ABSTRACT
It is hardly surprising if we read the list of forty statements in the National Curriculum Programme of Study part 1 without pausing to consider in detail the implications of statement 3C; that pupils should have opportunities to ‘develop their independence in language learning and use’ (DFE, 1995:3). So it may be worthwhile starting this chapter by exploring if there is a relationship between independent language learning and independent language use; if autonomous learning and communicative competence are somehow inextricably linked. We have seen in earlier chapters that ‘knowing’ a foreign language has come to mean not only grammatical competence, but sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence (see Canale, 1983). A learner cannot be said, for example, to ‘know’ a language if they are unable to engage in a conversation without whispered prompts from the teacher; or to repair for themselves breakdowns in communication, or to read authentic (rather than ‘doctored’) materials from the target language country, without constantly needing to resort to a dictionary. Learners may make mistakes, they may not understand everything that is said to them or that they read, but they must have sufficient confidence and competence to be able to choose both what to say and how to say it. And they have to be able to navigate their own way through the complex and unpredictable nature of the language world that surrounds them. In other words learners have to function independently. One might also argue that given ‘knowledge’ of the language is never perfect and pupils may encounter new contexts in which they must operate, they need also the confidence and competence to continue learning the language independently. This may involve recognising ‘gaps’ in their
linguistic repertoire and knowing how to go about bridging them, whether by referring to appropriate grammar books or textbooks, listening to tape-recordings or consulting native speakers.
