Dear Ling Yiwen

This is one of the most exciting pieces of teacher research I have ever encountered because, in my opinion, it bridges so many traditional boundaries to represent a manifestation of the so-called new scholarship that Schon (and Jack Whitehead) pursued. I get this impression most strongly where you write:

'I discover the importance of building a bridge between the content of a lesson and the methodologies used to communicate with my students.'

What I perceive is an explication of how you enable not only the growth of what JackWhitehead calls your 'Living Educational Theory' but alongside yours, the emergence of your students LETs too. Perhaps it was the first attempt at undertaking action research and your disinterest in it that has been the crucible for your engagement and maturation of your reflections now? I would love to know! What is it that triggers a realization that undertaking enquiries of the kind 'How can I improve?' that arouses so much consternation in some and such jubilation in other researchers?

My excitement is aroused because you are explaining a transcendence of the style and approach of teaching that you embodied for thirteen years to become deeply committed to action research. This excites me because I engage in contexts where teachers who have been working in schools for many years sometimes adopt the position; I am too old, this approach works, I don't see the point, I don't have time ... and I want to know, passionately. How to put them in touch with the educational values that they may have forgotten or do not realise that they embody any longer ...

Where you say you analysed grammar rules - so often it is just the teacher who is passionately engaged (and often they do not either!) and teaching becomes an exercise in predictability - and yet, and this is a major 'and yet' can we justify rejecting the grammar translation method - after all we see the outcomes of poorly informed language learning in many of the entrants to UK Universities where the emphasis on language learning has been too geared to communication and not enough to grammatical awareness - clearly we need a balance! I invite you to look at the changes being brought about by the Key Stage 3 Strategy in the UK - and have included the URL of the QCA website on the webpage I have dedicated to Guyuan at www.TeacherResearch.net

You bring such hope to educational discourse and practice where I read you say '... being grouped into special classes doesn't mean we should give up on those students ...' Bravo! Well said!

Your style of expression is invitational and draws me into your account as a guest is warmly greeted at the door of a friend's house 'I learnt that not only intelligence-factors, but also emotional ones play an important role in learning ...' I applaud your insights which all too often have been overlooked in educational research until recent years - do look at research by Andy Hargreaves.

You have the capacity to step into your students world and this perspective integrated with your own as a teacher enables you to create and sustain an educational enquiry to the benefit of all.

'I became aware that my students had been controlled by teacher-centred methods for many years. They couldn't understand what they were supposed to do in activities when it came to expressing themselves. I told my students that I believed that I could learn a lot from their speeches, such as new knowledge, new teaching methods, how to treat people and so on. I listened very carefully ...

Who wouldn't feel valued by this approach where there can be a mutual valuing of learning and an enrichment of teaching undertaken in a systematic and nurturing way - this is music to my ears!

My one plea is that you encourage the students to form focus groups to enable other teachers and yourself to learn from them - I have recently been working with a group of students in Haysfield School in bath to make a video of the students' perceptions of the value of digital video projectors as enablers for their learning. The students decided how to express their opinions in a way that would enable as many as perspectives as possible to be heard - they video recorded a debate where they adopted conflicting view points first, then solo recorded to express their own perspectives and finally engaged in a paired debate where the partners asked one another about how their perceptions of the projectors had (or had not) changed as they heard opposing viewpoints.

It is the way you empower your students that sings out of your writing 'I wanted them to become experts in explaining of text by making a full preparation before the class ... this activity stresses cooperation, and an integrated approach to learning'. How very different from the traditional rote learning constraints of grammar-translation approaches to language learning we endured!

I enjoy the humour you communicate 'Sometimes I would act as a naughty boy ...' and your capacity to empathise with the child in your students - learning should be fun and empowering too.

My impression of your work is that it is groundbreaking -not just in your own immediate environment -but on a global level and I warmly invite you to disseminate your ideas and experiences through Becta's forthcoming database for teacher research - you can find more details in the invitation to participate in the News and Events section of my website. I am meeting Mike Harris in a few days time and with your permission, I would like him to find a way of enabling more teachers to share your expertise as a teacher researcher. I also recommend you publish in a journal.
The Association for Language Learning Journal would be a suitable one to send a submission to, as indeed would the British Educational Research Journal - details at http:www.bera.ac.uk

You move seamlessly from macro to micro perspectives in your writing - from a detail of a student's expression to issues that concern all teachers who are intent on enabling students' learning.

Thank you, I value your work most highly. It is such a pleasure you to be able to respond to you and I urge you to continue your action research to deepen understandings of freedom - globally - with your insights we might all begin to move nearer to that freedom you invite us all to participate in, when you enquire ...

''What is this freedom? How do we understand the centrality of the idea of freedom, which is related to each human being's innate character? ... we shouldn't bind it up, shackle this freedom ...'