EMPOWERING THE SELF-DIRECTED LEARNER.
Can all students be expected to be active participants in the learning process? More often than not there is a vast group of learners who will approach this task certainly ill-equipped. The best they can be offered is the opportunity to develop positives attitudes towards the foreign language and acquire effective strategies for self-training. Thus, they can be productively initiated on the fullfilling experience of learning to learn.
Learning Strategies.
Although there is not yet an agreed taxonomy to classify learning strategies, they can be grouped in the following categories:.
1. Cognitive: What learners do to learn. They.
involve the identification, storage and retrieval of language elements; also the identification of topic in the content of the language lesson. The learner needs to relate this content to a familiar experience. One way of activating these strategies is to encourage students to make predictions about the subject and become mentally prepared for the content of the unit. Other examples include: taking notes; skimming a text for the main idea; working out analogies; memorization; inference; discovering and "noticing- new language patterns. .
2. Metacognitive: What learners do to regulate and manage their learning. They involve thinking about the learning process, planning for learning, monitoring of comprehension or production while it is taking place and self-evaluation after the learning activity. Examples include: linking new material with that already known; organizing one's learning; planning for learning; assessing performance after revision activities; etc. .
3. Affective: They regulate emotions. Good language.
learners tend to have better control over their attitudes and emotions about learning, thus making learning more enjoyable. Learners develop more self-confidence, self-encouragement and self-reward through praise and reinforcement.