Introduction

We have already emphasized that use of the target language (TL) plays a central role in our version of the autonomy classroom. We have also explained that in our view autonomy is not a new capacity we must develop in our learners. They may not be used to acting autonomously in the classroom; indeed, their previous experience of schooling may well have been wholly teacher-directed (cf. Figure 0.1, p. 16). But if they are novices in relation to the learning they are expected to accomplish at school, they already know a great deal about life outside school, in which they have been by no means passive participants. Phillida Salmon puts the matter thus:

Salmon is describing the acquisition of what Barnes (1976) calls ‘action knowledge’. Pupils’ capacity for autonomous behaviour based on action knowledge can be observed in the playground, where even very young learners participate in the organization of a society to which most adults have no access (see, for example, Opie, 1993). If learners' sense of identity derives from their 'action knowledge', our task as teachers is to engage that 'action knowledge' in the business of language learning, to ensure that what goes on in our classrooms is as much 'real life' as what goes on outside.