Introduction

Specifically designed for international graduate students looking to either become English language instructors or improve their existent qualifications, the MA in Teaching English as an Additional Language (MA TEAL) Program at Carleton University equips participants with the necessary knowledge and skills to not only work as professional English teachers in various programs across the globe, but to also engage in research, which is a necessary, yet often absent, condition of teacher education and professional development opportunities. Despite numerous calls to have teachers serve as teacher-researchers to critically examine assumptions they hold about what constitutes effective language learning and/or teaching (e.g., Burns et al., 2022; Cirocki & Burns, 2019; Cirocki & Hallet, 2024), few programs allow for, or promote, such investigations. Some of the main benefits behind these examinations, however, include helping teachers understand student learning (Edwards & Burns, 2016) and improving their own practice (e.g., Cirocki & Burns, 2019; Kartchava et al., 2021; Sato & Loewen, 2019; Ulrich-Verslycken & Kartchava, 2025).

And this is where Carleton’s MA TEAL program stands out as one of its requirements is to have participants complete a Capstone Project. This requirement allows students an opportunity to work on a TEAL-related topic that is of interest to them, applying the skills and competencies acquired during the Program.

While the Capstone Project can take a variety of forms, the general requirement is that each student identifies a problem-of-practice within the student’s area of interest and professional goals. This work can involve a research component, literature analysis of an issue relevant to TEAL, or creation of a curriculum manual or a set of instructional materials. To bring the individual projects to completion, the students are guided along three interrelated phases of (1) preparation/ problem-of-practice idea generation, (2) execution, and (3) dissemination, and receive personalized assistance throughout to ensure success.

To ensure that the students’ completed work is disseminated to audiences beyond the Program, and consequently benefits the field at large, the collection before you brings together the Capstone Projects of three students who attended the MA TEAL program during the 2024-2025 academic year. Yuxuan Hu investigated extant literature on how willingness to communicate and anxiety can be positively affected by classroom teachers to promote engagement and learning among adult students of English. With a focus on teachers’ views about technology and its implementation, Yinan Zhang explored how an educational context (Canada vs. China) may impact what teachers do (or don’t do) with technology in their practice. Finally, Xin Pang examined gender representation in a state-mandated Chinese English textbook commonly used with young learners. In addition to the written project descriptions, each contribution is accompanied by a video-reflection in which the participants discuss what they have learned from this research experience and how it might be of benefit to others.

While the featured projects address a variety of topics, they represent real concerns to each participant and together, point to the developments deemed necessary by the practitioners themselves. It is my sincere hope that this volume serves as a starting point for more teacher-inspired and teacher-led research that, in turn, motivates other language teachers to engage with and/or undertake similar investigations to advance their own practices and views on language learning and teaching.

References

Burns, A., Edwards, E., & Ellis, N. J. (2022). Sustaining action research: A practical guide for institutional engagement. Routledge.

Cirocki, A., & Burns, A. (2019). Language teachers as researchers. The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL, 8(2), 15-35.

Cirocki, A., & Hallet, W. (2024). Professionalising English language teaching: Concepts and reflections for action in teacher education (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/https://doi-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/10.1017/9781009350235

Edwards, E., & Burns, A. (2016). Action research to support teachers’ classroom materials development. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 10(2), 106-120. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2015.1090995

Kartchava, E., Bu, Y., Heidt, J., Mohamed, A., & Seal, J. (2021). Towards a better understanding of the complex nature of written corrective feedback and its effects: A duoethnographical exploration of perceptions, choices, and outcomes. Journal of Response to Writing, 7(2), 74-111. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/journalrw/vol7/iss2/4

Sato, M., & Loewen, S. (2019). Do teachers care about research? The research-pedagogy dialogue. ELT Journal, 73(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccy048

Ulrich-Verslycken, K. & Kartchava, E. (2025). It’s not just grammar: A teacher’s introspection on corrective feedback. TESL Canada Journal, 42(1), 21-46. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v42i1/1418

2025 MA TEAL participants: Yuxuan Hu, Xin Pang, and Yinan Zhang

Capstone Project course instructor: Eva Kartchava, PhD

MA TEAL program website

School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada)