Dear Zhao Xiaohong,

Your writing is a beautifully written account of your professional practice. It offers me subtle and sensitive insights into traditional teaching methodologies in China and contextualises the enquiry you have shared via the Internet. I think it worth pointing out that there are many forms and approaches in action research - and the pioneering work by jack Whitehead ad Jean McNiff relates to self-study action research. If you read about action research - for example in Chris Day's or John Aleut's publications you will see other approaches explored.

In your writing try to think about who your audience might be - so when you write what is a serious and profoundly important account ask yourself about how yo have expressed your deepest aims for improving educational practice in China (page 2) - does 'help me do a bit for the cause of education' say as much as you want and need it to as a framing for your writing? You see, when I read a few lines later your question 'What was my principle purpose in education?" I get a glimpse of something much more significant than doing 'a bit for education'. I would like to pose you a question and I would value your response - is teacher-centred education necessarily a 'wrong' approach? When I taught French and Spanish and English in schools between 1973-1994, I think I could (and still can) justify the need for teacher and student centered approaches in educational practice. It depends on what I am teaching and on the stage of my teaching - in a foreign language for example I needed to deliver (teacher centered) a certain amount of lesson content so that my students could interact using it.

I agree that silence and non-participation is to be carefully considered - but students are silent for many (good) reasons sometimes - they m,ay need to be silent to reflect as they learn. It is such a delight to read about you commitment to the 'present and future development' of your students and again I return to the way you almost dismiss this fundamentally important role you exercise in the present and future of education in China - your influence will spread as you students become teachers to other students and so on, generation on generation. Your account of how you enabled your students o develop their own learning styles and preferred ways of learning shines out in the section where you write about 'What did I do?' Your dedication and encouragement is communicated by the snatches of conversation you share with your reader:for example here: Could you please help your partner?' (p.6)

You highlight an immensely important challenge in language teaching - how to enable your students not only to answer questions - but to ask them - to generate them as they develop communicative language skills - imagine a world where nobody asked questions? Yet this was something that so often resulted from the kind of language tuition that I had at school! We were taught to translate, to learn grammar - not to enable language and creativity to blossom! maybe that is why I decided to become a language teacher .. one teacher worked differently and he encourage us to learn to bring language alive through games, role plays, simple debates and drama - have you a possibility of showing English language videos/film extracts in your lessons and encouraging students to talk about particular parts that excite them?

In your evidence section (page 9) how about asking your student to write their own journals and to talk to one another about how they see you influencing their learning for good? Last March I went to Japan - I am going again very shortly to run some more workshops in mentoring and action research. In Kobe I was enthralled by the teacher I watched in a down town school. At the end of the day the children commented on how she had (or had not) helped them to learn - it was a natural exchange - not forced and artificial and something they shared every day. The students had to give an account of how they had worked better today than yesterday - or if they hadn't - and classmates validated their evidence of improvement. I have a wonderful video where Dr Laidlaw was doing something similar when she was teaching in a school in Bath in inviting her students to comment on one another's progress.

I wonder if you might like to try some focus group discussion between your students? let them decide what they want to talk about and just help them with the language they need. Why not ask them to conduct semi-structured interviews with one another - let them join you as you work together to improve learning - do take a look at Emma Kirby's enquiry on this website - it's in the Teachers as researchers national Section.

One way to improve your writing now is to draw critically on other's work. Look at Maslow's ideas on motivation for example - do they add to your understanding about what helps students learn. You might enjoy reading Howard Gardner's work on Multiple Intelligences - you ca access so much from the Internet even if you do not have the books they wrote.

I have enjoyed your writing so much - and I offer my congratulations but also a word of caution - Where you say Actions make the teacher aware of her teaching practice and stimulate her to be perfect - I must add stimulate her to seek perfection - no teacher is ever perfect - we always have potential to improve - and I have learnt from reading your work. Thank you!

Warm regards,

Sarah

25/10/04