Second Language Acquisition Research: A Resource for Changing Teachers' Professional Cultures?

This article situates the role that second language acquisition research can potentially play in promoting change in teachers' methodological beliefs and practices. Drawing on an area of sociological enquiry known as diffusion of innovations research, the article first reviews a theoretical framework for understanding change in language education, which is constructed by asking the question “Who adopts what, where, when, why, and how?” The article then discusses the practical applications of this framework with reference to what needs to be done if the innovation of task‐based language teaching (TBLT) is to become part of the mainstream in language education.