Dear Wang Shuqin,

This is such an exciting piece of action research because I see you reflecting on your own practice as an action researcher as well as on ow your data can be synthesized into evidence to support claims that you might be improving our teaching, I now urge you to critically engage with self-study action research as a form enquiry to assist professional development. Are you explaining a living contraction in your opening paragraph? Where you say you wanted to build professional ability were you simultaneously not wanting to do this - I wonder if was rather a paradox that you wanted to do one thing but were actually doing something different? Contradiction in its purest sense means you you want something and you do not want that something at the same time - I don't see this in your beautifully explained account of your practice - rather I see you aspiring to achieve better teaching but not knowing how to achieve it .. but trying through self-study action research to do so.

I guess you could say you are coming to change the world of education because in ensuring that an ethic of care is exercised you are modelling what will become good practice in China and beyond. Your students will experience your professional values and engage creatively with them - and I am fairly sure they would prefer not to be hurt in 'body and heart'.

Your critical engagement with relevant literature sets your work apart from several of the other accounts of teacher research - it is so refreshing and enlightening to see this aspect of scholarly practice in your work and I warmly advise you to 'mentor' your colleagues in how to contextalise their own writings within others' work. I feel informed and enlivened when I read your work because you give me insights not only into your own experience but into the context of language teaching in which you operate in China. Thank you! Your profound love and understanding of what it means to be a teacher - the multiplicity of roles (controller, assessor, organiser etc.) and the balance as you suggest participant is so well expressed.

I am interested to see that you cite the work of Rebecca Oxford - her work has been profoundly important in the UK within language learning and teaching circles. Do you know the work of Vee Harris too? I think you would enjoy it - if I remember correctly there a book by her in the pack of books and resources that I sent to Guyan Teachers' College recently.

I am not sure I agree with Wang Qiang's standpoint about the most important and difficult of making a good language teacher is the development of professional competence - if competence only means skill in communicating in a language. In my view and the work of Amanda Bartlett in relation to raising students achievement confirms this) the single most important factor is the quality of the working relationship between the teacher and the class - and I rather think this is what you are aiming at in your enquiry as you so obliviously have such excellent language skills. May I encourage you to continue your research and reading - I look forward to seeing further action enquiry from you and those you assist in researching their practice to improve it.

Warm regards - and thanks for such an interesting and stimulating piece of writing,

Sarah