Critically evaluate the role of implicit and explicit knowledge in second language acquisition

2. Development
3. Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

"Although it is not possible to get a precise date on when Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research first established itself as a field of enquiry, there is general agreement that it took place around the end of the 1960. At this time, some of the studies of second language (L2) learners were published (for example, Ravem 1968; Huang 1970)" (Ellis, 1994:1)

So, since that time the way in which learners acquire the Second Language Acquisition has been a topic of interest of some linguistics, teachers and researchers, due to its importance for the development of the teaching-learning process.

One of the issues that have been analysed is the fact concerning the implicit and explicit knowledge of the Second Language, their characteristics, advantages and disadvantages and their contribution to Second Language Acquisition.

This essay will provide some information about the terms explicit and implicit knowledge in general terms. The first part of the essay will provide the definition of the term explicit and implicit knowledge.

Then, it will outline a brief description of the terms explicit and implicit knowledge and will determine a variety of criteria concerning them.

This essay will also consider the contribution of the term explicit and implicit knowledge to Second Language Acquisition.

The final part of the essay will present the author"s opinion about the acquisition of the second language by means of explicit and implicit knowledge.

The aim of this essay is to describe and critically evaluate the role of implicit and explicit knowledge in second language acquisition.

Palabras clave: evaluation, implicit knowledge, explicit knowledge, second language acquisition.

DEVELOPMENT

According to Reber (1996: 5) implicit learning is the acquisition of knowledge that takes place largely independently of conscious attempts to learn and largely in the absence of explicit knowledge about what was acquired.

Implicit learning (i.e. learners are exposed to exemplars of an L2 rule and are asked to memorize them) this condition can be distinguished from "incidental learning" where learners" primary attention is focussed on message rather than form. (Ellis, 2001)

However, according to second language acquisition research explicit knowledge is generally used to refer to knowledge that is available to the learner as a conscious representation. Learners may make their knowledge explicit either in everyday language or with the help of specially learnt "technical" language. (Ellis, 1994:355)

Implicit and explicit knowledge have as a main aspect in common that by means of them learners can acquire the second language in an unconscious or conscious way. However, each of them has some unique characteristics that make them different.

According to implicit knowledge, it is produced naturally occurring language behaviour and cannot be easily accessed separately from this behaviour, it is easily accessible, unanalyzed (i.e. is memory-based rather than rule-based), it is considered both abstract and structured and it can be consciously analyzed. (Ellis, 2001)

On the other hand, through explicit knowledge, learners acquire an analyzed knowledge (i.e. knowledge that the learner is aware of), it is metalanguage, it manifests itself in some form of problem-solving activity that calls for learners to pay focal attention to linguistic form, it cannot be accessed easily and it often is fragmentary and anomalous. (Ellis, 2001)

As a conclusion between the implicit and the explicit knowledge, it is necessary to mention that the instruction leads to explicit knowledge that is then used to produce and understand language. The perception and production of the (more and more correct) utterances serves as input for the implicit learners mechanisms that extract information from the input. This implies that what is implicit acquired may be quite different from what the instruction was about. Explicit knowledge does not become implicit, but it generates relevant input and output: Also, explicit metalinguistic knowledge serves as a monitor to control the output, and it plays a role in generating more correct utterances, which again serve as input for implicit learning. Paradis (2004:35cited in Lowie et al., 2005)

According to Lowie et al., (2005), "there are two systems than can have input. The first one, the implicit learning system incorporates new information according to its own rules that are not open to inspection and probably not open to manipulation either. The second one, the input needed for the explicit learning system that cumulates declarative knowledge for conscious processing. The set of implicit knowledge develops parallel to the explicit system but how the latter influences the former is unclear. In other words, what is taught is not necessarily implicit learned. Conscious processing and the application of explicit knowledge demand a lot of resources, mainly because it is not automatized. The implicit system is more efficient in that respect, and that is probably the reason why we have two such parallel systems."