Abstract

DIAZ, Norma Yolanda; QUIROGA, Elba Liliana  and  BUADAS, Carlos Rafael. The development of autonomy in students of english for specific purposes. Cuad. Fac. Humanid. Cienc. Soc., Univ. Nac. Jujuy [online]. 2014, n.46, pp.179-194. ISSN 1668-8104.

The cognitive and affective aspects are important and have a decisive influence in Second Language Learning (L2). In recent years, a remarkable interest has come out to give students a more active participation in their process of learning. The student as an active individual is manifested as a person who thinks, modifies, gives opinions, questions, generates critical appreciations, organizes and plans his own learning. The teacher is not the only person who provides information in the teaching-learning process, but the student also provides his own knowledge and opinions to achieve effective and meaningful learning. The positive evaluation and the self-knowledge together with trust in himself are constituted in characteristics of the university student's personality and are marks of an autonomous academic performance. The problem of research is oriented to understand if the student of English with Specific Purposes can take responsibility of his own learning as long as the teacher helps the development of his autonomy. The objective is to analyse thoughts, feelings and attitudes of students in the course of studies of Profesorado and Licenciatura en Filosofía y Ciencias de la Educación of Universidad Nacional de Catamarca to improve their learning in L2. The methodology used is qualitative-descriptive, a questionnaire which searches to approximate to the student's personal characteristics in the process of learning Specific English. The observations done and the data collected reveal if the students' development of autonomy enriches their personality, self-concept and improves their learning. At the same time this helps positively to the academic development

Keywords : Academic performance; Autonomy; Second Language; Self-concept.