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Roles for second language research in compulsory school education policy and practice

Emma Marsden

Applied Linguistics Research Group

Department of Education, University of Oxford, England

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Marsden, E. & Hawkes, R. (in press). A narrative account of experiences at research-policy-practice interfaces in England—warts and all.

Marsden, E. & Hawkes, R. (2024) Balancing evidence-informed language policy and pragmatic considerations: Lessons from the MFL GCSE reforms in England

Curriculum & Assessment

Pedagogy &

Professional development

600+ teaching resources

French, German, & Spanish

“National Centre of Excellence for Language Pedagogy”

Now hosted at: https://ldpedagogy.york.ac.uk/

2018-2023

Revised GCSE for 14-16-year-olds in England

2022

I’m going to draw on my recent experiences of working at interfaces between practice, policy, and research:

The first involved directing a national centre between 2018-2023, mainly funded by the government.

We were responsible for developing and delivering research-informed professional development to a network of 9 clusters of schools and then this was made nationally available.
Our events reached approximately 2,600 teachers of French, German, and Spanish – the main languages taught in our schools
We were asked to create examples of curricula and classroom resources which have been downloaded about 782,000 times.
employed teachers, resource developers, teacher educators, artists, software developers, native speakers, researchers, a games developer.

The other initiative is my close involvement in changes to the curriculum and the high-stakes exam in England the GCSE, that our 16-year-olds take

These revised exams have just been run for the first time in schools.

Both of these were co-lead with my close colleague Dr Rachel Hawkes, who is a school-teacher, a textbook writer, and prolific PD provider, at the time had a twitter following of about 12,000

I want to weave a narrative around these experiences to provide examples of how L2 research could and could not be integrated in such large scale and somewhat constrained initiatives

I hope that the lessons that I learnt are relevant. Of course, many of us talk about potential implications for practice in funding applications and outputs

These two initiatives are of particular interest perhaps because mainstream schooling is where gaps between research and practice & policy are probably greatest.

And mass school education is less studied than university contexts and yet it is a huge cost to the tax-payer.

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The educational context & background to the initiatives
Experiences of drawing on existing L2 research
Research unfolding around the challenges

(non-linearity and fuzzy timelines)

Closing reflections

Outline of talk

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Part 1:

The educational context & background to the initiatives

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Mainstream modern language learning in England

In each cohort, approx.:

ages 7-14: half million

1 in 2 continue to ages 14-16 to take GCSE

1 in 20 continue to ages 16-18

80% are English ‘monolinguals’

Little to no extramural exposure (Collen & Duff, 2024)

400-450 hours prior to GCSE at age 16

versus 17,500 hours in our home language(s) age 4

Context

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Educational context

MOTIVATION IS PROBLEMATIC

Global English (Coleman, 2009)
Narrow/post-colonial choice of languages being taught (Parrish, 2020)
Difficult (Taylor & Marsden, 2014; He & Black, 2019)

Decline in GCSE numbers by almost 50% over last 20 years (Churchward, 2019)

Context

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(Over-)Stylised account of classroom routines

Personal & social topics (Häcker, 2008; Macaro, 2008; NALA 2022)

Using “sentence-builders” = ‘slot & fill’ or ‘substitution tables’

Context

Student talk in the L2 for 2% of class time (Eiene, Brevik, & Vold, in press)

Rote-learning of fixed phrases & text (Mitchell, 2002; Mitchell & Lee, 2003)

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What proportion of 16-year-olds …

learnt written text off by heart for their speaking exam?
used same rote-learned text for written exam?
thought speakers of their age have conversations like the conversations they had practised for their GCSE?

Reliance on rote-learned text?

Dudley, A. & Marsden, E. (in press). Components of language proficiency: Adolescent modern language learners in England. Multilingual Matters

85%

55%

20%

Context

Out of 189 16-year-olds taken from dozens of schools: what proportion…? …

This approach has a profound effect on what learners perceive as ‘interaction’ and on their developing language systems, with production heavily dominated by formulaic language. It also probably speaks to some of the causes of demotivation

This situation has provided rich pickings for teenagers’ self-parodying on social media. Here is a popular tik tokker imitating how they think they must sound in their GCSE French Speaking exam.

