Do teachers care about research?

The research–pedagogy dialogue

Masatoshi Sato and Shawn Loewen

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Instructed second-language acquisition (ISLA) research endeavours to make
positive changes in pedagogical practices. In this regard, there is a recent debate
concerning whether teachers are (or should be) willing to engage with research.
To investigate the research–pedagogy link, the current case study conducted
interviews with 12 EFL teachers in Chile. The findings suggested that teachers’
understanding of research was relatively consistent with SLA researchers’
practices, although their awareness of instructionally oriented research was low.
Teachers were willing to use research because it gave them emotional support
and helped them deal with novel pedagogical issues. The use of research was
facilitated by external pressure in the current landscape of higher education.
However, teachers lacked physical accessibility to research such as time and
resources as well as institutional support. They shared invaluable advice to
researchers in promoting the research–pedagogy dialogue, such as creating
communities of practice and conducting classroom research.
Background and Instructed second-language acquisition (ISLA) research aims to provide
motivation teachers with evidence-based pedagogical recommendations, by
examining L2 learning and teaching issues with scientifically rigorous
methods. ISLA puts instruction as a central issue, building on traditional
SLA research that primarily focuses on phenomena related to ‘how people
learn languages later in life, above and beyond the mother tongue(s)
they learn from birth’ (Ortega 2015: 270). Although the transferability
of individual research studies to the classroom varies, an ever-growing
focus on pedagogy among ISLA researchers is evident in recent books
(e.g. Loewen and Sato 2017) as well as empirical studies (e.g. DeKeyser
and Prieto-Botana in press). As a result, researchers have become more
concerned with whether they are disseminating their findings to teachers
effectively. Additionally, there is an ongoing debate about the extent of
teachers’ interest in ISLA research. Both researchers and teachers need
to be willing and open for there to be an effective research–pedagogy
dialogue. As a start, we need to know (i) whether researchers intend to
inform teachers, and (ii) whether teachers are interested in incorporating
research findings into their teaching. The current study addressed the
latter issue.

ELT Journal Volume 73/1 January 2019; doi:10.1093/elt/ccy048  1

© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
Advance Access publication November 10, 2018
 Concerning the research–pedagogy dialogue, some scholars argue that
teachers need not interact with researchers at all. For instance, Medgyes
claimed that ‘the findings of academic research are bound to be no less
misleading and unreliable than teachers’ experience and intuitions’
(Medgyes 2017: 509). Indeed, researchers report conflicting findings and
provide inconsistent pedagogical suggestions that sometimes change
over time. Nonetheless, we believe that ISLA researchers have produced
considerable empirical evidence that teachers can reliably use in the
classroom. Consequently, it can be beneficial for researchers to seek ways
to facilitate the dialogue between teachers and researchers. Efforts to
impede dialogue may put teachers ‘in danger of rejecting evidence a priori

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and prioritizing experience and intuition’ (Paran 2017: 507).
Recently, Marsden and Kasprowicz (2017) investigated the research–
pedagogy interface by surveying 574 foreign language (FL) teachers
and practitioners in the UK, focusing on their exposure to research
and barriers to research engagement. Overall, results revealed a ‘(lack
of) interface with research for non-English FL educators’ (Marsden
and Kasprowicz 2017: 624). For instance, only 6 per cent of journals
mentioned by respondents were included in the Social Sciences Citation
Index (Thomson Reuters)—arguably the most important venue for
researchers to disseminate their research findings. Respondents
mentioned common barriers to research engagement, including practical
constraints (e.g. time), access and understanding of research (e.g. lack
of professional development opportunities), and negative perceptions of
research (e.g. relevancy to teaching).
While Marsden and Kasprowicz’s (ibid.) large-scale study is important,
the population was limited to UK FL teachers. In contrast, teachers
of English might have different access to and use of research due to
English’s global status and ubiquity in professional communities. For
example, the fact that the majority of SLA research has investigated
English as the target language may increase the chance for teachers being
exposed to empirical findings. Also, belonging to a large professional
organization (e.g. TESOL, IATEFL) may facilitate teachers’ participation in
research conferences. Another issue of Marsden and Kasprowicz’s (ibid:
617) pioneering study is that they provided participants with a definition
of research in their survey. Borg (2010), however, emphasized the need to
understand how teachers conceive of research because teachers ‘vary in
their understanding of what counts as research, and thus some who claim
to be reading research may in fact be reading about practical teaching
ideas’ (Borg 2010: 412). Indeed, if teachers’ understanding of research is
inconsistent with researchers’ practices, investigation into teachers’ use of
research may be methodologically flawed. Hence, one of the objectives of
the current study was to examine teachers’ understanding of research in
one specific EFL context, that of Chilean higher education. The following
research questions were explored:

