This comprehensive guide to research and debate centres around language learning in childhood, the age factor and the different contexts where language learning happens, including home and school contexts. The scope is wide, capturing examples of studies with different age groups, different methodological approaches and different languages.

This book focuses on ethical and methodological issues faced by researchers working with young language learners in formal school contexts. It uncovers and explicitly discusses a range of ethical dilemmas, challenges and experiences that researchers have encountered and grappled with, in studies of all kinds from large scale, experimental studies to ethnographic studies focused on just a handful of children. The chapters are written by researchers working with children in different classroom contexts around the world and highlight how ethical dilemmas and tensions take on a complex form in child-focused research, requiring researchers to pay particular attention to the social and cultural norms of the different communities within which children are educated as well as their school-based experiences. The book comprises three sections, with the first part focused on involving children as active participants in research; part two on ethical challenges in multilingual contexts and part three on links between teacher education and researching children. The book includes a critical discussion of the opportunities and challenges associated with applying the UNCRC (1989) document in second language research with children which will be of use to any researcher working in this area.

This book focuses on ethical and methodological issues faced by researchers working with young language learners in formal school contexts. It uncovers and explicitly discusses a range of ethical dilemmas, challenges and experiences that researchers have encountered and grappled with, in studies of all kinds from large scale, experimental studies to ethnographic studies focused on just a handful of children. The chapters are written by researchers working with children in different classroom contexts around the world and highlight how ethical dilemmas and tensions take on a complex form in child-focused research, requiring researchers to pay particular attention to the social and cultural norms of the different communities within which children are educated as well as their school-based experiences. The book comprises three sections, with the first part focused on involving children as active participants in research; part two on ethical challenges in multilingual contexts and part three on links between teacher education and researching children. The book includes a critical discussion of the opportunities and challenges associated with applying the UNCRC (1989) document in second language research with children which will be of use to any researcher working in this area.

Who should speak for children in applied linguistics research? Should it be only adults, or is there room for children's perspectives and views as well? This pioneering book brings their voices to the forefront and shows that listening to children can open up new possibilities to conduct research with children rather than just on them. It covers a range of possibilities, from simply asking for children's perspectives to increasing levels of active participation, including adult-child partnerships as well as child-led research. Examples taken from the interdisciplinary literature illustrate what is feasible to achieve in different contexts, and both benefits and challenges are discussed, alongside the most pressing ethical dilemmas. A new, alternative framework for researching with children is promoted, which invites teachers and researchers to consider a wider range of roles that children can play, and encourages them to find their own opportunities when it comes to research involving children.

Who should speak for children in applied linguistics research? Should it be only adults, or is there room for children's perspectives and views as well? This pioneering book brings their voices to the forefront and shows that listening to children can open up new possibilities to conduct research with children rather than just on them. It covers a range of possibilities, from simply asking for children's perspectives to increasing levels of active participation, including adult-child partnerships as well as child-led research. Examples taken from the interdisciplinary literature illustrate what is feasible to achieve in different contexts, and both benefits and challenges are discussed, alongside the most pressing ethical dilemmas. A new, alternative framework for researching with children is promoted, which invites teachers and researchers to consider a wider range of roles that children can play, and encourages them to find their own opportunities when it comes to research involving children.

This comprehensive guide to research and debate centres around language learning in childhood, the age factor and the different contexts where language learning happens, including home and school contexts. The scope is wide, capturing examples of studies with different age groups, different methodological approaches and different languages.

Winner - British Council Innovation in English Language Teaching Award 2006 This book was written for language teachers by language teachers, with a view to encouraging readers to use more tasks in their lessons, and to explore for themselves various aspects of task-based teaching and learning. It gives insights into ways in which tasks can be designed, adapted and implemented in a range of teaching contexts and illustrates ways in which tasks and task-based learning can be investigated as a research activity. Practising language teachers and student professionals on MA TESOL/Applied Linguistics courses will find this a rich resource of varied experience in the classroom and a stimulus to their own qualitative studies.

Each title in the series is intended to serve both as a basis for training courses and seminars, and as a reference text.