ALEX: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CONCEPTS INVOLVED IN THIS NEW PROGRAM?

Magda Rodríguez

Publicado en Capital Letter No. 3

Mayo de 2003

ALEX is a program to develop learning autonomy in students so that they can apply the principles of this new paradigm to their learning of a foreign language. The first aspect to deal with is the concept of development. How would you define development? Take a few seconds and think of your definition of the term. Development comes from 'develop' - from the French développer - meaning "to cause to grow gradually in some way; to cause to become gradually fuller, larger, better." ALEX is a program that seeks to improve students' learning skills and strategies in such a way that they will become better students. 

However, as the definition of development implies, this is a gradual process requiring patience and work. Patience because the final result is not obtained spontaneously, but step by step; work because all great goals are reached with constant effort, whether mental or physical. The great goal is that learners acquire appropriate communicative competences in a foreign language through the development of autonomy.

A second concept to deal with is learning. Many definitions have been thought about what learning is, ranging from the old behaviourist paradigm to the different modern cognitive stands. ALEX has adopted the following position with respect to learning: learning involves the assimilation of our experiences so that they can become a part of our life and produce changes in us. 

"Learning is the process by which we obtain new knowledge, abilities or attitudes through experiences that will produce a change in our character or behaviour." As experiences are gradually assimilated, we begin to acquire new views, attitudes, ways of thinking, behaviours, all of which will make us different in many ways; all these shifts will lead us to new experiences. Learning, thus, is a never ending active process. That is why it is essential to learn to learn, and here autonomy begins to play its role.

Autonomy. .. . AUTONOMY. Again, take a few seconds to think what autonomy means to you. Many ideas may come to your mind: making decisions, self-governing, taking responsibility, individual work, making changes, organizing, leading, independence, ... As defined by the dictionary of Real Academia de la Lengua, autonomy is "the skill to govern your own actions." This concept applied to learning will take us to Holec's perspective on autonomous learning: "the ability to take charge of one’s own learning.”1 If this is an ability, it means that it needs development. 

How many of us can say we are autonomous learners? Maybe very few would say we are. Most of us are the result of an educational system where autonomy is neglected, where learner’s decisions and interests are left aside and where institutional and even political parameters are the basis of the decisions taken in the classroom. That is what makes the development of autonomous learning even more difficult: the fact that we have to rethink learning; rethinking learning, reflecting upon learning, will result in new different attitudes and new more interesting roles, from the part of the teacher as well as from the student.

On their way to become autonomous, learners, in their new roles, will gradually begin to make decisions about such things as their objectives, what they want to learn, what the results and benefits will be, how they will reach their goals, when, how assessment will be done, and so forth. Being this a new process for learners, it is necessary for teachers to adopt new positions with respect to the way they provide support and guidance to students. Students cannot, by any means, be left alone in the first stages of this long hard, but rewarding, process.

Teachers will have to provide as many resources as possible for students to be able to discover their strengths and weaknesses, to learn to maximize the former and compensate for the latter, to work in teams and cooperate with others, to begin making decisions and assuming responsibility for their mistakes, etc. We are not prepared for doing all these things alone (autonomy does not mean to do things on your own); there is a need for support in this process and it is the teacher’s responsibility to provide this help. We have just come to one last important concept: paradigm. After this short and basic discussion about autonomous learning, have you felt any changes? We hope you have.

ALEX is beginning to break the previous teaching – learning process scheme where the teacher makes decisions and controls, and students follow. In this new project, learners will become decision-makers who will learn to control their own process. Teachers? They will be beside students, accompanying them along the first part of their path.

1 Webster’s new twentieth century unabridged dictionary, p. 499.

2 Michel, Guillermo (1994) Aprende a aprender (12ª ed.) México: Trillas, p. 20.

3 Holec, Henry (1981) Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning, Oxford: Pergamon, p.3.