What people say about OASIS
"There is a clear need for OASIS today: As the world becomes more connected, time is more valuable, and removing technical language from research saves time. Creating simple summaries for all teachers to access will only amplify the field of language education. With these summaries, teachers can shape a cutting-edge theory into their own classroom practice—and the more research we get into the hands of language teachers, the better the outcomes for their students."
—Sarah Sahr, EdD
TESOL International Association
Head of Education and Events
“A reliable and publicly available resource like OASIS, once it reaches critical mass, would have immense potential to improve the knowledge about language learning and teaching among the general public, and would serve as a powerful tool for professional development for teachers.”
Professor Catherine Walter
University of Oxford
Author of How English works
“I think this is a great initiative. Something like this would have been very useful to me, at a time when I was looking for ways of tracking down research results and lines of enquiry that might feed into my teaching and writing. If it gets off the ground it will be very valuable to very many people on both sides of the theory-practice divide who are in search of better bridges.”
Michael Swan
Author of Practical English Usage and The Oxford English Grammar Course
“There is a real need for accessible summaries among language educators. Firstly, existing research reports are not always accessible physically to educators, as they are located behind paywalls. Secondly, research can be inaccessible conceptually, written in technical language that is mainly aimed at an academic audience. Thirdly - and a serious issue for educators around the world - is the lack of time available for reading full articles or reports. [...] Language educators would very much welcome accessible summaries and would engage with them. [...] The initiative should, in the longer term, also open up dialogue between researchers and practitioners; for example, it would help researchers to consider the relevance of their work for educators and encourage collaboration with them at the point of designing and conducting research. Improving this dialogue is essential if research into second language education is going to reach practice in a systematic and sustainable way.”
Terry Lamb
Secretary-General and former President of the International Federation of Teachers of Foreign Languages (FIPLV)
“I think this sounds highly worthwhile and a first step in making teachers more research literate and practice more evidence based. It is not the only step required of course. But this step has to be taken first as without it we will carry on recycling opinions and hunches and preferences as if they were well evidenced when in fact they often are barely researched at all.”
Ian Bauckham, CBE
CEO Tenax Schools Trust
Former Chair of the Association of School and College Leaders, UK
“[T]here is a real need to make rigorous research evidence more accessible to classroom teachers, testers, materials designers, and policy-makers. There are literally volumes of such research in existence - the result of huge intellectual and financial investments - but the results of this scholarly productivity does not systematically reach beyond academia, thus not necessarily contributing to the greater good in many contexts, including language teaching, learning, assessment, and policy.”
Joel Gomez
President of the Centre for Applied Linguistics
"Now, the hope is that teachers will use this wonderful resource and that they and their students will benefit from it all"
Heidi Byrnes
Former Editor of The Modern Language Journal
"The Oasis project is such a great initiative. We will definitely do this with all future relevant publications. Something similar is needed for other areas - literacy research in particular, I think."
Dr Elizabeth Wonnacott
University College London
What educators are saying
“I would use one-page, openly accessible, non-technical summaries of research on language learning and teaching…
… for discussion in the modern foreign languages department at my school” (J. Nashvili, Secondary French)
… for planning and intra-department CPD” (David Gallowat, Head of Department Modern Foreign Languages)
… research on MFL topics are useful to impact on teaching strategies and practice” (Kate Hyland-Collier, freelance teacher)
… to improve practice and in discussions with leadership teams” (Eleasia Dennis, Secondary Head of Faculty)
… in developing own practice and resources” (Anna Turner, PGCE Secondary MFL - trainee)
… for CPD and to share ideas within the department” (Robert Whiten, Secondary MFL PGCE Student)
… for CPD and initial teacher training]. It would save me time and make it more accessible for me and my colleagues” (Katrin Sredzki-Seamer, Head of MFL Course Leader National Modern Languages SCITT)
Responses from twitter
“As a Modern foreign language advisor these papers would inform and enrich the professional development we provide to language teachers”.
“I could access research within short periods of time available to me and regularly. I would be able to make incremental improvements to my work based on this research. I would also be able to encourage others to engage with research if it were presented in short digestible formats”.
“I am interested in research to inform my practice but often don't have time to read long pieces of research”.
“Enhance areas of my teaching practice”
“I train languages teachers and short accessible papers are exactly what they need to do their jobs well”
“Keep informed about innovative practices. Useful for Teacher trainees or anyone considering research in the field of language learning and teaching”.
“It is useful to know about what has been done in terms of research on language learning and teaching, and language teachers will benefit from shared ideas. The contribution by researchers of openly accessible summaries of research is very useful as it could help me to put some ideas into practice”.
“to close the gap between research and practice”
