True independent learning — an andragogical approach: giving control to the learner over choice of material and design of the study session

Normal practice in course and text book construction is to provide learners with pre-selected material chosen by the authors to illustrate a pre-determined grammar, content or teaching syllabus. This paper will discuss the effect of the reversal of this process at a pilot workshop session in which learners themselves were invited to select the material in French which they wished to work with. The researcher provided a bank of language exercise types, which were used as the basis for a strategy training session in the method. Students then applied the strategies to their own material according to the demands of their personal or professional skills requirements and interests. The advantage for course writers of this andragogical approach is that short, tailor-made courses can be put together on any subject or theme very rapidly by combining a generic bank of exploitation strategies with material of appropriate content appeal to the learner. The approach lends itself equally well to face-to-face teaching and distance learning and can apply to disciplines other than languages.