SLA RESEARCH ON SELF-DIRECTION: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ISSUES



embark on the project. I would say that what convinced them was the fact that the Ministry
OfEducation was sponsoring and recommending the project.

Because of the documents of the project mainly referred to administrative policies, I
had to construct my schema of self-direction by other means. Most of the knowledge I got at
that time was basically gained by reading.

2.2 FIRST READINGS: THE EUROPEAN SCHOOL

The different courses and readings that I carried out at that time introduced me to the
literature of what I shall call the
European School of self-directed learning in foreign
languages. The most representative researchers of it are Henri Holec (1979, 1980, 1987,
1988) and the group of researchers who work with him at C.R.A.P.E.L. (Philip Riley,
1988,1989,1990, M-J Gremmo, 1995, Richard Duda 1990, etc.) in Nancy, France as well as
Leslie Dickinson (1987), David Little (1989), Gill Sturtridge (1992), Susan Sheerin (1989),
and other authors in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Research in this field started more than two decades ago. The written work of this
period can be classified into two very different types of literature. On the one hand we have
the fundamental and basic documents on which the theory of self-directed language learning
lies and, on the other, those practical and technical guides of the "how to" kind. I started
reading the latter, for they were the most accessible and practical type of literature.

2.2.1 ’’How-to” guides

Although this type of literature tends to be very technical and usually focuses in
physical and administrative issues, I have to admit that, at the earlier stages of the project the
"how-to" guides such as Sturtridge (1992), Moore (1992), McCall (1992) were very useful
(more recent examples of this are Caravalho (1993) and most of the articles
in Esch (1994))
in setting up and starting running the SAC in Oaxaca. Nevertheless, as I see it, if the
institutions, administrators or teachers limit themselves to this type of literature, there is the
risk of paying too much attention to the hardware of the SAC in detriment to the more

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