L'enseignement du français langue étrangère en autonomie

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to discover to what extent learner autonomy can be practised in the teaching of French in Malta. The first section of this work will discuss the concept of learner autonomy, that is the ability of the student to take charge of his/her own learning and also the new roles that accompany the autonomous teacher. In this regard, questionnaires were distributed to teachers in order to evaluate their awareness and attitudes towards autonomous learning. Moreover, questionnaires were also distributed to students to ascertain the existence of any self-teaching tools, utilised by pupils in Form 3 of Secondary Education in order to learn the French language autonomously. The results of the analysis carried out suggest that teachers seem to have a very limited definition of the 'autonomous learner' and the 'autonomous teacher'. Moreover they seem to be unwilling to give their students the possibility to take charge of their own learning in terms of what to learn, how to learn and when to learn. On the other hand, the analysis of the students' questionnaires reveals that in fact the students are capable of determining the content as well as their own methods of learning.