ABSTRACT
This book is largely concerned with learners and teachers of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) in secondary schools in the UK. It attempts to draw out some, not all, of the issues currently being debated in the world of MFL education. It explores aspects of learning such as ‘communication’, ‘differentiation’, ‘autonomy’, ‘role play’ and ‘creativity’. Terms such as these tend to infiltrate the language of education, are interpreted in superficial ways, quickly become jargon, and eventually lose their original meaning and purpose. They become shorthand for teachers. But such terms are part and parcel of the revolution in languages education which has taken place in recent years under the banner of ‘the communicative approach’. They become clichés only if teachers do not participate in the debate and simply accept the gospel which is handed down. Unless teachers take ownership of these ideas they will remain clichés. This book attempts to give a clear definition of the issues which preoccupy language teachers today to encourage readers to enter into the dialogue and challenge it from a rational and theoretical standpoint. It attempts to set MFL education in its historical perspective, to investigate and sharpen our definition of ‘communicative’, to consider the implications this has for the classroom and finally to suggest ways of exploiting the creative potential of learners to give them a clearer notion of what it is to communicate with a speaker of another language.
