Implementing an Innovation to Foster Oracy—On the Research-Practice Cooperation in a Design-Based Research Study in Foreign Language Teaching

One of the key characteristics of Design-Based Research (DBR) is the cooperation between research and practice. What this cooperation looks like in concrete terms is subject of ongoing theoretical discourse and empirical study. Based on a completed DBR study (Delius, 2020) that aimed to explore both the theory and practice of fostering oracy in the English classroom using an innovative didactic approach, this chapter focuses on the realisation of the envisaged research-practice cooperation in DBR to successfully implement the innovation. The intervention was designed on principles derived from theory and was tested, evaluated, and further developed in two Year 6 English classes (a total of N = 52 learners aged 11–12) over three cycles within one school year. Data from participant observation, videography, written learner assessments, and learner and teacher interviews were used to evaluate the intervention. Outcomes of the study include a reference design, mature design principles, and local theory. This chapter provides insights into how the DBR study and the research-practice cooperation led to both the practical results and the empirical findings on successfully fostering oracy via the chosen didactic innovation.