Proceedings from the Inaugural TESOL Action Research Writers Conference

This paper incorporates chapters written by Andrew Boon, Sarah Haas, Simon Stevens, Haruki Takeuchi and Simon Humphries. Each writer has his/her own focus; however, the articles are linked by the strategy of classroom-based action research in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Firstly, Boon describes the cooperative development and instant messenger cooperative development approaches that can aid a researcher to reflect on practice through the aid of a non-judgemental "Understander." Secondly, Haas introduces the use of picture story cards to help learners increase their awareness of the value of structure for essay-writing. Thirdly, Stevens demonstrates how the essay-writing feedback process can be improved through student participation. Fourthly, Takeuchi reveals how students reacted positively to genre-specific schematic structure advice in an essay-writing class. Finally, Humphries describes the effects of two types of pre-task preparation on the range of lexis used in persuasive essay-writing.