Of course, by showing this I don’t mean to say that all teaching results in this kind of attitude or perception – but it captures some of the findings from the research I’ve just presented.

https://www.tiktok.com/@jackjos3ph/video/7324722714999049505?lang=en-GB

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½ learned most of their answers off by heart, 1/5 learned ALL of their answers off by heart

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Part 2:

Experiences of drawing on existing research to inform pedagogy & curricula …

(when the questions were broad & stakes were high).

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Type of research-practice activities?

“Observation phase” (before these initiatives began)

‘The MFL Pedagogy Review’; previous research; team’s experiences

“Correlation phase” (our activities)

Trying out new ideas; gathering feedback about impact

“Experimentation phase” (ongoing …)

Context

(Rosenshine & Furst, 1973; Lightbown & Spada, 2022)

First, I’ll briefly situate our activities within a framework of research-practice work, to manage your expectations about the nature and purpose of NCELP’s activities

In the 1970s Rosenshine and Furst conceptualized three phase of such work.

The first phase ‘Observation’ had been done by the time we began.

The second phase is correlational where our work potentially , arguably, sat: teachers were trying out some different things and we and they were gauging whether they seemed to have a positive impact among teachers and learners

The third phase is experimentation. The minister for schools did not want an evaluation of our work. And given that it would have been carried out by a commissioned general consultancy company – we were relieved.

Two PhD projects, by Elaine Minett and Emily Robinson, are providing some evaluation of the work. But much more is needed.

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Drawing on existing research from our own context

Vocabulary
Decoding/encoding
Analyses of input
Deductive vs inductive input-based grammar & role of analytic ability
Longitudinal documentation of learner language
Learning strategies & cultural content for improving motivation

Part 2: Experiences of drawing on existing research

Robert Woore, Suzanne Graham, Rowena Kasprowicz

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Beyond context-specific research: Drawing on international research to draw out principles

Curriculum design
Lexicon
Morphosyntax
Bi-modal input
Interaction
Assessment & feedback

…

Part 2: Experiences of drawing on existing research

We of course had to look at research beyond the context in order to draw out principles, drawing on theoretical and empirical work in a wide range of domains
Some of this research was unfolding throughout our work –volumes on practice (edited by Suzuki) and on the nature of proficiency by Jeon and In’nami
Curriculum design – spaced practice in distribution schedules
Vocabulary – intentional learning, selection principles, defining lemmas, corpora studies, the need to give polysemy space in the curriculum work by Gonzalez-Fernandez & Webb, the importance of making sure vocabulary is taught in the oral modality to establish knowledge for listening and speaking
Morphosyntax – input-based interventions, compositional versus holistic storage of inflected and derived words, learning theory about development
Bi-modal input – synchronizing bi-modal input
Interaction – task-essential form-meaning mapping practice
Assessment – testing vocabulary & grammar
Corrective feedback

Together, we created PD & example curricula and resources that we called ‘language-driven’ - where linguistic knowledge of the lexicon, morphosyntax, and orthography and phonology were systematically woven into meaningful practice and cultural content.

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Accessible summaries of research, as stimuli for professional learning

99,000 downloads

58% by educators outside academia

Sustainably ‘fed’ by 20+ journals

Marsden & Kasprowicz (2017).

Marsden et al. (2018).

Alferink & Marsden (2023).

Marsden (in press).

Stimuli for ideas, reflection, discussion

Before providing teaching resources to try

Blume, C., Dikilitaş, K., García, R., Hüttner, J., Kostoulas, A., Marsden, E., Ringel, C., Saricaoglu, A., Schabio, S., Schauwecker, Y. (2025). Shaping the reality of foreign language teachers’ research literacies. In (Eds.), Advancing CALL: New research agendas - EUROCALL 2025 Short Papers. https://doi.org/10.4995/EuroCALL2025.2025

https://www.oasis-database.org

Part 2: Experiences of drawing on existing research

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What did teachers think of the summaries of research?

Had used the knowledge/skills gained:

in my own classroom: 94%
across my department: 86%
across multiple schools: 54%

Out of 983 (non-unique) responses after PD sessions:

Out of 876 teachers:

80% agreed the summaries helped them to develop NEW ideas.

Marsden, E. (in press). Using accessible summaries of research for professional development and teachers’ views. In K. Dikilitas, C. Ringel, A. Kostoulas (2026) Empowering Language Teachers through Research Literacy: International Approaches to Professional Learning and Development, Routledge.

