SLA RESEARCH ON SELF-DIRECTION: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ISSUES



sessions they talked about learning processes, an attribute that must be present, according to
Holec's description of it. From the counselling sessions studied in Oaxaca, it can be said that
'talking about learning processes' is a
marked element, that is, it rarely occurs.

USER

COUNSELLOR

GOAL

-help to Ieam faster, to find the easiest way

-teaching, transmitting knowledge

-help to discover, to plan

-give them confidence

CONTENT

-linguistic explanation

-need analysis∕study plan

COUNSELLOR

ROLE

- someone who has a lot of knowledge
to teach the learners

-a person that needs to know
the user in order to help her to
find her own way

LEARNER

ROLE

-someone who knows what she wants and
the counselling session is one way to get it

-somebody who has a lot of
questions and needs someone
to answer them

Fig. 3.1 Divergence of counsellors and learners about counselling sessions.

The protocol analyses of the counselling sessions uncovered feelings and attitudes of
both, learners and counsellors. From the SAC students, I learned that there were different
degrees of dissatisfaction, a fact the counsellors were not aware of. The counsellors, in turn,
dealt with the power factor either consciously avoiding it or consciously (and unconsciously)
deploying it. The short interaction of the counselling session (10 to 20 minutes) was long
enough to develop good or bad records, that is to say, good or bad opinions of the
counsellors about the learners. When a good record was developed, the CS was smooth and
pleasant but if a bad record evolved, the CS turned to be a difficult event for the learner as
regards both interactional and illocutionary acts. At an interactional level the counsellor
tended to control the discourse, holding the openings and changing the topic. The only
possibility for the learners was to reply. At the illocutionary level a bad record session was
notorious for its absence of praising in the form of overt and positive feedback. The
following extract of a protocol analysis of a counselling session (translated from Spanish)
shows the difference of views between counsellor and learner:

Counsellor:

49



More intriguing information

1. The name is absent
2. The name is absent
3. Olfactory Neuroblastoma: Diagnostic Difficulty
4. Heavy Hero or Digital Dummy: multimodal player-avatar relations in FINAL FANTASY 7
5. The name is absent
6. The name is absent
7. The East Asian banking sector—overweight?
8. Institutions, Social Norms, and Bargaining Power: An Analysis of Individual Leisure Time in Couple Households
9. Dynamiques des Entreprises Agroalimentaires (EAA) du Languedoc-Roussillon : évolutions 1998-2003. Programme de recherche PSDR 2001-2006 financé par l'Inra et la Région Languedoc-Roussillon
10. The name is absent