The beginning

Teaching ESL* is preparing students for the situations they will live right outside the classroom. Teaching EFL*, which is my case in Brazil, is challenging because we prepare students for possible interactions, in case they meet some foreigner, travel abroad, have to take some exam or have a job interview in English. Some of my students have even reported to me situations where they had to authentically use their English, with great excitement, for most of their interaction in this language is artificial (perhaps semi-authentic at most) classroom interaction.

I don't doubt, though, the power of such kind of instruction, for I myself learned English in Brazil and, admitting my limitations, I got to a level of proficiency that allowed me to take the teaching of this language as my professional and academic career. What worries me, thus, is what is going to happen to EFL students' English after they finish their courses.

When ESL students finish their advanced courses, the teachers are saying "congratulations, you're ready to continue learning things out there". But when EFL students finish their advanced courses, what are we saying? We know learning a language is not memorizing it, in fact even the term  learning has been challenged long ago**, and we know that acquisition takes place with practice, and lack of practice can end up in disacquisition. I believe we have all heard of people who could speak a certain language but, as years went by without any practice, they forgot it.

So my big question was: what can we, EFL teachers, do not only to prevent our students from losing everything they have learned, but also help them continue learning after they finish their courses? Of course there are many post-advanced courses offered in Language Institues in Brazil, but what if students have taken them all, or if they just can't afford the money and time to language courses anymore?

EFL teachers have a great influence on students' acquisition processes. Most of the input (in some cases all of it) EFL students have is in the classroom, which is determined by the teacher. I believe, hence, that the hope to students' after-course lives lies in the influence the EFL teacher exerts on students. What needs to be done, then, is raise teachers' awareness of such influence and empower them to empower learners. This whole project could be summarized in the term awareness-raising. Teachers should acknowledge the importance of their influence over learners in order to raise their awareness about the STRATEGIES they can use in order to keep on studying/practicing/learning/acquiring English even when they finish their courses.

So this is the core intention of this project:

help teachers to help (language) learners to become autonomous learners through the use strategies

*EFL - English as a Foreing Langue: it is the learning or teaching if English to speakers of other languages in countries where English is not the native language. Example: teaching/learning English in Brazil (my case).

*ESL - English as a Second Language: it is the learning or teaching if English to speakers of other languages in countries where English is the native language. Example: teaching/learning English in the United States.

** in 1982 Krashen proposed the difference between learning and acquiring a languge, which will not be considered here, even tough the term "acquisition" will be preferred for its broader connotation.