“The summaries …recognise the specific contexts and practical limitations that the research has been carried out in - they do not profess to be completely accurate in a 'one size fits all' way”

From questionnaires administered to 876 teachers, 80% agreed the summaries helped them to develop NEW ideas

88% intended to continue using OASIS

From responses collected after each session, 3 in 4 reported that they had discussed what they had learned with a colleague

And high proportions reported that they had used some of the knowledge from previous sessions:

… with their own classrooms

… with their departments

… with multiple schools

We also collected qualitative data about OASIS summaries. I don’t have time to talk to you about the themes that emerged but I’ve shamelessly picked out my favourite quotation from one of the teachers because I think it is important for us as researchers:

Caitlyn Pineault has some very similar data from teachers of ‘world languages in schools in the US’ forthcoming in a special issue of the platinum journal Studies in Second Language Learning and teaching

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Questions that research findings couldn’t answer (1)

In what order should we teach grammar?

Part 2: Experiences of drawing on existing research

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Gaps research couldn’t fill (2): Distributed practice agenda

Problem 1: Optimum ‘Inter-Study-Interval’ ?

Our schedules calculated from contextual constraints

Problem 2: ‘Cumulative testing’?

But when can a word drop out of cumulative testing?

Marsden, E., & Hawkes, R. (2023). Situating practice in curriculum design in school foreign language education. In Y. Suzuki (Ed.) Practice and Automatization in Second Language Research: Perspectives from Skill Acquisition Theory and Cognitive Psychology. Chapter 4 Routledge. pp 89-118

Part 2: Experiences of drawing on existing research

Another example where research couldn’t help us was related to creating a curriculum that drew on the idea of distributed practice.

In developing an example curriculum, we had to decide how to space out sets of vocabulary and grammar – and there is some literature on the optimum inter-study interval, evaluating learning with 1, 3 day or 7 day intervals. But of course in schools, it isn’t possible to control timetables in this way. So, we needed to work from the context: based on the number of hours available, how much language could be taught over this time, and how often it could be revisited. This kind of calculation hadn't been done before.

2) We used cumulative testing, in line with studies showing the benefits of testing 'old' words, not just those encountered recently. But … our tests couldn’t just keep growing– as they would have lasted many lessons! So, the question remained - when can a word 'drop out’ of classroom tests?

Of course, intelligent tutoring software could now administer, for individual students, specific Inter Study Intervals and make decisions about when a learner no longer needs to be tested on a word!

But we found that many schools and many children in mainstream education are still not geared up for (or motivated to) use such tech, at least not systematically – but there is great potential here of course.

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Valuable research that says “we do not know”

On songs:

Hamilton, C., Schulz, J., Chalmers, H., & Murphy, V.A. (2024). The substantive linguistic effects of using songs: a systematic review. System, 124(103350). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system .2024.103350

On Multi-Word Units:

Schulz, J., Hamilton, C., Wonnacott, E., & Murphy, V. (2023). The impact of multi-word units in early foreign language learning and teaching contexts: A systematic review. Review of Education, 11, e3413. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3413

“…it is not possible to draw firm causal inferences about the effect of using songs on linguistic outcomes.”

“existing research lacks robust evidence that MWU input … has a measurable effect on … L2 attainment”

Part 2: Experiences of drawing on existing research

A good number of times we could not provide research-informed advice with confidence. In these situations, we would foreground Rachel's and other teachers' expertise.

For these examples I am showing here, syntheses that were published after the centre had ended, but this corroborated the fact that research hadn’t been available to reliably talk to these issues

Songs

Multiword units

It wasn’t just that research couldn’t address some of our questions – sometimes, research-informed ideas did not take hold –

for example, my own interest of error-based learning through prediction,

and I can talk about other examples perhaps in the discussion.

The last few slides have shown that a neat three phase conceptualisation of work at research-practice interfaces did not hold for us – we had to make some calls that did not draw on any kind of research, be it observational, correlational, or experimental!

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Part 3: Research unfolding around the challenges …

Non-linearity and fuzzy timelines

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What did we change?

DfE �subject

content

Ofqual

regulations

Awarding bodies

exams

Publisher

teaching materials

Teacher

classrooms

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Policy change to GCSEs

Communicative skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking) still key: NO CHANGE

Word lists of 1,250 (F) and 1,750 (H) ‘lexical items’ for receptive tests

85% of items from 2,000 most frequent in large general corpora
Multiple meanings have to be listed
Much fewer multi-word units

New tests of lexical inferencing with ‘off list’ words
Less grammar but more precisely identified

Bespoke ‘reduced-lemma’-based lists
Idiosyncratic irregulars listed as individual lexical items

Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences listed

Tested through short transcription and reading-aloud tests

Emphasis on assessing unprepared, ‘comprehensible’ speech

Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

But research had not gone through peer-review

Public consultation in 2021

Policy live in 2022!

