(b) En el Adjunto A de esta parte del informe, se incorporan los textos originales y las propuestas de enmienda de las secciones correspondientes de los Apéndices J y A
B4 – PROCEDIMIENTOS NO NORMALES Y DE EMERGENCIA
Several definitions adopted by the researcher are listed below and help establish
positions and boundaries taken in the present study.
1.6.1 Learning Strategies
According to Scarcella & Oxford, learning strategies are defined as
‘specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques --such as seeking out
conversation partners, or giving oneself encouragement to tackle a difficult
language task -- used by students to enhance their own learning’ (1992,
p. 63). These strategies involve conscious as well as specific thoughts and
actions that a learner executes in order to attain a learning goal and
enhance language learning (Chamot, 2004; Oxford, 2003). These actions
by the learner ‘make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-
directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations’ (Oxford,
1990, p. 8). This study adopts the learning strategies that Oxford (1990)
has categorised into six groups, namely cognitive, metacognitive, memory-
related, compensatory, affective, and social.
Cognitive strategies involve using all the mental processes
Metacognitive strategies involve organizing and evaluating knowledge Memory-related strategies deal with remembering effectively
Compensatory strategies deal with compensating for missing
knowledge
Affective strategies deal with managing emotions Social strategies deal with learning with others.
1.6.2 Self-regulation
Self-regulation is described by Pintrich as ‘an active, constructive process
whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor,
regulate, and control their cognition, motivation and behaviour, guided and
constrained by their goals and the contextual features in the environment’
(Pintrich, 2000, p. 453). Self-regulation involves ‘self-initiated thoughts,
feelings, and actions’ that writers rely on to achieve their goals which may
include improving their writing skills and quality of their writing
(Zimmerman & Risemberg, 1997, p. 76). In this study, self-regulation as
fostered by the SRSD model involves goal setting and self-monitoring
although the self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies as identified by
Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons (1986) have been used to assess students’
perceived self-efficacy for self-regulation in writing which is described in
detail in chapter three.
1.6.3 Goal Setting
Goal setting is a strategy that allows a student to recognise and appreciate
what he is aiming to achieve. When setting a goal, a student needs to
comply with its properties of specificity, difficulty and proximity (Harris
& Graham, 1996), and understand the nature of the task assigned to him.
He then sets his goals and breaks these up into several steps that he needs
to undertake in order to achieve them. The outcome of these steps is then
monitored and may in turn cause the steps to be revised when needed.
Distal goal. This term refers to long-term goal. This goal is achieved
Proximal goal. This term refers to short-term goal that leads to higher
levels of performance than a distal goal. This goal involves several
steps to achieve it. These steps need to be monitored and revised as
the need arises.
Students in this study have been instructed to utilise this form of self-
regulation through the SRSD model employed in the writing instruction.
1.6.4 Self-monitoring
Self-monitoring refers to the ability to deal with affect or feelings when a
task seems difficult. Self-monitoring, which involves self-assessment and
self-recording, requires a student to check if he has done all that needs to
be done as well as evaluate it (Harris & Graham, 1996). The student thus
not only self-monitors his approach to the task but also the components.
By evaluating what he has done, the student examines whether he has
achieved his goal before moving on to the next goal. As the nature of the
EAP course in this study is partly project-based, this aspect of self-
regulation is not only useful but also vital for students to master.
1.6.5 SRSD Model
Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is an empirically validated
framework for the explicit teaching of academic or instructional strategies
as well as self-regulation strategies to students (Harris & Graham, 1996;
1999). In writing instruction, it enables students to learn and use the
strategies used by skilled writers and ultimately adopt these strategies as
regulation skills that increase motivation by encouraging students to set
goals, use effective self-statements and self-reinforcements, monitor and
evaluate their performance, and revise their writing. The SRSD model is
typically criterion-based so that it enables students to achieve mastery over
certain strategies before moving on to other strategies (Wong, Harris,
Graham, & Butler, 2003). However, a time-based approach had to be
adopted for this study, as a criterion-based approach was not feasible in a
classroom setting (Reynolds & Perin, 2009). The instructor had to work
within the constraints imposed by the coursework requirements as well as
the scheme of work for this EAP course. The model involves six stages,
namely developing background knowledge of a strategy, discussing and
describing it, modelling it using the think aloud technique, memorising it
through mnemonics, supporting it through collaboration between teachers
and peers, and lastly, establishing independent practice. This, however,
was modified as the first three stages were combined to facilitate teaching,
as the students in the study were normal young adults. As this model is
central to the present study, it will be elaborated upon in greater detail in
Chapter Three while research related to this will be discussed in Chapter
Two.
1.6.6 Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy concerns the belief in one’s own capacity to organise and
implement the measures required to produce specific attainments
(Bandura, 1997). As such, self-efficacy is task specific and is associated
with the interaction between a person and task (Jackson, 2002), thus
not be confused with personal characteristics such as self-esteem. Writing
self-efficacy thus refers to students’ estimation of the confidence that they
possess in achieving the various writing skills, namely composition,
grammar, usage, and mechanical skills appropriate to their level of
education (Pajares, Miller, & Johnson, 1999). In this study, self-efficacy
also refers to students’ confidence in employing certain learning strategies
for writing and self-regulation.
1.6.7 Learner Autonomy
Learner autonomy refers to the ability to assume responsibility for and
take charge of one’s own learning, either with or without the support of
others (Sheerin, 1991) by diagnosing one’s needs and locating human and
material resources to facilitate one’s learning as well as setting one’s own
goals in the learning process. It is both a goal in education and an approach
to education (Littlejohn, 1985). According to Ponton (1999, cited in
Ponton, Derrick, Hall, Rhea, & Carr, 2005), learner autonomy is a subset
of characteristics related to self-directedness, where the learner
independently demonstrates agency or intentional behaviour in learning
activities by deciding on the strategies that he would or would not employ.
In this study, learner autonomy involves the learner’s ability to self-
regulate his writing and transfer the strategies learnt to other learning
contexts.