French as a Second Language Teaching: Identifying Methods that Improve Adult Learners’ Competencies

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW OF THE FSL FIELD 
The purpose of this literature review is to appraise evidence-based solutions to teaching FSL 
among adult learners. It describes gaps and issues in FSL pedagogy, emphasizing new and 
innovative techniques for enhancing FSL teaching. Google Scholar was used to search for 
scholarly articles examining various strategies for adult FSL pedagogy. Search terms included 
"French as a second language," "adult education," "teaching methods for French as a second 
language," "history of FSL teaching," "second language teaching," "behavioral, communicative 
learning," and "trends in FSL teaching." The search yielded many articles, and after a screening 
of the abstracts they were filtered to make up the final material for review. Common themes 
were identified and examined. Specifically, I examined the innovative theories of teaching, 
instruction skills, coaching and training skills, language proficiency and cultural understanding.
Moreover, the review concentrates on current pedagogical and instructional materials necessary 
in learning a L2 language. To comply with new teacher standards, succeed in their work line, and 
improve students' learning experiences, today’s foreign language teachers face many 
requirements. The field of FSL education also must adapt to emerging methods such as the 
integration of technology into teaching and programs. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Historical Aspects of Second Language Teaching 
Despite the long history of L2 teaching and learning, studying L2 pedagogy and the 
effectiveness of L2 acquisition remains limited. Remarkably, the history of L2 research dates to 
the 1960s, when researchers became dedicated to investigating and determining the crucial 
elements for promoting L2 learning (Sato & Loewen, 2019). Since then, the growing body of 
research has fostered the development of insights into L2 teaching methods and language 
acquisition, causing a paradigm shift in FSL pedagogy among adult learners.
L2 pedagogical strategies have been underpinned by theories of learning and theories of 
language. According to Ellis (2010), learning theories address the social and psychological 
dimensions of L2 learning, the required psychological and cognitive resources, and the 
conditions and social contexts that enhance learning. Language theories also describe the 
meaning of language, its perception, and its use (van Compernolle & Williams, 2013). Notably, 
the impact of these theories is manifested in the emergence and eventual obsolescence of various 
L2 teaching methods. For instance, Audiolingualism and the Direct Method were undergirded on 
a behaviourist learning theory that attributed the language learning process to conditioning 
mechanisms (Ellis, 2010). However, the demise of these methods was occasioned by the 
emergence of the cognitive perspective that linked language to the innate and unique capacity of 
the individual's mind.
Although Chomsky's cognitive perspective of language learning influenced psycholinguistics 
and linguistics, research in sociolinguistics underlined the changes in L2 pedagogical strategies 
(van Compernolle & Williams, 2013). Accordingly, the emergence of communicative 
competence ushered in a new L2 teaching era, with the focus shifting from the structured rules of 
language to the action mediated by language acquisition (Whong, 2013). The communicative 

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revolution informed the establishment of the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach, 
which emphasized the communicative aspects of language over the standard language 
components (Whong, 2013). Consequently, CLT fostered teaching methods that leveraged the 
concept of the naturalistic acquisition of language, including content and language integrated 
learning (CLIL), task-based language teaching (TBLT), and the socio-cultural approach to 
language teaching (Sato & Loewen, 2019).