1.6 Research Questions

Landscapes without bearings, strange lands, uncharted territory: these are metaphorical characteristics of online learning environments where teachers, as foreigners, must begin to define new maps to guide their way. This study provides teachers of FSFL with the opportunity to talk about their experience in online learning environments. Through an exploration of their beliefs, it is hoped that insight may be gained into teachers' personal pedagogies, knowledge and theories that guide their practice and that form the philosophical basis for the approaches which they take to the teaching of FSFL using the Internet. The two questions which guided the research are as follows:

1. What are some of the beliefs of teachers of FSFL in relation to teaching and learning in online learning environments?

2. What do these beliefs reflect in terms of the evolution of approaches and use of technology in the teaching of FSFL?

The first question is very broad and seeks to identify the range of different beliefs held by teachers. These beliefs represent teachers' personal knowledge and their implicit theories that serve as cognitive and affective maps which they have evolved and which guide them in their daily interactions in their environment. Research question 2 qualifies the beliefs according to a historical continuum from the end of the 19th century and into the 21st century. The second question aims to interpret these beliefs in relation to this conceptual and historical framework. Teachers' beliefs or implicit theories are thus interpreted in relation to the official theories of language learning specifically and in relation to theories of learning in general. Do teachers' beliefs reflect the earlier attempts at teaching languages when Grammar-Translation, the Direct Method or Audio-Lingualism represented popular approaches to the teaching of FSFL? Do the beliefs reflect a behaviourist approach or a constructivist approach? Do the beliefs reflect aspects of the vision for learning FSFL in the 21st century as outlined in Chapter 2? Do they represent an attempt to take full advantage of the potential of OLEs to transform the learning process?