On the relationship between explicit and implicit grammar knowledge in the process of foreign language acquisition Cover Image

Zur Relation zwischen explizitem und implizitem Grammatikwissen im unterrichtlichen Fremdsprachenerwerb
On the relationship between explicit and implicit grammar knowledge in the process of foreign language acquisition

Author(s): Barbara Sadownik
Subject(s): Foreign languages learning
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: explicit knowledge; implicit knowledge; foreign language acquisition

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the topic of extremely complex relations between metalinguistic knowledge, or explicit knowledge of grammar, and implicit knowledge, in the process of foreign language acquisition at school. The main research question is whether and to what extent explicit language knowledge facilitates the process of development of formal competence in a foreign language. The author pinpoints the fact that the theoretical status of the differentiation between explicit and implicit knowledge has not yet been fully explained in the studies of second/foreign language acquisition. While it is argued by developmental psychologists that any knowledge evolves in mind and is transformed from explicit/declarative into implicit/automated during the cognitive process, it is generally held in the psycholinguistic literature that there is no correlation between these two types of knowledge. Intuitive knowledge and conscious knowledge of language, or, in other words, procedural and declarative, constitute two separate systems of knowledge. The author holds the opinion that the effectiveness of explicit and implicit systems of grammar knowledge needs to be viewed in a distinct way.

  • Issue Year: 29/2006
  • Issue No: 29/30
  • Page Range: 193-217
  • Page Count: 25
  • Language: German
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