Le CRAPEL, l’autonomie et l’autonomisation : la construction de la démarche du CRAPEL

Abstract

This article charts the origins and evolution of the pedagogical approach of autonomy at the CRAPEL at the beginning of the 1970s. Its inception was triggered by the interaction between a research team looking for new ways of fostering foreign language learning, and the emergence, after May 1968, of a new sociocultural context dominated by a global re-evaluation of the place and roles of the individual within the community, and more specifically, of the place and roles of the learner in the teaching/learning process. At the CRAPEL, this gave rise to a new pedagogical approach – “autonomy”, which promoted individualized learning and learner independence. The practical upshot of this – “Self-directed Learning with Help Structure” accompanied by a “Sound and Video Library” – was characterized in the 1970s by a shift from the notion of open-access teaching to self-directed learning, from autonomy as independence to autonomy of learning ability, from the teacher supporting learning to the teacher training learners, and by the emergence of the notion of learning-to-learn.

Keywords

• self-directed learning
• Autonomy
• autonomisation
• learning ability
• learning-to-learn