In section 3.3.2.2 (p. 56), I introduced the concept of metacognitive knowledge,
its relation to learning strategies, and its relevance to self-direction. Let me recall some
aspects of it. Flavell defines person metacognitive knowledge as “the segment of your
stored world knowledge that has to do with people as cognitive creatures and with their
diverse cognitive tasks, goals, actions and experiences” (1979,906). He divides
metacognitive knowledge into three categories: person, task and strategy. My main
concern in this study is to look at the way students think about themselves, the task of
learning a language and the strategies employed to carry out that task. In this first part, I
will analyse the participants’ beliefs about themselves as language learners in
comparison to other types of learning and other learners. According to Flavell, one of the
ways of acquiring metacognitive knowledge about person is to compare oneself to others
(intra- and interindividual differences). For this reason, I will also include in this section
the participants’ beliefs about the teacher and learner’s roles.

6.1 BELIEFS RELATED TO PERSON

The purpose of this analysis is not to give a general view of Mexican students
working at SACs in Mexico. First of all because, I do not think that I have enough data
to do that. Besides, I do not believe in stereotypes. Rather, my objective is to highlight
certain descriptive features of the different learners I worked with. The reader should not
expect a comprehensive account of SAC learners in Oaxaca. I am not going to say such
things as "56% of the students are visual rather aural", or "Most students like to work
with Family Album". I do not think that such information is relevant for this study. I am
not saying that it is not important for the SAC counsellor to be aware of the learning
styles and preferences of the students s/he is working with. What I am trying to say is
that such descriptions do not really describe a learning culture. What I am putting
forward in this section is a very subjective (subjective because it was I who decided what
was relevant and what was not) account of the way students presented themselves as
language learners.

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