SLA RESEARCH ON SELF-DIRECTION: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ISSUES

declarative knowledge while mistakes are due to lack of procedural knowledge (ibid.)⁷.
Because of the different nature of knowledge that each of these imply, the processes to
correct them are very different.

When restructuring for correcting errors the procedure is the following: the
learner goes back a few stages and renotices the grammatical form in question so that she
can be aware of her problem. Then she restructures this form in order to make a new
hypothesis and store it, getting rid of the old one. Finally, she incorporates it to her
working language network. It is supposed that the correction of errors through
restructuration results in accuracy.

During the individual sessions in the Oaxaca/97 project, there were some
instances of participants working on restructuration in order to enhance their linguistic
knowledge. Here is the way K worked it out:

C: .. .now you have a good hypothesis of /

K: Aha

C: how to form the 3^rd conditional

K: Yes, now

C: Hmm.

K: With the present perfect, isn’t it?

C: Hmm

K: and the past, and the modal would.... to form the grammatical structure
(here she goes on explaining the doubts that she had before and she suggest
how to go on working)

C: Could you give me an example

K: if I...

C: But from here (pointing the notes) It is not necessary that you know it by heart.

K: But that’s the point! I want to see if I understood....

C: Do you want to write it down, or not? (giving her a piece of paper)

K: (writing) IfI had... .IfI had....drive slow... .1 wouldn ^,t I wouldn 't

have an accident....It isn’t drive

C: (a little laughter)

K: It is.. .well.. .{here she tries to remember the past participle of drive
and shows that she has problems with the pronunciation)... .Aha,
driven (a little laughter).. IfI had driven slow.. .1 wouldn’t...

C: Let’s see, now check it with an example you have in your notes

K: IfI had aha, if I.. .aha

C: Are you right here?

K: Yes

C: (reading from the notes) Ifhe had tried to leave the country... he would
have been stopped at the frontier.

K; Iwould have... I would have... No/1 would have...NO. I am wrong

C: Aha, what happened?

K: Here. I am wrong here.

C: Hmm, let’s see. Let’s see another example... Ifwe had found him earlier
we could have saved his life. Ok, if we had found him earlier we could have
saved his life. Ok, could instead of would.. .Why are you wrong here?

K: Why? Because I don’t have the present perfect here.

C: Ah.. .Ok, then, that was what was missing.

K: Then I haven’t understood it yet. I mean, not very well, not as I supposed

I had. It is not the same as...

C: What is missing here?

K: a verb in participle

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