Practitioner research plays a crucial role in education because of its applied nature and its ability to address pertinent issues within learning and teaching contexts. Exploratory practice (EP) is a form of practitioner research that emphasizes puzzles while striving to understand and improve students’ and teachers’ quality of life in the language classroom. Our puzzlement as EP practitioners began to take shape as we received a variety of feedback – both positive and negative – on our EP-infused lessons from our past students. Therefore, we started to ponder the enduring repercussions of an EP experience on participants’ subsequent learning and quality of life, extending beyond the immediate effects observed during EP. In the spring semester of 2022, 43 students enrolled in two courses on English for academic purposes (EAP) at two different Japanese universities participated in a 15-week EP endeavor. Six months after the course finished, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 students in order to systematically explore and discover how the EP endeavor affected them in the long-term. Findings revealed that the EP experience had lasting effects on the students’ affordance in three areas: linguistically, intrapersonally, and interpersonally. The article concludes by addressing the practical implications for EP practitioners, specifically focusing on inclusivity and sustainability.

中文翻译：

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探索性实践对语言学习者的长期影响

从业者研究因其应用性质以及解决学习和教学环境中相关问题的能力而在教育中发挥着至关重要的作用。探索性实践（EP）是实践研究的一种形式，强调谜题，同时努力理解和提高学生和教师在语言课堂上的生活质量。当我们从过去的学生那里收到各种关于我们的 EP 课程的积极和消极的反馈时，作为 EP 从业者，我们的困惑开始形成。因此，我们开始思考 EP 经历对参与者随后的学习和生活质量的持久影响，超出了 EP 期间观察到的直接影响。 2022 年春季学期，43 名学生在两所不同的日本大学注册了两门学术英语 (EAP) 课程，参加了为期 15 周的 EP 活动。课程结束六个月后，我们对 10 名学生进行了半结构化访谈，以系统地探索和发现 EP 工作对他们的长期影响。调查结果显示，EP 经历对学生在三个方面的承受能力产生持久影响：语言、内心和人际交往。本文最后讨论了对 EP 从业者的实际影响，特别关注包容性和可持续性。