Language Teachers Improving Their Practice and Generating Knowledge through Action Research

Abstract

This study aims to investigate a group of language teachers who seek to improve their general English syllabus through action research. Action research offers practitioners possibilities to address syllabus issues through thoughtful inquiry. Because the study requires the researcher to comprehend the subject of study, research techniques allowing participants express their beliefs, and opinions about the syllabus are entirely appropriate. Thus, it is unlikely that other research methods allow action researchers understand the contextual reality as qualitative methods do. Interviews are conducted as they are widely used in action research studies and are suitable techniques to gain insights into the practitioners’ collective reflective enquiry. The study shows that action research is a valuable tool to improve a language syllabus, an additional element action research offers to the process of syllabus improvement is that teachers can take responsibility for themselves and their actions thus by improving the syllabus they follow, they are able to emancipate themselves from the controlled situation they can find themselves in.