RQ1: How do Chilean EFL teachers describe L2 research?

RQ2: How do they feel about research?
RQ3: What obstacles do they report in applying research?

2 Masatoshi Sato and Shawn Loewen

 RQ4: What do they think researchers can/should do to facilitate the
research–pedagogy dialogue?
Methods We conducted a case study in order to ‘gain a thorough understanding
of the phenomenon being studied, of which the case is an exemplar’
(Duff 2014: 237). We felt that university-level EFL teachers in Chile
would provide unique insights into the research–pedagogy link in the
field of L2 teaching; however, Chile is perhaps similar to many other EFL
contexts as well. We focused on ‘engagement with research’ as opposed
to ‘engagement in research’ (Borg 2010: 391), the latter involving teachers
conducting research by themselves (e.g. action research). Our scope was

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limited to higher education where English teachers often hold graduate
degrees (cf. Marsden and Kasprowicz 2017).
Context and Chile shares educational issues with other EFL contexts worldwide.
participants Classrooms at primary and secondary levels typically contain more than
30 students, English is taught primarily in the learners’ L1, lessons focus
on grammar teaching and vocabulary memorization, and classes tend to
be teacher centered. In the wake of globalization, however, the Chilean
government has started to prioritize English education. As of 2012, the
national curriculum emphasizes communicative skills as the primary
goal of English education. Nonetheless, the policy implementation has
not resulted in the desired level of English proficiency among Chilean
EFL learners (Barahona 2016). English classes in higher education are
similar to those in compulsory education; however, an instructional focus
on the development of communicative skills tends to increase, possibly
due to the fact that there is no national paper-based exam that university
students need to take and, thus, curricula can more flexibly incorporate
communicative activities.
The current case study examined an English department at a large private
university in Santiago, Chile. The department oversaw required English
classes across different disciplines. At the time of data collection, the
department hosted 373 classes with 8710 students. All classes followed the
department’s general curriculum, while specific syllabi differed depending
on the nature of classes (e.g. tourism versus English pedagogy). The first
author was faculty at the university and had conducted several research
studies in this context. Indeed, one teacher in the current study had
previously participated in the author’s research. While this relationship
might have influenced the teachers’ accounts of research, this close
association also provided us with an intimate understanding of the case
study context.
The first paragraph of the department’s curriculum states:

The state-of-the-art of English Language Teaching (ELT) has evolved

considerably throughout the world over the last 30 plus years as
different methodologies have been introduced, based on more extensive
research on the language acquisition process, new teaching/learning
strategies and the nature of written and oral language usage itself.
The curriculum’s emphasis on research was based on the university’s
strategic plans. Reacting to the global trend in higher education to

Do teachers care about research? 3

 prioritize research productivity to increase international profiles (de
la Torre and Perez-Esparrells 2017), the university had increasingly
promoted its research agenda by, for instance, awarding financial rewards
for publishing in indexed journals regardless of discipline (i.e. Thomson
Reuters and SCOPUS).
The case study included 12 teachers (8 female and 4 male). Their ages
ranged from 28 to 65 years old (mean = 41.75; SD = 11.57). They shared
several key learning/teaching backgrounds. First, most were experienced
EFL teachers, with an average teaching experience of 18.7 years
(SD = 11.03; range = 2–40). Second, all teachers spoke English as an L2,

