Language Acquisition without Grammar Instruction?: The Evidence from an Autonomous Classroom

Abstract

The article is concerned with the language practices and the linguistic outcomes of a foreign language classroom in which young learners acquire the English language according to the principles of autonomous language learning. The data derive from the LAALE project (Language Acquisition in an Autonomous Learning Environment) whose aim it was to systematically observe the linguistic progress of a Danish mixed ability class over a period of four years. In this classroom the learners were not exposed to any grammar instruction, but had to work out the syntactic rules of the foreign language themselves. In order to facilitate the interpretation of the data, they are compared with data from traditionally taught learners of the same age.