E: I don’t know exactly.. .only.. .to practise it.
C: You have never come across a situation you needed to use it? Or is it that
you don’t remember?
E: I don’t remember.. .well, I have always had doubts about it, that’s why I
avoid it.. .1 am conscious that I avoid it. I prefer not to use it
C: You prefer not to use it
E: I prefer not to use it
E: I think that {studying the 3rd conditional again) was very interesting because
in Spanish I use the 3rd conditional even though I never analyse what is this part
and what is that part, but I know that I use it... I use it to give excuses. “I didn’t
come yesterday, I would have come..what happened was that such and such”
Ga’s report shows that she works in a very different way from Gl or E. She stated
that more than two books were not good for her and mentioned that she was interested in
finding examples, which is what Johnson identifies as key sentences:
Ga: I worked with two books, there were more but I didn’t like them. I thought
that it was better to work with these two, the others confused me, but not these
ones, although two is not enough...
C: That means, in a way, that more books is not always more information. On
the contrary, a lot of books could be a problem because they don’t explain the
way you understand.
Ga: Or maybe they contradict each other, I don’t know, hmm.. .1 guided myself
with the example in the first book. The other was kind of complementary.
C: Aha. The interesting thing is that you didn’t focus on the explanation, it was
more focusing on the examples.
Ga: Yes, and I read more in the other books but they had other type of information
C: Too much information and/
Ga: And, no, well, it was related because all were conditionals but, other types,
like future and present. I didn’t find anything here, perhaps later on...
C: (looking at the examples in the book she chose) But, in a way the fact that they
put the three types together, in a comparative way/
Ga: Aha!
C: The three together.. .the perfect tenses
Ga: Hmm, the fact that I already knew about auxiliaries and the suffix for the
main verb helped me a lot, right? It wasn’t difficult
As I see it, the most relevant issue in Ga’s account is a selectivity skill, that is, to
be able to make inter and intra selection of sources (between books and inside books) in
order to understand the grammar form. It is evident that Ga’s decision is based on: 1) her
awareness of her current knowledge of the target language in general (“the fact that I
already knew about auxiliaries...”); 2) her target language knowledge related to the
focused form (“it is related because all were conditionals...”); 3) her own learning style
and preferences (“I thought that it was better to work with these two, the others confused
me...”); and 4) her learning strategies (“I guided myself with the example in....”). All of
these elements form Ga’s inner guide that helps her to regulate the type of presentation
that she needs.
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