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with 11 Spanish L1 speakers. Third, except one teacher, all had formal
training as English teachers by completing Bachelor’s (2 teachers) or
Master’s (10 teachers) degrees in TESOL or equivalents. None of the MA
holders, however, reported conducting empirical research for a thesis.
Two teachers were undertaking PhDs. Only one teacher had experience
conducting research individually; however, another had taken courses
related to action research. Four teachers had taught teacher training
courses to pre-service English teachers, which may have influenced their
perceptions of research.
The teachers were in charge of English classes for the teacher training
programme as well as ones for other majors. In addition, the teachers
had taught (or were teaching) content courses (e.g. applied linguistics, L2
pedagogy).
Data collection and In-depth individual interviews were conducted in December 2017.
analysis Both researchers were present for the interviews, which took from
25 to 45 minutes, yielding 404 minutes of audio-recorded data. The
semistructured interviews involved several sections with specific prompts
(see Appendix). The first section elicited participants’ learning/teaching
backgrounds. Questions pertained to their experiences as English learners
(e.g. types of instruction they received), training experiences as teachers
(e.g. L2 theories covered in training courses), and teaching experiences
(e.g. age group, institution type, learner type). The second section focused
on their understanding of research. Before eliciting any opinions about
research, we asked them to define second-language research in their own
words. Then, we asked questions related to their perceptions of research
and researchers. In addition, we asked about their sources for accessing
research. The third section elicited comments about their use of research.
For instance, we asked whether participants thought research was
useful for their teaching. Other questions probed teachers’ integration
of research into their teaching as well as obstacles for doing so. Finally,
we solicited teachers’ advice on how researchers could facilitate teachers’
access to and use of research.
Immediately after each interview, the researchers together discussed
prominent themes based on detailed interview notes. Subsequently,
the audio-recordings were transcribed. Due to the lack of a particular
theory or empirical evidence pertaining to the research–pedagogy
link, the transcripts were analysed using grounded theory (Corbin and
Strauss 2008). Recurring themes were first identified in each transcript
(conceptual labelling and open coding), and the themes that emerged

4 Masatoshi Sato and Shawn Loewen

 were then explored in the other transcripts to increase coding validity.
Grounded theory allowed development of an emic understanding of
teachers’ views of the research–pedagogy link. The resulting categories
were: research perceptions; emotional support; pedagogical issues; external
pressure; accessibility; institutional support; teacher/researcher initiative;
community of practice; pedagogical tools; and classroom research.
Findings and Concerning teachers’ definitions of L2 research, the most frequent
discussion concept, used by seven teachers, related to L2 learning processes. For
Perceptions of instance, Pia (all names are pseudonyms) explained that L2 research
research and ‘collects and analyses data to have a better understanding of topics or

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researchers issues related to L2s such as learning processes … also how people learn
L2s in classrooms’. Six teachers used words such as ‘well-organized’,
‘innovative’, and ‘systematic’. Although their understanding of research
was generally consistent with SLA researchers’ practices (Ortega 2015),
teachers did not generally mention research examining effects of
instructional interventions aimed at facilitating L2 learning processes—a
core component of ISLA. Only three teachers discussed instruction by
mentioning concepts such as ‘how L2s can be best learned and taught’
or ‘what teachers can do to help students’. Nonetheless, the similarity
between researchers’ practices and teachers’ understanding of research
allowed subsequent questions about teachers’ perceptions and use of
research.
Teachers’ feelings Next, we asked teachers about their impressions of research and
about research researchers. Ten teachers shared overall positive perceptions (coded under
research perceptions). For instance, Matias said:

