Stimulating Autonomy of FSL Students at Secondary Level Through Inquiry-Based Learning-Mauritius

Abstract

A fresh perspective for considering a twenty-first century framework for a pedagogy of discovery, inquiry,  and analysis in secondary education flows from a commitment to develop independent learners at each  successive level of study (Dewey, 1938; Bruner, 1960; Spronken-Smith and Walker, 2010; Guccione, 2011; Sadaghiani, 2008; Justice et al., 2009; Montuori, 2012; Elrod et al., 2010). This paper sheds light on the correlation  between the research question, the key concepts of Inquiry-based Learning and of learner  autonomy in the learning process of French as second language (Cuq, 1991) to be analyzed from a  socioconstructivism perspective (Bruner, 1960, 1985; Dewey, 1938; Piaget, 1953; Vygotsky, 1978). An ethnographic style underpinning the use of focus groups interviews (Krueger and Casey, 2009; Doody et  al., 2013) and the teacher’s diary is analyzed through the interpretative phenomenological analysis  (Smith, 2004) and the thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). The conclusive findings reveal that Inquiry-based learning support is (i) an asset in relation to capacity building and development of skills and  (ii) a liability through recurrent challenges for complete engagement. The other relevant theme that  emerge is (iii) the complementary  relationship between autonomy support and motivation which revealed out of the level of autonomy, the degree  of involvement and the purpose of investigation.

Key words: Inquiry-based learning, Learner autonomy, Second language acquisition, Socio-constructivism, Thematic analysis.