SLA RESEARCH ON SELF-DIRECTION: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ISSUES

impersonal statements seems to add to the scientific rigor of the positivistic tradition. I have
detached from this tradition for two important reasons.

Firstly, the principles that underlie my research are not positivistic, above all because
I do not believe that I am discovering the truth. Rather I am dealing with my beliefs and
those of the learners who worked with me. Thus I am concerned about the definition of their
truth and my truth. But above all I am in search for our truth, as I make clear in the final
chapter of this thesis.

Secondly, as I said before, the present study follows the tradition of ethnographic
research. As I take on this methodological alternative (see Chapter 5), my role becomes that
of an emic action researcher. Inevitably my position in this type of ethnography calls for a
committed stance in which the subjectivity of the researcher, and thus, the use of the
pronoun “I”, cannot be avoided.

Another stylistic decision that I have taken is the option of writing this thesis
combining the academic style with a quasi-narrative style. This “genre-bending”, as Block
calls it (1998,6), has certainly allowed me to give coherence to my own experiences. I
strongly believe that, as Carter states, “in creating stories, we are able.. .to impose order and
coherence on the stream of experience and work out of the meaning of incidents and events
in the real world” (1993,7).

Thus, when reading through this thesis, the reader will notice that the following
pages are a patchwork of knowledge and experiences, events and processes, attitudes and
beliefs that are intimately related. As a result, the reader will find out that throughout the
thesis I am constantly referring to previous and further sections. The following diagram (Fig.
1.1) shows the way in which I consider the chapters of this thesis to be related.

In order to avoid the current argument about the use of pronouns, I have chosen to
use “she” for all the cases in which I need to refer to a third person. The only reason I have
to justify this decision is that it is the pronoun that corresponds to myself. However, my
loyalty to “she” is not absolute, as I have also decided not to use the conventional “sic “for
the references that use the article” he.

Finally, I am indebted to Dr. David Block for his contribution to my research in his
role of supervisor and to Prof. Henry Widdowson and Dr. Rob Batstone for their helpful
comments. I also want to thank the participants of the Oaxaca/97 Project, who

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