Rationale

Rationale

Providing students with opportunities to develop autonomy and find extracurricular activities that fit into their likes and needs has regularly posed a challenge in many learning contexts, and ours is not an exception.  As Smith (2011) states, developing these scenarios depends on the objectives, contents, stages methods and techniques, pace, time, place, and evaluation procedures.  Fortunately, the curriculum’s main aim at the CCA is to help students develop autonomy due to the fact that learning is seen as an ongoing process which is enhanced through self and peer assessment.  Additionally, technology has become a corner stone which facilitates student with tools in order to help them foster their learning process.  Smith also states that CALL, self-access, and distance learning gives students decision making possibilities which requires the exercise of autonomy.  It becomes a must to engage students’ existing autonomy in classroom practice and support such engagement through additional practices that allows learners to continue developing the process.  Nonetheless, as Heppell says, new technologies pose challenges such as reflecting on the understanding of how students learn better; this question touches students and teachers’ senses and take both to see learning with new possibilities which can be found outside the classroom. 

Therefore, the objective is to help students, as Holmes and Ramos (1991) state, become aware of and identify the strategies that they use or could use.  As a matter of fact, this process needs to be developed as a social and constructive process (Thanasoulas, 2000), which fits into what can be done in the LRC at the CCA.  Through extracurricular activities done in the AVM LAB, there are innumerable chances for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independent action; however, this process requires learner counseling and training (Smith, 2011).  In other words, students need to be trained on how to take advantage of the resources available and how to work with extracurricular activities. 

Following the ideas above mentioned, through our LRC we want to tackle three main issues: the first, students’ lack of understanding of the ways in which they are or are not taking advantage of technological tools, and in this specific case, the AVM lab at the CCA.  Second, open new possibilities for students to have a wider range of options when going to the LRC; for instance, students usually go to the lab to work on the platform workbook which is a task they could develop at home.  Consequently, they need more engaging possibilities that fit into their styles and needs such as conversation clubs and movie clubs.  Third, through the improvement we want to offer tools and activities in which students are the ones taking a leading role and develop activities that help them improve at a given skill and at the same time, help other peers cooperatively.  To sum up, the environment offered through our improvement of the LRC, could require not just the exercise of autonomy but also its development.  Moments separated from the typical class activities which can also be meaningful and effective at fostering students’ learning and autonomy.