of the possible ways they can continue to develop as professionals. The intention of this brief introduction is to highlight somé ofthe overall rationale behind these accounts. Rationale Classroom research From the point of view of published support for focusing on teachers in their own classrooms there is ample literature available, and in particular from the field of English Language Teaching. For example Chaudron (1988) surveys a wide variety of research which has been carried out in second language classrooms, though mainly empirical. Carr and Kemmis (1986) cover the generál educational value of research in classrooms. Cameron-Jones (1983) traces the development of 'Action Research' and presents its value as a means of professional development for teachers. Brumfit and Mitchell (1990) offer a collection of papers which demonstrate a spectrum of opinions and reports on language classroom research. Nunan (1989) and Allwright and Bailey (1991), provide introductions to teacher-led classroom 'research', which cover basic questions and topics which language teachers can deal with themselves.