Foreign language learning and second language acquisition research: some implications for foreign language teaching and learning

The increasing concern with evidence-informed, rather than judgement-based policy making in the UK (for a detailed discussion see e.g. Pachler, 2003) can be seen to have afforded greater importance to research findings in FL teaching. The concern is with ‘what works’. Only, for complex reasons, the ability of research to advise on ‘what works’ is limited (see e.g. Davies et al., 2000). Moreover, the trend towards aligning (parts of) teacher education with Master’s level criteria has led to an increased emphasis on research-orientated approaches.