Background
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Primarily I have been teaching English as a Foreign Language with upper-secondary, intermediate language proficiency students in Thailand, which is great: the happy, receptive students; and challenging: the students' disconnection with English language and unfamiliarity with learner-centred approaches.
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Aims
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It is my hope that learning and thinking skills might be taught in such a way that my students can explore and create their own identities as 21st Century citizens who have not lost the connection to that part of themselves and their culture which makes them genuinely nice people.
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Prior understanding
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This all led me to choosing Inquiry Learning as an elective unit in my Master of Education (TESOL) studies. While inquiry learning was completely new to me, a quick review made me think it could possibly meet two of my objectives: giving my students real contact with English language and equipping them with 21st Century skills. From my own knowledge and experience of student-centred approaches in these contexts, I assumed that the inquiry approach would have to be adapted to my learners. I imagined that at least initially, it would have to be well scaffolded without making assumptions of their prior experiences.
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Questions
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From this background, I posed three initial questions to guide my inquiry:
1. How can inquiry learning be used to facilitate foreign language learning for secondary school students? 2. How can inquiry learning be used to bridge second language learning and other content areas? 3. What approaches to inquiry learning might be most suitable for learners who are used to more teacher-centred classrooms? |
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