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Article published In:
Language Teaching for Young Learners
Vol. 6:1 (2024) ► pp.5–31
Original Research Article

Setting research priorities for English as an Additional Language

What do research users want from EAL research?

ORCID logo | University of Oxford
ORCID logo | University of Oxford
ORCID logo | University of Oxford

We report a priority setting partnership (PSP), which sought to establish the priorities for new research among research users (educators, parents, and learners) in the field of English as an Additional Language (EAL). A steering committee consisting of members of these research user groups was established to oversee the project. An online ‘uncertainty questionnaire’ was distributed to research users inviting them to identify areas of their practice about which they are uncertain. These ‘raw’ uncertainties were consolidated and converted into a list of research questions, which was then distributed to the same groups to rank in order of priority. The 25 highest ranked questions were then discussed and debated in a workshop, consisting of research user representatives, to collectively and democratically produce a final Top 10 list of questions. The Top 10 shows what EAL research users regard as priorities, which we hope will inform research agendas and funding decisions.

Keywords: EAL, research priorities, education, public engagement in science, participatory research
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Participatory research in applied linguistics
    • 1.2English as an Additional Language
    • 1.3Aims
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Establishing the steering committee
    • 2.2The uncertainty questionnaire
    • 2.3Analysing responses to the uncertainty questionnaire
    • 2.4The ranking survey
    • 2.5Analysing the responses to the ranking survey
    • 2.6Workshop to agree the Top 10 research priorities
    • 2.7Validity
    • 2.8Ethics
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Results of the uncertainty questionnaire
    • 3.2Results of the ranking survey
    • 3.3Results of the workshop – the final Top 10
  • 4.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Declaration of interests
  • Supplementary materials
  • Note
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 4 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltyl.00043.set
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