In fact, some of the learners that were dealing with the practice of oral production,
coincided with Ge about the feeling of being stuck. S expressed it in terms of
dissatisfaction:

S: Sometimes I Ieam words by heart, but this doesn’t satisfy me because I don’t
use these words.

E, being aware of this barrier, tends to use different strategies to cope with it:

E: I just listened to a cassette. I thought about the way they used the words
and I imagined the way I would use them.

A and J simply stated that they cannot produce the language so they avoid situations
where they have to produce it.

h) Self-evaluation and being aware of the process

It was very interesting to notice that two of the successful learners that are now in
an advanced stage of their learning process have realised that they did not start working
in the same way at the beginning of their studies. F sees his first stage as different in
nature from the present stage of learning

F: I learned English in a very peculiar way. The first stage, at school, I learned it by
reading and writing.. .that is the written form. So, that’s why I don’t need to
write anymore. In Family Album, I don’t do the exercises, I don’t need them
anymore. They are elementary.....Iam studying German now, and I am in the stage

that I need to write a lot, answer all the exercises. But in English I don’t need
that anymore.

Ga, apart from realising the changes she has undergone, she evaluates them and
emphasises the role of awareness in the whole process:

Ga: I am aware now.. .1 have realised that before I didn’t force myself to make
a real effort to learn. But now I am not satisfied with accomplishing little, short
aims. My goal now is complex things. I haven’t valued the knowledge I can
acquire. Before, I use to write down everything. I didn’t waste my time, but I don’t
use my notes anymore. Now, I don’t write things on the paper but in my mind. I want
to make the effort.

In short, the participants found it difficult to talk about strategies when they were
asked about them directly. However, when describing their learning they referred to the
way they use strategies very often. With regards to cognitive strategies they talked about
the ineffιcacy when using them and the possibility to differentiate, discriminate or
combine them according to specific cases or contexts. In terms of metacognitive
strategies, they appeared to be willing to reflect on their learning processes. They

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