SLA RESEARCH ON SELF-DIRECTION: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ISSUES

1. INTRODUCTION

The present study began with the following question in mind: How can language
learners in Mexican self-access centres learn in a self-directed way? However, as in any
kind of research, it was impossible to answer this question if more basic issues were not
resolved first. Thus, I soon found myself dealing with other questions: What is self-direction
and how is it different from autonomy?, How does one Ieam in a self-directed way? How
does the learning culture of the learners affect their self-directed learning? and what is my
role, as a counsellor in a self-directed scheme?.

My attempts to answer these questions led me to engage in the research process
which underlies this thesis. The content of it can be divided into three main blocks. The first
block are Chapters 2 and 3, which contain a comprehensive account of the context and
background for the study. These two chapters are a combination of different elements: the
context of the Self-access Centre (SAC) in Mexico, the chronicle of the project, the
literature review and my own role and experiences in the process of setting up and running a
SAC in Mexico

In particular, Chapter 2, “First Contact”, will provide an account of the history of a
SAC in Mexico. However, the reader should not expect merely a descriptive and objective
account, as I do not feel able to give one. Rather, I am offering the reader my own account,
in the understanding that it is a subjective account. In this sense, this chapter is not only
about the process and development of an innovation but also my own process and
development and the way I experienced it.

. Chapter 2 also deals with my first conceptualisations of autonomy, self-direction and
learning to leam, among other concepts. It actually depicts the way I started to form my
personal schema of self-direction from scratch. The reader will notice that the concepts put
forward in this chapter are very different from the ones that I develop later in the thesis. One
of the objectives of the thesis is just this: to show the reader the way I moved away from
“borrowed” concepts to my own concepts. In other words, I will show the reader how my

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