First, communicative skill tests were still by far the most important aspect of the tests

Word lists – prior to this since the GCSEs began in 1988, word lists have been optional but heavily used for textbooks and teaching materials

Lemma-based because no assumptions could be made about derivational morphology.

idiosyncratic irregulars listed as individual lexical items - drawing on psycholinguistic research into holistic (item-based) versus componential (rule-based) models of storage and access of irregular and regular forms

Only some inflected forms were included in the grammar

But our research - a slow process as we know - was not in the public domain until after the policy had to be implemented. This was difficult for me as a researcher.

And it was one cause of some of the problems I’m about to illustrate

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Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

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First, we needed tools for lexical analyses�in French, German, and Spanish

Finlayson, Marsden, & Anthony (2020. 2021, 2022 & 2026)

Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

Open under

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Finlayson, Marsden, & Anthony (2023)

https://www.multilingprofiler.net/

494,000 texts profiled to date

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How many word meanings can high achieving students probably recognize after 450 hours of instruction?

1,627 (95% CI 1,586 - 1,662; Range: 466 – 1,983)

Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

APPG (2021): the number of words “is too limited and represents a lowering of standards”

(Dudley, Marsden, & Bovolenta, 2024)

You're going to see quotations from the APPG's list of concerns in blue speech bubbles.

We knew of just two relevant studies: one had found 550 words and one 850 words. But they had used a test that was ‘blind’ to the curriculum content

We developed a curriculum sensitive test

and so, with such a test, what do you think …questions in purple are for you to consider!

Influence of the curriculum in determining size: 95% CI 1,439 - 1,521 – 1480 if being on the curriculum is taken into account;

min 1,368 - max 2,455

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Because they used the x lex test which does not account for the curriculum and because they sampled from a wider range of proficiencies

Drawing on: Batista R., Horst M. (2016). A new receptive Vocabulary Size Test for French. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 72(2), 211–233. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.2820

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Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

How many lemmas had exam boards needed, on average, to create 4 years of listening and reading exams?

1,350 (F) 1,750 (H) lemmas

“reducing the content is likely to create problems for awarding organisations in discriminating between candidates”

‘We won’t have enough words to create exams!’

(exam developers)

Dudley & Marsden (2024)

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Research unfolded: fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

1,087 words

How much variation in list length was there across different languages and exam boards?

What proportion of the old word lists had NEVER been used in ANY exam over 4 years?

50%

‘Changing GCSEs will not help motivation or uptake’.

(Education press e.g., SecEd; a University blog)

“risk removing key motivational elements, thus negatively impacting take-up”

Marsden, Dudley & Hawkes (2023)

Were the old curricula just fine as they were?

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How much were lexical inferencing skills already being tested?

Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

In 4 years of listening and reading exams, what percentage of lemmas were:

low frequency?

low frequency AND not on the old word lists?

45%

27%

Marsden, Dudley, & Hawkes (2023); Finlayson, Marsden, & Hawkes (2024); Dudley & Marsden (2024)

‘Richer, more demanding texts are motivating’

“moving away from […] inference skills, when these real life skills should be at the heart of any MFL GCSE”

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I always love semigling. It’s never snidful. But sometimes, it lipses me and I just walt.

Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

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How good are they at inferencing?

302 high achieving, highly motivated learners of French and Spanish

read very familiar texts
had to work out the meaning of nine legal pseudowords

Inferencing success: 39% - 66%

(Albrechtsen et al., 2008; Hu & Nassaji, 2012; Pulido, 2007; Wesche & Paribakht, 2009).

Was lexical inferencing motivational?

Half said they would not be able to:

understand such texts in detail

work out the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

Dudley, A. & Marsden, E. (in press). Components of language proficiency: Adolescent modern language learners in England. Multilingual Matters

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Are wordlists informed by frequency data from a general corpus inappropriate?

