The Relationship Between Tacit Knowledge And Explicit Knowledge And Its Impact On Language Teaching

The research questions addressed in this thesis are of basic importance to SLA theories as well as to the foundations for L2 pedagogy based on its findings. As we have noted,there is considerable debate in L2 pedagogy about the relative merits of a focus on form,a focus on meaning,or a combination of the two. Arguments have been put forward that formal instruction,the teaching of explicit,declarative knowledge is beneficial to subsequent L2 instruction,and that its role in facilitating attention to form is casual. Effects of instruction studies examining the relationship between instruction,attention to form,and learning have typically been conducted under classroom conditions. The debate about the effectiveness of formal instruction has revolved around the question of whether to teach grammar rules and how to teach. Second language acquisition theory has often regard implicit knowledge as one of a number of explanatory constructs in models of instructed L2 development. But no one can say for sure how the implicit knowledge evolve. The relationship between explicit knowledge and implicit knowledge is all the more controversial. To be in a large scale,the debate is also concerned with the relationship between the learning of language knowledge and the development of the practical use of the language proper. Here the author starts from the introduction of three different kinds of opinions on the relationship between explicit and implicit knowledge:the Non-interface Position,the Strong-interface Position and the Weak-interface Position. The Non-interface Position claims that there is no connection between explicit knowledge and implicit kind,which is mainly represented by Krashen's Input Hypothesis. Contrary to this opinion,some researchers represented by McLaughlin maintain that explicit knowledge can be converted into implicit knowledge,by means of practice. While these abovementioned parties can't agree with each other on the conversion problem,nor can they prove that the opposite sides are totally wrong since both of them seem to have found some practical evidence to their theories,Rod Ellis raised his opinion on this point,with which the author of this paper agrees-the Weak-interface Position. In the following discussion,the author has found theoretical,experimental and practical evidence to support her opinion. At the end of the thesis,some pedagogical suggestions are made to show its practical benefits to the actual learning and teaching of a second language.