Exploring a world of paradoxes: an investigation of group work

Abstract

This paper has a dual role to play here. First, it presents a classroom investigation conducted within the framework of Exploratory Practice (EP) set out in the introductory paper to this volume, and secondly it illustrates EP’s potential for developing a ‘research culture’ in a university institution. Perhaps it should be possible to take such a culture of inquiry for granted at university level, but recent decades in the United kingdom have seen the rise, and fall, of many university-based language teaching units whose members’ contracts did not entail research. Now that research has become a major source of funding, such staff are increasingly being urged to undertake research as well as to teach a language. EP, with its emphasis on integrating research into pedagogy (see Allwright, this issue), offers a research model that experienced language teachers might prefer to traditional academic research, and find more manageable. This paper illustrates how an investigation into group work arose from this interest in developing a culture of inquiry, and concludes with a note of caution concerning the pace of change.

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