Before you read this, here is a reminder of my site with links to research papers and videos about second language learning and teaching: informedlanguageteacher.com I originally published a post in 2018 which summarised Chapter 16 of the Routledge Handbook of Instructed Second Language Acquisition (2017), edited by Loewen and Sato. With the aid of ChatGPT I have kept the content and structure of the original post and added a few observations from research published since then. These are marked in bold. Background The authors of the 2017 chapter begin by outlining the clear importance of vocabulary knowledge in language acquisition, stating that it's a key predictor of overall language proficiency (e.g. Alderson, 2007). Students often say that their lack of vocabulary is the main reason for their difficulty understanding and using the language (e.g. Nation, 2012). Historically vocabulary has been neglected when compared to grammar, notably in the grammar-translation and audio-lin...
In 2018 I wrote a blog post summarising a chapter by Hossein Nassaji on grammar acquisition in The Routledge Handbook of Instructed Second Language Acquisition (Loewen and Sato, 2017). The chapter offered an accessible overview of research into classroom grammar teaching, including the value of explicit instruction, the role of practice and the relationship between conscious knowledge of rules and fluent language use. Since then, further research has appeared, including some useful meta-analyses. So what can we now say about grammar teaching, and what are the implications for language teachers? Explicit and implicit knowledge Let's begin with a familiar, hugely important distinction. Explicit knowledge is conscious knowledge about language, such as being able to explain how to form the perfect tense in French. Think of it as “knowing THAT”. Implicit knowledge is the largely unconscious knowledge which allows us to comprehend and produce language spontaneously, without having ...