Abstract: Action Research is a type of scientific inquiry that, while affecting the inquiry field, implies also a change in the person who is carrying the investigation out, as it “…is geared toward improving the researcher, as well as the research situation and the research participants” (Arhar and Buck 2000)

Action Research represents for teachers like me the chance to stop and rethink old and new experiences and experiments in a more systematic way, which means a greater awareness of the processes that develop inside the classes and a bigger respect for our own work and the importance it has for learners. The doubts and the perplexities in teaching English according to the content-based approach can be many, for this reason the challenge has been to make all this the target of my research. The issues I have observed and evaluated in acting two modules in co-operation with the content teachers can be expressed in the following question: " Is it possible to teach English according to the content based approach even at low levels of language mastery? "

Action Research project

Teaching English through the content

Modules carried out in co-operation with the subject matter teachers in Italian secondary school

Section 1 – Introduction

Section 2 – Theoretical background

Section 3 - Research area

Section 4- Research techniques and methods for collecting data

Section 5 – Analysis of the situation

Section 6 – Hypotheses and action steps

Section 7 - Analysis of data collected

Section 8 – Further steps of the cycle

Section 9 – Conclusions

References

Appendix 1 - Research Environment

Appendix 2 - Materials devised for the data collection

Appendix 3 - Results of the first data collection

Appendix 4 - Results of the second data collection

Appendix 5 - Documents

Section 1 - Introduction A bit of personal history When I started teaching I immediately realized it was only up to me to choose between limiting my job to an imitation of teachers I had or improving my way of working. It has to be said that in Italy, except for these last two-three years, there have never been any university courses for teachers, and no in-service training is compulsory. So I searched for examples of good teaching practices devised by experts who had the precise task to study and create theories, approaches, methods and activities, and applied them to my classes. I have always taught in state schools and I soon realized that the effectiveness of a single teacher is strongly conditioned by the way of working of the others; luckily I have found a greater and greater number of valid colleagues who share this view of continuous research for professional improvement. Now I discover another important element that might push my work a big step ahead, I am speaking of Action Research: a framework inside which I can reconsider my work together with all the problems connected to it, such as the subject I teach, the students I have, the school environment where I work, the historical problems of Italian school. It gives me the opportunity to transform my job from pure practice to study, analysis, strategy planning, experimenting, evaluating, in a continuous spiral aiming at concretely improving the starting situation. As Jack Whitehead (1988) suggests in the foreword to a book written by Jean McNiff: “We must find a way of bridging the traditional divide between educational theory and professional practice.” The focus of my piece of research will be concerned with the possibility to carry out content-based modules in English, in collaboration with the subject matter teachers, in an Italian technical secondary school, with students whose English language mastery is elementary or lower intermediate. Appendix 1 contains some more information about the type of high school where I teach. Top of the page

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