It is an important work because all teachers go through this stage of

feeling insecure about what they do in their classes or having issues
with their students. Research is important for helping those teachers
and that’s what researchers do, no?
Such positive perceptions are crucial because if teachers are suspicious
of research and researchers, then researchers’ efforts to make their
findings useful to teachers may be unproductive. However, although
few in number, two teachers shared their ‘attitudinal barriers’ (Borg
2010: 410) towards researchers. Paula pointed out researchers’ ‘lack
of generosity’ in sharing research findings and communicating with
teachers. Pia said researchers ‘don’t share knowledge and they are in their
own circle’.
Like Marsden and Kasprowicz’s (2017) school-level FL teachers in the
UK, the Chilean university-level EFL teachers in our study generally
thought that research was relevant and useful for teaching. Six teachers
used the word ‘confidence’ to describe their feelings about research
(coded as emotional support). For instance, Felipe said: ‘Research gives
you confidence in what you do, especially when you are dealing with so
many students in so many classes with so many problems.’ Some teachers
mentioned specific types of research such as immigrants in classrooms,
special educational needs, and online teaching (coded as pedagogical
issues). Teachers expressed that research had aided their pedagogical
decisions because these issues were ‘new’ to them and they were unsure

Do teachers care about research? 5

 what to do with such students. For instance, although she seemed
relatively reluctant to use research, Camila’s attitude changed drastically
when discussing learners with special educational needs, saying ‘we
definitely need research’. However, despite these positive comments,
none of the teachers referred to specific research findings that they had
integrated into their teaching.
Another factor influencing teachers’ feelings about research was external
pressure exerted by their educational context. For example, Paula, who also
served as the MA TESOL director, explained:

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In the last five years or so, the Ministry of Education has been focused
on trying to implement ways of getting professionals involved with
research. … They [the government] are more worried about getting
connected to universities abroad and they are pushing universities to
be more globalized and internationalized. If you don’t do that [getting
involved with research], little by little, those teachers are … you know …
not gonna be considered … in the team.
Not only did teachers feel expected to access research, they also felt
pressure to conduct research themselves. Felipe, who had written a
research article, explained his motivation saying: ‘I am interested [in doing
research]. … But, to be honest, it is for getting a better job too.’ When
asked if research was part of their job description, Valentina replied: ‘Not
really but nowadays the university wants us to do research. … Someday,
we are going to have to do it.’ Consequently, this political desire for
internationalizing universities seems to have, sometimes begrudgingly,
raised teachers’ awareness of research.
Obstacles to using When asked about access to research, teachers mentioned ‘database’ 36
research times (coded under accessibility). Among the 29 ISLA journals mentioned
by Marsden and Kasprowicz (2017), however, the Chilean university’s
database held only six, with an average of 8.5 issues for those journals.
Given this lack of accessibility, teachers reported using various other
methods to access research. Five teachers who had graduated from UK
or US universities said they used their previous institutions’ libraries.
Others mentioned ERIC, JSTOR, and EBSCO, to which the university had
subscriptions. Interestingly, five teachers mentioned belonging to social
media communities (e.g. Facebook) in which journal articles were freely
shared, emphasizing their need and willingness to access research by
potentially unconventional means. When asked to name specific journals,
one teacher mentioned Language Learning and another TESOL Quarterly.
Despite their willingness to access and use research, teachers
unanimously expressed a lack of time for either finding research
materials, reading research articles, or attending conferences. Another
commonly expressed obstacle was financial (seven teachers); teachers
were not inclined to pay to attend academic conferences (see Borg
2010). These comments highlight the necessity of institutional support.
Institutions could help maintain the research–pedagogy dialogue by
giving teachers time off or financial aid to participate in conferences.
No matter how interested teachers are in using research to inform their

