Exploration of foreign language teaching: What action research means to English teachers in Taiwan (China)

While studies show that action research can help teachers develop professionally, there are not many studies conducted in Asian contexts. Western and Eastern cultures differ greatly. As such, it is important to conduct studies that explores the uses of action research in each area. This study applies this particular type of research to a second language teacher education program through van Lier's (1994a) modification of Kemmis and McTaggart's (1982) framework. In brief, this dissertation centers on an explanation of what action research is and the way it possibly helps teachers to become aware of their own instruction patterns through posing and working at solving problems in their teaching.; The purpose of this study was to understand what action research means to nine teachers of English in Taiwan, and to do this, two goals were set. The first involved teaching a group of Taiwanese teachers to investigate issues using action research, as well as documenting the classroom interaction. The second goal was to describe the process the student teachers went through while learning to implement action research, as well as to document difficulties encountered within the participants' classrooms.; This study employed a qualitative approach in which it primarily relied on the use of participant observation and ethnographic techniques to discover the meaning of action research to this particular group of new teachers in Taiwan. Data were collected over a seven-month period using surveys, participant observations, interviews, journal entries, and written documents.; The results established three categories of action research processes used by the student teachers: (1) projects in a typical action research cycle, (2) projects and problems posed one after another, (3) problem solving through adjusted actions. Eighteen projects were completed, which were related to teaching skills, classroom management, and students' phonetic study.; The findings revealed that most participants developed positive impressions about action research, and that they could benefit from working collaboratively in doing action research. The research provides implications for second language teacher development by suggesting that ESL/EFL teachers could benefit from the use of action research.