one of the presentation techniques cited by Johnson. At this point, let me remind the
reader that the only instruction that they had was to Ieam either the past tense or the third
conditional. I did not give any indication in terms of how to Ieam it, although I said that
we were going to work with this for two weeks on a daily basis. Thus, the first step for
most of them was to look for reference books (grammar books, in this case) to fulfil their
needs of presentation (the first of the three PPPs), in spite of the fact that they had a huge
range of possibilities among the materials and equipment in the SAC. Moreover, the
specific presentation technique they chose seemed to be in agreement with their own
learning styles and needs and, as it was reported during the counselling sessions, they felt
satisfied with them. What is relevant for me is that when they had a particular linguistic
target in focus, all of them felt more free to manage the first steps on their learning
process (noticing, Stmcturing, renoticing, restructuring), whereas when they did not have
a particular topic to deal with most of them let themselves to be other-directed, as when
they just follow a course textbook from beginning to end.
Explanation was the first step that some of the participants took to Ieam the
grammar point in question. Although we are not talking here about teacher explanation, I
consider that the grammar books in the SAC played a similar role.
However, the nature of product teaching explanation may considerably differ
from product learning explanation, basically because in product teaching, the
explanation depends on the style of the teacher, who may not be aware of why and how
each of her students needs explanation.
In regards to product learning explanation, most of the participants in the project
used grammar books in order to get that explanation, but none of them used them in the
same way. Gl, for instance, used three different English grammar books to get
explanations for the third conditional, while E looked for explanations of the third
conditional not only in English but also in Spanish grammar books. Her focus was on the
different way they use the third conditional in her Ll in comparison to her target
language. One can see that her strategy is based on her awareness of using the form in
Spanish but avoiding it in English (C stands for myself in the role of counsellor):
C: Was the comparison useful?
E: Yes, it was. I feel that there is not much difference (between the third
conditional in English and Spanish)...
C: And the use, is it the same?
E: The case is that I never use it in English but I think it is the same
C: .. .Are you conscious that you don’t use it in English?
E: ?
C: What would you use it for, in English?
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