Language Didactics is a growing field of research with its own identity and epistemology, which is visible in its object of study (language education, in its practices, processes, conditions and influencing factors), research aims and methods. Bearing in mind former characterisations of the field, Language Didactics is distinguished by a particular epistemological framework that puts in evidence its social and intervention nature. This means that research in Language Didactics comprises not only the description and analysis of phenomena, but also embraces a praxiological perspective in view of the guidance and transformation of language education (Alarcão 2010; Araújo e Sá 1999; Blanchet and Chardenet 2011; Gagné et al. 1989).

In more recent years, in the scope of a meta-scientific reflection (Blanchet 2011) about the development of Language Didactics in the Portuguese context, studies that intend to contribute to the state of the art of the area were carried out, also in tune with recent studies in the area of Language Education in other settings (Alarcão et al., 2004; Benson et al. 2009; Oswald and Plonsky 2010). One of such initiatives was the meta-analytical research project entitled Language Education: a meta-analytic study of the research in Portugal (EMIP/DL) (POCI; PPCDT/CED/59777/2004), which intended to trace the state of the art of the research in Language Didactics in Portugal between 1996 and 2006 (Alarcão and Araújo e Sá 2010). For that purpose, a documental corpus was organised (grey literature, empirical studies, and publications of an opinionative nature), and a database was created (http://emip.web.ua.pt).

Having this project as background, the study presented in this paper intends to analyse the research studies of the corpus of the project EMIP/DL that put forward implications directed to the research dimension, in order to identify and discuss the problems and challenges to the research in the field of Language Didactics. In addition, regarding that those publications can be considered illustrative of the discourses of researchers about the field, the study aims at disclosing the epistemological perspective about Language Didactics behind those discourses. Thus, our guiding questions are:

To what extend is research contributing to the epistemological development of the field?

To what kind of research epistemology do research studies point out in Language Didactics?

In that setting, what problems and challenges does research in Language Didactics face nowadays?

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