Educational research in the Czech Republic in the past tended to concentrate on investigating the inputs (predispositions, attitudes) and outcomes (test results, acquired knowledge) of education, or the context and media (curricular documents, textbooks). Rarely has it aimed at exploring the complex process of education itself. The aim of this paper is to introduce the design, methodology and first results of the research project CPV Video Study of English, which aims at analysing the process of teaching English as a foreign language in the Czech lower-secondary schools, and which is being carried out at the Educational Research Centre (Centrum pedagogického výzkumu – hence CPV) at the Faculty of Education, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. The video study methodology was successfully employed not only on an international scale in the TIMSS 1995, TIMSS 1999, LPS Video Study research projects (Stigler et al. 1999, Roth et al. 2006, Clarke 2006) but also by other research teams in Europe (IPN, DIPF) (Seidel et al., 2005, Klieme et al, 2006). The key element of the methodology is the fact that lesson observation and coding are not carried out in the classroom. Rather, lessons are videotaped and all observation and analysis are carried out subsequently. The research sample of the CPV Video Study of English that includes the recordings of 79 English lessons shot at 21 randomly selected schools has been recorded using standardised 2-camera methodology. There are two dimensions of aspects that will be in the focus of analyses. We claim that on the one hand, general aspects of every lesson in all subjects can be observed that concern the organisation of teaching, temporal development and verbal realisation. On the other hand, foreign language instruction is in many ways very different to instruction in other subjects (such as geography or physics) and therefore a variety of subject specific aspects can be observed in every English lesson. The two dimensions therefore are: A) general didactic aspects: these include (see Janík, Miková, Najvar, Najvarová 2006): opportunities to talk, classroom management and lesson phases. B) subject-specific aspects: these include the use of mother tongue in the foreign-language classroom, using authentic materials in the classroom etc. Analyses of CPV Video Study are being carried out. We hope that careful analysis of the collected data will allow us to acquire a much better understanding of what the teaching of foreign languages looks like today.

The video study methodology was successfully employed not only on an international scale in the TIMSS 1995, TIMSS 1999, LPS Video Study research projects (Stigler et al. 1999, Roth et al. 2006, Clarke 2006) but also by other research teams in Europe (IPN, DIPF) (Seidel et al., 2005, Klieme et al, 2006). The key element of the methodology is the fact that lesson observation and coding are not carried out in the classroom. Rather, lessons are videotaped and all observation and analysis are carried out subsequently. The research sample of the CPV Video Study of English that includes the recordings of 79 English lessons shot at 21 randomly selected schools has been recorded using standardised 2-camera methodology.

Analyses of CPV Video Study are being carried out. We hope that careful analysis of the collected data will allow us to acquire a much better understanding of what the teaching of foreign languages looks like today. The intended analyses include these topics: opportunities to talk, classroom management and lesson phases, the use of mother tongue in the foreign-language classroom, using authentic materials in the classroom etc.