EBL for EBL: Enquiry Based Learning for an End to Boring Language Learning

In French Studies, an EBL project was designed by the discipline’s three Teaching Fellows to run within our first-year core language module in an attempt to address the twofold problem of students finding independent language work boring and thus not engaging in it, and tutors finding students’ work inaccurate yet not having enough class-time to address their deficiencies! The project concentrated on two key areas of language learning: phonetics and grammar. A separate project was developed for each area with different levels of colleague and student involvement: the full teaching team and student cohort in phonetics; a small volunteer group working with the Teaching Fellows in grammar. Evaluation of the project through feedback questionnaires shows convincingly that students feel more engaged in their own learning process through the EBL approach and benefit enormously from their experience of team-working and acquisition of other transferable skills. Some ambiguities remain concerning the extent of linguistic improvement, but the overall outcome is highly positive and it is hoped that, notwithstanding certain practical difficulties, EBL can be implemented on a wider scale in French Studies in the future.