Mind and Body

Los Autores- Impresiones FL de Natalia Rondini

Lugar: Córdoba; Año: 2010 p. 83

978-987-1591-55-8

In Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom, Tricia Hedge (2000) builds a picture of teachers’ perceptions of the self-directed learner, which we would like to share with our students. According to this description, self-directed learners:  -‘know their needs and work productively with the teacher towards the achievement of their objectives’  -´learn both inside and outside the classroom’  -‘can take classroom-based material and can build on it’  -‘know how to use resources independently’  -‘learn with active thinking’  -‘adjust their learning strategies when necessary to improve learning’  -‘manage and divide the time in learning properly’  -‘don´t think the teacher is a god who can give them ability to master the language.’ As teachers of English Language III, we propose the development of self-directed learners in the manner described by Hedge as one of the main objectives of our language course, because we believe that successful students take the initiative in learning and assume responsibility for it. We have designed these course materials to enable our students to develop their own plans for pursuing and achieving their goals, to learn how to use materials and resources effectively, to organize their time for learning, and to engage in the active development of successful learning strategies. The present content unit contains materials for in-class activities and for out-of–class practice, consolidation, and research. It includes materials to promote the integrated practice of all the language skills and sub-skills, research on specific content and linguistic items, exercises to develop and enhance a lexical competence, stimulating activities to enlarge students’ repertoire of learning strategies, and carefully selected Internet resources. It is our hope that our students take advantage of this opportunity to become autonomous learners.