Introduction to the special issue: Research in adult ESOL

This article introduces the first collection of articles to be published on research in adult ESOL in the UK and the wider policy context in which this practice has been developed. It also introduces two endpieces – reactions to the collection and reflections on the broader context of adult ESOL research – written by researchers working in the field in Canada and Australia. The article opens with a section on the social and political context of adult ESOL in the UK. It then considers the wider research context, taking account of recent approaches to classroom discourse and to language learning, particularly approaches which foreground students agency and the complex dynamics of classroom interaction while, at the same time, acknowledging structural and institutional constraints. The third section of the article outlines the themes that recur across the five main research papers of the collection and the endpieces.