Action research is a process that aims to investigate issues in a variety of contexts and
tries out ideas to improve or overcome the issues. Richards and Lockhart, cited in
Troudi (2003), define action research as "teacher initiated classroom investigation
which seeks to increase the teacher's understanding of classroom teaching and
learning and to bring about change in classroom practice" (p.186). Teachers can benefit
from adapting action research in their classroom context, because they can increase
their professional development by encouraging them to develop their teaching style and
to refresh their knowledge about teaching methodology (Cohen, Manion and Morrison,
2000). In light of the importance in the literature of both active involvement of learners
in the learning of lexis in context, and the importance of recycling, my teaching strategy
for the purposes of this action research project was to try to use games to teach and
practice vocabulary in order to contextualize the words and to recycle vocabulary. In
order to assess the results of this strategy, I used three research tools: interviews,
observations and a reflective journal. I used these three tools to collect data and to
reflect on my teaching to ensure the consistency of gathering the information and to
have a clear idea about how the opinions and thoughts have changed after
implementing the action. I interviewed the students to find out their opinion about my
vocabulary teaching strategy. While the students were playing the game and
completing the activities, my mentor teacher and peer observers were taking notes on
their behaviour. I also took notes while they were doing the activities, and in my
reflective journal, I jotted down the informal conversations I had with teachers and with
student.