Teacher Collaboration in English Language Teaching (ELT) Research: A Systematic Review

One of the recent concerns in English language teaching (ELT) is collaborating with other

stakeholders to facilitate the language teaching process. With this in mind, this systematic

review attempted to uncover the most recent national and international research focusing on the

issue of collaboration in the area of ELT. A total of 40 studies on this issue were reviewed in

terms of design, setting and population, sample, type of collaboration, data collection

instruments, findings, and implications. Most of the studies, 26 of them, were qualitative-based

studies, while eight were quantitative, and six were mixed. The majority of the research was

done in English as a foreign language (EFL) context and primarily focused on EFL teachers

and students as the population and sample, respectively. Collaboration was regarded as joint

work in which various stakeholders, including language teachers, content teachers, other school

staff, and researchers, tried to promote the ELT process. This joint initiative was seen in

different forms, such as coaching, co-teaching, and team teaching. At the end of the content

analysis made via MaxQda (2022) software, the review concluded that collaboration can

influence the nature and scope of ELT in a wide range of positive ways, including extending

perspectives, reaching more knowledge, functioning as a social and interactive mediator, and

getting support to devise, practice, and revise language-related processes. However, lack of

administrative support and preparation, time and material limits, and unwillingness to

participate were identified as the major ELT collaboration problems. Finally, the review included further implications, especially focusing on the growing impact of technology on

collaborative ELT practices to foster future research.