6 Masatoshi Sato and Shawn Loewen

 pedagogy, there must be affordable options for teachers to access and use
research.
Another obstacle teachers shared was related to the initiator of the
research–pedagogy dialogue (coded as teacher/researcher initiative).
Interestingly, while expressing their own willingness to integrate research
into their teaching, seven of them were dismissive of other teachers’
lack of interest in research. We asked Matias to clarify what he meant:
‘So, you don’t think other teachers are interested.’ In reply, he said: ‘No,
I know they are not.’ Fernanda explained that after teaching several years,
teachers ‘feel comfortable with their pedagogy and reach their teaching

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plateau’. In Paula’s words, teachers ‘get stuck’. It may be the case that
when teaching becomes routine, teachers tend to stop accessing research
unless unique pedagogical issues, such as the above-mentioned ones,
arise. Those obstacles call for ISLA researchers’ efforts in initiating the
research–pedagogy dialogue.
Advice to The teachers provided a variety of useful advice for researchers. The most
researchers common was to hold talks and workshops in which they can participate
for free (coded under community of practice). Although most of them (ten)
expressed that it was the teacher’s responsibility to access research, they
also shared their wish that researchers actively reach out to teachers.
Additionally, teachers felt it was important for meetings to be held face-
to-face, implying the psychological distance they felt from research/
researchers. Trinidad stated that teachers ‘want to talk to researchers’
rather than spending ‘two hours reading an article and planning [their
lessons] based on the article’. Similarly, Paula suggested: ‘We should
create a community of practice where teachers and researchers solve
educational issues together.’
Another type of advice related to the difficulty of using research findings
(coded under pedagogical tools). Given their limited time, teachers often
seek tools and techniques that can be readily implemented in their
classes. Researchers should not expect teachers to devise pedagogical
tools based on empirical papers written in technical language. Pia shared
her frustration: ‘It doesn’t make sense that researchers come to the
classroom, collect data, yet not let the teacher know what happened in the
study later. … It’s a sort of feedback to teachers.’ To this end, we concur
with Marsden and Kasprowicz’s conclusion that ‘research could better
find its way into practitioners’ communities of practice, for evaluation
by them’ (Marsden and Kasprowicz 2017: 632). However, when doing
so, researchers need to provide tools or techniques that can actually be
evaluated by teachers.
Although few in number, three teachers extensively discussed researchers
visiting their classrooms (coded under classroom research). Fernanda
stated that researchers ‘should come to the class to find out what’s going
on’. In order to understand current issues and to advance research, it
may be crucial for researchers to encourage ‘the teaching profession to
influence the research agenda’ (Paran 2017: 505–06). Another perspective
on classroom research pertained to research methodology. Cristobal had
participated in numerous researchers’ projects. He particularly referred
to our recent project on corrective feedback (see Sato and Loewen 2018),

Do teachers care about research? 7

 and stated that researchers should ‘make an effort to fit their research to
the class rather than adapting the class to [their] research’. His comments
suggest that while he is willing to participate in and use research, the
researcher’s approach is crucial in order to promote the research–
pedagogy dialogue. Specifically, when conducting a classroom study,
researchers should refrain from a ‘one-off research activity’ (McDonough
2015: 227). Instead, adjusting research materials to teachers’ and
students’ needs in a specific educational context may not only increase
the transferability of research findings but also establish a trusting
relationship between researcher and teacher communities.

