Towards research-literate language educators: Unveiling difficulties and delineating pathways of evidence-informed practice

The aim of our text is to show the potential benefits of developing research literacy of teachers in general and language teachers in particular. We argue that research-literate teachers may effectively draw upon empirical studies and make informed decisions in the classroom, which has the potential to optimise students’ benefits. We emphasise the fact that, by referring to their experiential knowledge, teachers can also assume the role of active researchers who communicate their observations and validate particular teaching techniques or activities for different contexts and needs. By attempting to clarify basic misunderstandings, we see the need for ‘evidence-informed’ practice in teaching, which stems from an ‘evidence-based’ approach popular in medicine, psychology and psychotherapy. Finally, we demonstrate the suitability of various designs of empirical studies to answer different types of research questions, which we exemplify by high-quality studies from language education. Concluding, we call for tighter cooperation and bidirectional exchange of the know-how between teachers and academics.