Teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) are encouraged to conduct classroom research to (1) discover what happens when they teach and students try to learn, assess and improve teaching practices; monitor innovations in teaching, syllabus, or materials; and investigate problems in the classroom. Simple steps are outlined: developing a plan of action to change or improve what is occurring; implementing the plan; observing the effects and the context in which they occur; and reflecting on the results. The teacher is guided through the process of: formulating a research question from among a variety of issues, based on teacher experience or student comments; checking to see if other teachers and researchers have addressed similar problems; collecting data using diaries, interviews, questionnaires, tests, observation, and field notes; and reviewing the data with the research question in mind. (Contains 9 references.) (MSE)