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Conclusion The current case study adds to the research–pedagogy dialogue, by
investigating the access to and use of (I)SLA research in a specific EFL
context in Chilean higher education. The findings suggest that teachers’
understanding of research was relatively consistent with SLA researchers’
practices, although the awareness of ISLA research findings was low.
Teachers cared about research because it gave them emotional support
and helped them deal with specific pedagogical issues. The use of research
was encouraged by external pressure in the current landscape of higher
education. Nonetheless, the teachers reported obstacles, including
physical accessibility such as time and resources, lack of institutional
support, and limited teacher/researcher initiatives. Thus, even though EFL
teachers with master’s degrees teaching applied linguistics to pre-service
English teachers might be expected to routinely access and use research,
such was not the case. As the results showed, no teachers addressed
specific empirical evidence to solve a classroom issue and their awareness
of indexed journals was low. Finally, teachers provided valuable advice
to create communities of practice, translate research findings into usable
pedagogical tools, and conduct classroom research with research procedures
integrated into existing curricula.
The current study contains some methodological limitations. First, as
a case study, the findings cannot be generalized beyond the specific
research context. Specifically, the case involved university-level EFL
teachers, most of whom had obtained graduate degrees and some were
teaching content courses related to SLA research. Consequently, some
findings such as external pressure may be particular to the current context.
We note, however, it is a global trend in higher education that L2 teachers
are required to conduct and publish research in order to maintain their
jobs. Additional insights may also be gained by surveying a larger group of
teachers in different teaching/learning contexts. Second, the fact that we
functioned as interviewers and researchers may have affected the teachers’
responses. However, the first author had been teaching and researching
in the department for six years and had developed personal relationships
with the teachers. As a result, we believe we managed to create a non-
threatening, trusting environment, resulting in teachers’ honest stories
and accounts that otherwise may have been inaccessible.
To widen the dialogue between teachers and researchers, we call for
investigations into researchers’ perspectives of the research–pedagogy
link. We concur with Medgyes that researchers’ top-down attitudes will
not facilitate the dialogue; however, we contest his claim that researchers

8 Masatoshi Sato and Shawn Loewen

 are necessarily ‘parasitical’ upon teachers (Medgyes 2017: 496). While it
may be true that ISLA researchers rely more heavily on teachers than vice
versa, it is an empirical question whether researchers are categorically
‘locked up in their own little cage with no periscope available to scan
the whole landscape’ (ibid.: 493). A good starting place would be to ask
researchers their views on L2 pedagogy and what they do to make their
research useful for teachers. Many researchers used to be (or are) teachers
themselves (see Lightbown 2016), and such experiences may be reflected
in their perspectives.
In conclusion, we are not suggesting that all pedagogical practices must

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be supported by research. It is impractical for every pedagogical decision
to be driven by research evidence, given the complexity of classroom
L2 teaching (see Larsen-Freeman 2015). Each class, learner, and
teaching/learning context is unique, and teachers themselves are most
knowledgeable about their own L2 teaching/learning issues. Additionally,
teachers’ experiences both as L2 learners and teachers are invaluable
sources for improving pedagogy, especially when shared among
themselves. Nevertheless, research findings can be an additional resource
for teachers to make teaching more efficient and effective, and we hope
that teachers will consider implementing evidence-based pedagogical
ideas in their classes.
The momentum is here; many researchers (ourselves included) are
now more self-reflective regarding the transferability of their research
findings into the classroom, and we strive to effect positive changes in
teaching practices. Rather than closing the dialogue between teachers and
researchers, as suggested by some (e.g. Medgyes 2017), we hope to widen
the door and increase the amount of dialogue. Any efforts towards this
end are welcome, and while researchers may shoulder the lion’s share of
responsibility in this initiative, the current study has shown that at least
some teachers are willing partners in this endeavour.
Final version received June 2018
Acknowledgements This work was partially supported by the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo
Científico y Tecnólogico from the Ministry of Education of Chile
(FONDECYT: 1181533) awarded to the first author as the co-investigator.

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Do teachers care about research? 9

Larsen-Freeman, D. 2015. ‘Research into practice: The authors
Grammar learning and teaching’. Language Teaching Masatoshi Sato is Associate Professor in the
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Appendix Section 1: Demographic information
Interview prompts
• Age, gender, L1
• Learning experience (length; type of instruction)
• Training experience (degrees; research-based materials; syllabuses)
• Teaching experience (length; institution; age group)
• The current teaching position
Section 2: Understanding of research
• Definition of ‘second language research’
• Impressions of research/researchers
• Sources to access research
Section 3: Use of research
• Usefulness of research
• Actual use of research
• Obstacles to using research
• Advice to researchers

10 Masatoshi Sato and Shawn Loewen