The new, shorter word lists cover 16.3% more of:

GCSE texts; A level texts; adolescent literature; internet language

Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

Finlayson, Marsden, & Hawkes (2024)

“anomalous word list arising from inappropriate corpora”

(e.g., Association for Language Learning, 2021)

using the most frequent 2,000 words will cause an “increased gap between GCSE and A level, with negative consequences for take-up at GCSE, A level, and university”

Multi-Word Units: 20% of old list versus 0.04% of new list

Yet covered the same amount of text

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Threats to reliability & validity

And … motivation and self-efficacy?

Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

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‘too much focus on words and grammar’ (media, vocal educators, commercial CPD providers, University blog)

Dudley & Marsden (in press). Components of language proficiency: Adolescent modern language learners in England. Multilingual Matters

learners of French & Spanish

15-16-year-olds, just after their GCSEs

18 tests: knowledge and communicative skills

https://comlap.york.ac.uk/

Research unfolded: Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

“the proposals appear to be moving away from communicative skills”

How well did linguistic knowledge predict ‘communicative skills’?

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Four measures of receptive and productive vocabulary & grammar knowledge explained substantial amounts of variance (mean 52%, range 25% to 81%) in scores on:

reading, listening, writing, and speaking GCSEs
lexical inferencing
independent unfamiliar proficiency tests

Dudley & Marsden (in press). Components of language proficiency: Adolescent modern language learners in England. Multilingual Matters

Research unfolded : Fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

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Part 4:

Closing reflections

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Closing reflections

Asking questions inspired by real-world issues

1/ I hope I’ve demonstrated the value and excitement of working on applied questions,

Or as Coss & Hwang (in press) recently phrased this let’s avoid ‘Relevance Hacking’!

There have been repeated calls for an Applied SLA that starts from applied questions

I now realise how different this is to the ‘instructed SLA’ research - that I used to do and still do – driven by theoretical questions, with some relatively small potential implication for practice; that kind of research ‘uses’ the classroom as the lab.

I admit that opportunities to engage in Applied SLA don’t occur often – and I can talk more about why the opportunities arose, with a particular alignment of policy, politics, a policy entrepreneur, and research I was engaged in,

– but I think at some point such opportunities can arise for many of us, even if in small ways.

It might sometimes be possible to turn questions from some stakeholders- that may seem to be ‘wrong’ or too big - into good and valuable questions for systematic investigation

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Closing reflections

Asking questions inspired by meaningful issues
‘Intermediaries’ to select and use research

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Closing reflections

Asking questions inspired by meaningful issues
‘Intermediaries’ to select and use research
Open scholarship

Marsden & Morgan-Short (2023a & b)

Plonsky (Ed.) (2024)

Marsden, Morgan-Short, Thompson, & Abugaber (2018)

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Concluding remarks

Multi-directional inspiration
Non-linear relations
Change was limited
Fundamental research was critical

but please:

Provide accessible summaries of your research
Make materials, data, articles freely available

Firmly countering views such as “academic research .. is of negligible value to classrooms”

(Allwright, 2005:27)

You never know when someone is going to need them!

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With thanks to:

- the students & teachers who gave their time and data

- funders (DfE, ESRC, EPSRC, HEIF, Research England, British Academy, Erasmus+, NWO)

- and you for listening

Discussion!

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References

Alferink, I. & Marsden, E. (2023). OASIS: one resource to widen the reach of research in language studies. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 17 (5), 946-952 https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2023.2204100
Allwright, D. (2005). From teaching points to learning opportunities and beyond. TESOL Quarterly 39, 1, 9-31
Bovolenta, G., & Marsden, E. (2021). Expectation violation leads to generalization: The effect of prediction error on the acquisition of new syntactic structures. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society 43 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j62f7hv
Cepeda N.J., Pashler H, Vul E, Wixted JT, Rohrer D. (2006) Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychol Bull. 132 (3):354-80. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354. PMID: 16719566. 839
Douglas Fir Group. (2016). A transdisciplinary framework for SLA in a multilingual world. The Modern Language Journal, 100(S1), 19-47.
Dudley, A. & Marsden, E. (2024) The lexical content of high-stakes national exams in French, German, and Spanish in England. Foreign Language Annals, 57, 311-338 http://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12751
Dudley, A., Marsden, E., & Bovolenta, G. (2024). A Context-Aligned Two Thousand Test: Toward estimating high-frequency French vocabulary knowledge for beginner-to-low intermediate proficiency adolescent learners in England. Language Testing, 41(4), 759-791. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322241261415
Dudley, A. & Marsden, E. (2024) The lexical content of high-stakes national exams in French, German, and Spanish in England. Foreign Language Annals, 57, 311-338 http://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12751
Dudley, A., Marsden, E., & Bovolenta, G. (2024). A Context-Aligned Two Thousand Test: Toward estimating high-frequency French vocabulary knowledge for beginner-to-low intermediate proficiency adolescent learners in England. Language Testing, 41(4), 759-791. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322241261415
Eiene, S.M., Brevik, L.M. & Vold, E.T. (in press). Fluid multilingualism: Classroom talk in English and French classes in England, France and Norway. The Modern Language Journal
Finlayson, N., Marsden, E., & Anthony, L. (2022). MultilingProfiler (Version 3) [Computer software]. University of York. https://www.multilingprofiler.net/

