Group work as a creative learning process: an example from a French classroom

Abstract

This article reports on a part of a larger research project which investigates the implications on French teaching and learning of South Africa's new national curriculum. The investigation involves observing current practice in the French classroom with a view to assessing whether teaching strategies need to be modified in order to conform with the outcomes-based principles of the curriculum. Research to date has shown that the most commonly used teaching technique – after the direct instruction method – is group work. However, group work is often used merely as a token gesture to the principles of the new curriculum. In this article I will describe a class in which this particular method of pedagogy is used to its full creative potential and I hope to show that as such, group work constitutes a creative learning process consistent with the participatory, experiential principles of the curriculum and represents good foreign language teaching and learning.


Key Words: group work, French classroom, outcomes-based education, National Curriculum Statement, constructivism, games


Journal for Language Teaching Vol.38(1) 2004: 101-115