Dear Wang Ying,

Thank you for such a powerful and informative account to enjoy! Your abstract gives me insights into the 'big picture' of the new Curriculum reforms in China in a way that assists me in understanding the focus and stimulus for research by other members of your action research group enabled by Dean Tian and coordinated and supported by Dr. Moira Laidlaw. You make some major substantive claims in your abstract and that excites me to read on to see how far you have evidenced them in your writing ...

You give a lively and insightful account of your own experiences as a language learner that help me to understand your professional values and passion to improve your own practice. There is a very clear statement of your professional values and I see you are using these, as they emerge as your critical standards of judgment (do read Dr. Jack Whitehead's work)

I like your concise expression of your action research cycle as expounded by Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead and your own justification for using it as your approach for improving your practice. Could you extend your justification to explain how it was the most suitable approach within a choice of many methodologies within educational research? Could you set your own choice of research methods within a more traditional social studies approach to research - Jean and Jack's writings can help you provide an insight missing in your group's accounts.

You offer a superb account of your problem and its implications for teaching and learning -not just in your classroom but more globally - this is a problem that relates worldwide!

A thought ... you say THAT there is a problem but did anyone else validate your observation that there was or is this something that you alone identified? I suspect it is a shared dilemma and that your research will have immediate significance for other teachers in your College - how might you communicate it to them in a way that you and they can learn to teach better?

I think that the research by Helen Markus et al on future possible selves would be of interest and use to you -

Inglehart, M.R., Markus, H. and Brown, D.R. (1989) "The Effects of Possible Selves on Academic Achievement" in Forgas, J.P. and Innes, J.M. (eds.) Recent Advances in Social Psychology: An International Perspective, Amsterdam; Elsevier Science, pp. 469 - 477.

This paper was a starting point for some of my own research into how visualisation techniques can enable personal and professional development in initial teacher education:

Fletcher, S.J. (2000) A Role for Imagery in Mentoring, in Career Development International, Vol. 5 (4/5) pp. 235-243

It is wonderful to hear how humour bridges learning constraints imposed by shyness among your students. The role of humour in educational relationships is a particular interest of my colleague Dr. John Hewitt. He presented a paper on this for BERA last September. I will tell him about your example of the 'husbands and wives' proverb - that is superb! Do you have any photographs or tape recordings of how humour enables learning and builds self confidence in language learning in your classroom - could you collect some?

I empathise with your excitement about the role of praise in building self esteem - can you relate this to research findings through critical engagement with appropriate literature?

My query ... how did you arrive at your choice of teaching techniques as a way of enabling group work? The role of group work in enabling learning is interesting for all teachers. Do look at www.cilt.org.uk to find out more about the role of group work in language learning.

I perceive a deeply significant insight which resonates with the experiences of many of the teacher researchers I work with, that examination performance alone is not, and cannot be, the only means of assessing students' progress.

There is a wealth of research that supports your assertion that questions, and in particular supporting language learners as they learn how to ask questions, is a crucial strategy.

I applaud and admire the way that you seek student feedback to complement the feedback you have received from your colleagues about the teaching and learning in your class. I think it is an excellent idea to incorporate student emails as evidence of improvement in students' attitudes to language learning within your account. It adds a living dynamic to data.

I am really excited by your comment that your research has raised such a stimulating and provocative question 'How do I improve students' techniques of grasping the main ideas in the paragraphs so that they understand the text effectively' - I see this relating to enabling them to develop their scanning abilities - to read and critically engage with a text's key points.

What a powerful statement of intent you leave the reader with - I cannot think of a more fitting end and beginning to a piece of carefully executed and beautifully written research

'Now I am on that learning journey, there is no stopping me.'

Now THAT leaves me keen to read more of your work!