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Finlayson, N., Marsden, E., & Anthony, L. (2023). Introducing MultilingProfiler: An adaptable tool for analysing the vocabulary in French, German, and Spanish texts. System, 118, Article 103122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2023.103122
Finlayson, N., Marsden, E., & Hawkes, R. (2024) Creating and evaluating corpus-informed word lists for adolescent, beginner-to-low-intermediate learners of French, German, and Spanish. Language Teaching Research https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688241288877
Grüter, T., Zhu, Y. A., & Jackson, C. N. (2021). Forcing prediction increases priming and adaptation in second language production. In E. Kaan & T. Grüter (Eds.), Prediction in second language processing and learning (pp. 208-231). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.12.10gru
Gutiérrez, K. D., & Penuel, W. R. (2014). Relevance to practice as a criterion for rigor. Educational Researcher, 43(1), 19-23.
Han, Z. (2016). A" reimagined SLA" or an expanded SLA? A rejoinder to The Douglas fir group (2016). The Modern Language Journal, 100(4), 736-740.
Hwang, H. B., & Coss, M. D. (2025b). A Proposal to Center Relevance in Applied Linguistics Research: The Relevance‐to‐Practice (RTP) Framework. TESOL Quarterly, Online EarlyView. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.70044
Hwang, H. B., & Coss, M. D. (2026) Advancing the Research-Practice Relationship in Applied Linguistics: Introducing the Special Issue. Studies in Language Learning and Teaching
Kasprowicz, R., Marsden, E., Sephton, N. (2019). Investigating distribution of practice effects for the learning of foreign language verb morphology in the young learner classroom. The Modern Language Journal 103(3), 580-606 https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12586
Perrin, R., Thomas, Al, (2025). Evaluating L2 textbook input for grammar learning: from research findings to operationalized evaluation criteria, Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 4, 3, 100213, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2025.100213.
Pineault (in press). Accessible and in action: An exploration of language teachers’ encounters with L2 research through Open Accessible Summaries in Language Studies. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching
Marsden, E. & Kasprowicz, R. (2017). Foreign language educators’ exposure to research: Reported behaviours, exposure via citations, and a call for action. The Modern Language Journal. 101 (4), 613–642
Marsden, E., Alferink, I., Andringa, S., Bolibaugh, C., Collins, L, Jackson, C., Kasprowicz, R., O'Reilly, D., Plonsky, L. (2018). Open Accessible Summaries in Language Studies (OASIS) [Database]. https://www.oasis-database.org
Marsden, E., Dudley, A., & Hawkes, R. (2023) Use of word lists in a high-stakes, low-exposure context: Topic-driven or frequency-informed. The Modern Language Journal, 107(3), 669–692. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12866

