17 students were asked what they wanted to learn. One puzzle was about finding a flat
What happened
A study published on 17 September 2026 describes what happened when a group of international students were handed some control over their own lessons. The research was carried out by Dr Ana Ines Salvi at Queen Mary University of London and published in the Journal of English for Academic Purposes. The setting was a four-week pre-sessional English course — the kind of course international students take before starting a degree. There were 17 students, all preparing for Master's degrees in manufacturing. Instead of working through a set syllabus, the students made decisions about what they needed to learn. The course combined two ideas: learner autonomy, which gives students a structure for planning and reviewing their own learning, and Exploratory Practice, in which teachers and students investigate questions together rather than the teacher supplying answers. The students chose what they called 'puzzles' to investigate. Two of them show the range: 'Why are we here?' and 'Why is it hard to find accommodation around the university?' They researched their puzzles using academic sources and the internet, discussed what they found with each other, and presented the results.
Why this matters
The accommodation puzzle is the one worth pausing on. On paper it looks off-topic. A course in academic English is supposed to be about academic English. But a student who has just arrived in a new country and cannot find somewhere to live is not going to learn well until that is solved. Letting them research it in English meant the language practice and the actual problem became the same piece of work. Five themes came out of the study: learning through interaction and collaboration, student agency, working towards understanding rather than just finding answers, quality of life and joy, and bringing research into teaching. 'Quality of life and joy' is not a phrase that turns up often in education research. It is worth noticing that it did here. One student's reflection sums up the approach: "Questions are always the best teacher." The finding that will reassure teachers is this: students valued having a say, and they still wanted the teacher's guidance. Handing over some control did not mean handing over the room.
What the evidence actually says
This study needs to be read for what it is, and the author is clear about it. Seventeen students, four weeks, one course, one university. That is a small group over a short period. It is also practitioner research, which means the teacher was the researcher. That has a real strength — nobody understands what happened in that room better than the person who was in it — and a real weakness, because it is hard to be a neutral judge of your own teaching. The study acknowledges this and does not pretend the findings transfer automatically to other settings. What this kind of research is good for is showing that something is possible and describing how it worked. It is not designed to prove that student-led enquiry produces better exam results than a traditional course, and it does not claim to. There was no comparison group. So the honest summary: an encouraging account of one course, from which other teachers can borrow ideas. Not evidence that every course should be redesigned. It is worth adding that the underlying idea is not new or fringe. Exploratory Practice has been used in language teaching for years, and the principle that people learn more when they have some say over what they are doing is one of the better-supported findings in education. What this study adds is a detailed, honest picture of it working with international students who were also coping with a move to another country.
Practical advice
For students, especially anyone studying away from home: Bring your real questions to the classroom. The most useful thing these students did was treat genuine problems as legitimate subjects for study. If you are confused about how referencing works, or how to register with a GP, that is worth asking about. Talk to the other students. Collaboration came out as one of the strongest themes. The person sitting next to you arrived three weeks earlier and has already solved something you are stuck on. Aim to understand rather than to finish. 'Working towards understanding' was one of the study's five themes, and it is the difference between passing a module and being able to use it. For teachers and course leaders: Try it small. A single session where students choose the question costs little and tells you a lot about what they actually need. Expect the non-academic puzzles, and let them in. A question about housing is a question a student genuinely needs answered, and answering it in English is still English practice. Do not confuse autonomy with absence. These students wanted structure and guidance alongside the freedom. The teacher did not step back; they changed what they were doing. For parents of students heading abroad: ask whether the university runs a pre-sessional course. They are often treated as just a language requirement, and they do a great deal more than that.
What to know
A Queen Mary University of London study, published on 17 September 2026, followed 17 international students on a four-week pre-sessional English course where they chose their own questions to investigate — including why accommodation near the university was so hard to find. Students valued the say they were given, worked well together, and still wanted their teacher's guidance. Themes included collaboration, agency, understanding over answers, and quality of life. It is a small piece of practitioner research with no comparison group, so it shows what is possible rather than proving what is best. For teachers, the low-cost experiment is obvious: let students pick the question once and see what they choose. Sources: Queen Mary University of London, 'Giving students a voice in how they learn could transform the classroom experience', 17 September 2026, https://www.seresearch.qmul.ac.uk/news/5683/giving-students-a-voice-in-how-they-learn-could-transform-the-classroom-experience; Salvi AI, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2026, via EurekAlert!, https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1144562 This article is for general information only.
Related articles
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: the hub that opened at a football ground
On 12 October 2026, the Department for Work and Pensions announced that a new Youth Hub had opened in Exeter. The hub is for people aged 16 to 24. It is at St…
A 'veneer of progress'? The youth justice chief answers her critics
On 12 October 2026, the chief executive of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales published an article defending the approach that now shapes how the sys…
Three years of missing accounts, and two trustees on the register
On 12 October 2026, the Charity Commission announced that it has opened a statutory inquiry into an education charity called Crossfields Institute. The charity…