Reflecting on Jack C. Richards’ 60 Years in TESOL: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The study examines Jack C. Richards’ six-decade contribution, philosophy, works, and research starting from 1967 and continuing to the present (January1, 2023). It was conducted in two phases. In phase one, we systematically reviewed Jack C. Richards’ articles, books, and book chapters, briefed on pedagogical implications and annotations for every single resource, derived from his journal articles, approximately 800 ELT terminology grouped into a set of 182 entries, and extracted 17 research types, statistics and instruments, 18 disciplines, and subdisciplines and 24 journals in which he has published. The topics in his research were vast in scope; more centrally focused issues were on second language teacher education, teacher training, professional development, reflective thinking, method issues, communicative methodology, syllabus design, curriculum development, textbook writing, needs analysis, tasks and activities, input, output, interaction, feedback, teaching language skills and subskills and English medium instruction. Our analysis provides an overall perception into the key language teaching terminology and concepts and major implications of Jack C. Richards’ works. In the second stage of the study, Jack C. Richards presents his personal reflection and discussion of this systematic review.