ABSTRACT
Lecturers in English departments in higher education in Britain had been dedicated to the principles of adaptability in teaching practice and sensitivity to the needs of individual students for some time before the appearance of the term 'flexible learning'. The commitment has always been there, but, regrettably, particularly over the last decade and a half, the resources necessary to realize these principles have often been missing. In this context, the entirely appropriate questions which our profession will want answered are: 'What does "flexible learning'' mean to, and what can it do for, lecturers in English?' 'Are we faced by anything more than a new vocabulary, a series of "buzz phrases", with which to articulate goals which it is increasingly difficult to achieve?' 'Is "flexible learning" merely a voguish rhetoric which distracts from deteriorating conditions in higher education?' The aim of this chapter is to suggest that while a certain amount of scepticism about flexible learning is appropriate, there are also pressing pragmatic and pedagogic reasons to give serious consideration to the range of initiatives currently being developed under this generic heading. This chapter will begin by outlining these reasons before going on to suggest certain means of responding to current conditions, detailing their benefits and potential pitfalls.
