AIM :

Interaction among researchers is one of the main pillars of social and scientific advancements. It is widely accepted that collaboration leads to greater productivity and impact (Katz & Martin, 1997). It is most widely encountered in sciences, but there is a growing interest in social sciences towards establishment of research groups for gathering research fellows who are interested in the same research area.

The main aim of this project is to establish international research groups which will facilitate collaboration in the field of language teacher education. The specific fields of research groups might include;

• Comparative evaluation of language teacher education programs and policies

• Continuing professional development for language teachers

• Teacher competences and standardization

• Practicum in language teacher education

• The impact of English as a global language/ English as a Lingua Franca on teacher education policy and practices

• Classroom Interaction and language teacher education

• Teacher cognition in language teaching

• CALL and language teacher education

• Other relevant sub-fields of teacher education

On completion of the project;

- We expect to establish a number of international research groups with regard to interest areas of international researchers in the field of language teacher education.

- The research groups will promote a shared research vision and research culture among international novice and expert researchers.

- The researchers will generate new and deeper insights and perspectives in conducting research,

- With the help of intellectual companionship and the cross-fertilization of ideas and shared planning and development will result greater creativity and productivity”. (Campbell et al., 2003, p. 7).

- It is expected that the ILTERG project will enhance the visibility and impact of the research conducted by the novice and expert researchers.

We expect to promote the creation and development of European networks, which is one of the main objectives of European Union (Programme Guide, 2016).

- The research groups will serve a good model for other researchers from different fields.