feedback for triggering restructuration. As I see it, the amount and type of triggering the
learners need depends on two factors: their experience in self-direction and their
linguistic competence. On the one hand, the more they are used to working by
themselves, the more they can realise their flaws by comparing their performance with
other’s performance. On the other hand, I believe that their experience as target language
speakers counts a lot. The more competent they are the more self-confidence they have
and the more self-evaluation they can carry out8. However, this does not mean that
advanced students need to be left to their own devices. Although they need the assistance
of a SAC counsellor less, they can still take advantage of it. Even though K has proven to
be one of the most successful self-directed learners in SAC Oaxaca, she still can make
use of individual work with a counsellor.
7.2.3.2.3 The case of writing
I believe that the fact that K wrote her example down made a difference in her
renoticing her 3rd conditional hypothesis. As I see it, writing plays an important role in
raising awareness, which helps to the process of restructuring. Within an autonomous
scheme, Little (1997c) states that apart from providing “support for the development of
speaking skills”, writing
also focuses on linguistic form in a way that is apt to foster the growth
Ofmetalinguistic awareness (126)
To add evidence to his view, Little refers to Leni Dam and Hanne Thomsen’s experience
of the use of writing for developing autonomy in language learning. Highlighting the fact
that Dam and Thomsen’s pupils are able to communicate from very early learning stages,
he describes the way these learners work with their writing:
The writing that their pupils engage in is not derived from a textbook: on the contrary, it
comes from within themselves, is prompted by their evolving sense
of their learning needs, is always personally relevant, determined by their interest
and preoccupations (ibid, 120).
According to Little, this emphasis on writing in order to exploit collaborative
modes of interaction can be related to the Vygotskian model of developmental learning:
In the special case of the foreign language classroom...the IinguisticZdiscursive
support that the teacher must provide to her learners, especially in the early
stages, is closely similar in its structure and effects to the support of parents,
siblings and caregivers provide for young children learning their mother tongue
(Little, 1997c, 123)
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