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Marsden, H., Marsden, E., Hopp, H., Jackson, C., Jochum-Critchley, T., & Rogers, V. (2026). The effects of prediction training on the real-time processing, offline comprehension, and oral production of case in L2 German. Language Teaching Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688261444298
Marsden, E., & Morgan-Short, K. (2023). (Why) Are open research practices the future for the study of language learning? Language Learning, 73: 344-387. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12568.
Marsden, E. & Morgan-Short, K. (2023) Community, equity, and cultural change in open research: a response to open peer commentaries. Language Learning, 73, 430-443. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12614
National Association of Language Advisers. (2020). The language curriculum and disadvantaged students. https://www.nala.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NALA-Report-on-socio-economic-deprivation-and-MFL-2020-Full-report.pdf
Niu, X. (2021) "The effects of teaching parsing strategies on the processing and learning of L2 English relative clauses”. PhD thesis, University of York.
Roehr-Brackin, K. (2018). Metalinguistic Awareness and Second Language Acquisition. Routledge.
Roehr-Brackin, K. & Tellier, A. (2019) The role of language-analytic ability in children’s instructed second language learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41 (5). pp. 1111-1131.
Rosenshine, B., & Furst, N. (1973). The use of direct observation to study teaching. In R. Travers (Ed.),Second handbook of research on teaching (pp. 122–183). Rand McNally.
Spada, N. and Lightbown, P. M. (2022), In it together: Teachers, researchers, and classroom SLA. The Modern Language Journal, 106, 635-650. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12792
Thompson-Lee, S. (2020) “Teaching learners to process morphosyntactic cues: The passive voice in second language English” PhD thesis, University of York.
Uchihara, T., & Clenton, J. (2023). The role of spoken vocabulary knowledge in second language speaking proficiency. The Language Learning Journal, 51(3), 376–393. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2022.2080856
Yeh, T.-F. N. & Chu, M.-C. J. (2026). Beyond level labels: profiling vertical grammar salience in Taiwan’s CEFR-referencing K–12 EFL textbooks. Language Teaching Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688261460188
Zhang, S., & Zhang, X. (2022). The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and L2 reading/listening comprehension: A meta-analysis. Language Teaching Research, 26, 696–725. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820913998

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EXTRA SLIDES

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Kingdon,J. W. (1995). Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, 2nd ed. New York: Harper Collins.

Sir Ian Bauckham

-> “MFL Pedagogy Review”

- “Levelling up”

- “Educating the North”

- Poor uptake of GCSEs,

affecting success of government’s Ebacc

- Knowledge-rich curricula

- ‘Hubs & spokes’ model of in-service training

National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy (2018-2023)

Reforms to the GCSEs

(2020-22)

School inspectorate’s “Review of Research” (2023)

The conditions that coalesced,

seen through the Multiple Streams Framework

“Overton window”

Context (4)

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Self-parodies

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Early positive signs for the new GCSE??

Notes from language education leaders in clusters of schools (‘academy trusts’) in an online webinar

“Higher for French and German – they did find it challenging, but there was the reaction that ‘it was fair’ – it was an assessment of what they had been taught. They might not have remembered every word, but they knew they had covered it at some point.�Foundation students felt happy finding the papers really accessible.”

“All students generally could do the exam – or at least they felt they could. A genuine improvement in self-efficacy. So students and teachers very happy.”�

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What would you improve about OASIS summaries?

Why has certain research been chosen over others?

(5/343)

Discussed by Marsden & Kasprowicz (2018); Marsden & Hawkes (in press), Marsden (in press)

“It could be shorter and explain some bigger concepts a little more clearly” (28/343)

247 of the 343 respondents did not provide any suggestions for improvements to OASIS

“More practical” (12/343)

Research unfolded: fuzzy timelines and non-linearity

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9. Explore digital tools

Digital game: “Gaming Grammar”

Kasprowicz, Marsden & Sephton (2019)

Drew on research into:

Processing Instruction (VanPatten & Cadierno; Marsden and colleagues)
Training in prediction (-> error-based learning)
Interleaving and spaced distribution
Immediate feedback

42,000+ games played
8,000+ students
In 590+ schools

SOLD! 2023

Part 2: Experiences of drawing on existing research

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Challenge from APPG: The ’approach’ hasn’t been tried �Positive feedback from teachers in & beyond our networks

From the reports to the funder:

“CPD reached at least 2,684 teachers, 97% of whom reported an increased understanding of research-informed pedagogy, curriculum design, and assessment.”

over 90%:

“confident in their ability to teach using the research-informed pedagogical principles they had undertaken training on”

“found the resources to be supportive of their teaching”.

Voluntary feedback from individual teachers:

Resources continue to be downloaded – now at 780,000
Anecdotal and skewed data

https://ldpedagogy.york.ac.uk/testimonials/

Marsden, E. & Torgerson, C. (2012). Single group, pre-post test research designs: Some methodological concerns. Oxford Review of Education, 38 (5) 583-616. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2012.731208

“The Spanish results for [our school] this year [are] a really good set and I'm convinced it's because of the NCELP beginning.”

“It was good and informative a lot to digest and good food for thought. It has certainly got me thinking about looking at our Key Stage 3 more”

“The sharing of research in a concise and relevant way as well as the fantastic resources and models to apply these strategies are going to be the foundations for our teaching going forwards.”

“I would like to say how much we are enjoying working with the amazing resources that you have created and shared”