Victor E. Hanzeli

From Individualized Instruction to Individualized Learning.

General dissatisfaction with the quality of foreign language learning and the nationwide enrollment crisis have prompted foreign language teachers to make various pedagogical or curricular responses, the foremost of which has become “individualized instruction.” But the background and nature of this response virtually guarantee its inefficacy, and the consequences of failure appear even more dismal than those of inaction. Therefore, we must take the original correct assumption that individual learners are indeed different individuals, move beyond the present definition of “individualized instruction,” and attempt to transform the foreign language—and in fact the complete educational—experience of students. The goal is self-motivation and self-reliance; the best path is that of restructuring, or even de-structuring, the classroom and school to allow for more freedom and more personal responsibility for learning.