Challenges in Evaluation of Innovation: Observations from Technology Research

Evaluation of innovation is perhaps the most significant challenge teachers and curriculum developers face when attempting to introduce innovation into language education. How can those who are investing significant resources into learning and teaching be shown that innovation might be for the best? This paper reflects on experience in the evaluation of technology for language learning to identify key issues that are relevant to the evaluation of innovation in language learning. These are framed under the three areas: what to evaluate, how to evaluate, and for whom to evaluate.