Learning a language - the explicit-implicit learning dance!

If you are learning a language or you would like to learn a language faster, then this article will be significant for you.

All language scholars know the name Dr Stephen Krashen, Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Southern California, who in the late 70s, early 1980s developed the Monitor Theory—a group of hypotheses explaining second language acquisition with implications for language teaching. Monitor Theory was widely criticized and dismissed, but nowadays more research is demonstrating one aspect of Krashen's five fundamental hypotheses which is the Acquisition-Learning Distinction – language acquisition (naturally acquired) versus language learning (conscious studying).

I am pretty passionate about this and from the perspective of the brain and learning we are talking about explicit learning, very much a “pre frontal cortex” executive functions learning process , which involves consciously learning the grammatical rules and theory of the language versus implicit learning, which is “the process by which knowledge about the rule-governed complexities of the stimulus environment is acquired independently of conscious attempts to do so” (see Reber, A. S. (1989). (Or in other words - implicit learning and tacit knowledge), which we could say is subconsciously acquired without us realising it.

In my 5th decade of life, I can now look back and absolutely confirm the differences between explicit and implicit language learning and also my own personal “interface” between the two types of "acquiring knowledge". At school between the ages of 8 to 16 I learnt French, Latin and Greek. At the age of 15 I started learning Spanish. I subsequently went on to learn Catalan, Italian and German and over the past years I have dabbled with basic Arabic, some Russian and basic Greek. I will later explain my own explicit/implicit interface with all of these languages.

By the way, at this point may I add a quote by Bill VanPatten, 2019, The Nature of Language. ACTFL, p. 5, where he poignantly observes that

“Before institutionalized education, language rules were non-existent. Pre-literate tribes world-wide learned other languages through contact without such rules. For example, there was contact among Native American tribes in North America long before Europeans come, and some tribal members learned another tribe’s language … Phoenician was widely spoken as a second language in the ancient Mediterranean area, although no formal education system anywhere; there was no such thing as Phoenician 101.”

So prior to institutionalised education, we learnt languages “implicitly, whether children or adults!”.

Now let us get back to the “interface”. In the recent research of this year 2023, Kim and Godfroid state that “to our knowledge, this study was one of the first to investigate the explicit–implicit interface question longitudinally” and they reach the conclusion that they “demonstrated a beneficial effect of explicit knowledge on the development of implicit knowledge in an authentic English-language environment.”

(Kim, K., & Godfroid, A. (2023). The interface of explicit and implicit second-language knowledge: A longitudinal study. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 26(4), 709-723. doi:10.1017/S1366728922000773).

If we translate this into practical terms, this means that if you are in a country immersing yourself in a new language, there will be a beneficial boost to that immersion learning when you complement this with some study on the grammatical rules and theory .

I absolutely agree with this from my own language learning journeys and the results I have achieved which are completely different reflecting the different exposure I had to language learning or language acquisition or both!

Here are my own results, where I classify out of ten the ratio of conscious learning (explicit – rules and theory) versus subconscious learning (implicit - acquiring the language naturally through exposure to the language) and then I give my own grading of how effective the learning was and how good I am at the language now (out of 10):

French – explicit learning of grammar and rules at school – hardly any “implicit learning” in those school years. Years later I had more subconscious exposure due to studying in French and also meeting and working with French people and living in France for some time.

Explicit exposure 9 : Implicit exposure 6

Result I grade my French ability overrall at 7/10 on all levels (although I would still say I can write better French and speak it even though I am fairly fluent!)

Spanish – I started to teach myself Spanish at the age of 15 by writing letters to my future fiancé and husband. I spent hours with my father´s teach yourself Spanish books – I never had a lesson in my life. This was a two year letter writing and language learning process and then at the age of 17 I moved to Spain and was immersed in the language and received full on exposure to the language and full immersion effect. I lived in Spain for 12 years and hardly spoke English in those years, I even completed University studies in Spanish.

Explicit exposure first (for 2 years) 10: Implicit exposure (thereafter) 10

Result 10/10 (I am often mistaken for a native and would say that I am a “late bilingual” in this language”)

Catalan -living in Catalonia I was exposed to Catalan through immersion and subconscious learning. I had no lessons but can understand it perfectly and can also speak fairly well if I let my “subconscious brain” take over! No explicit learning whatsoever!

Explicit 0 : Implicit 10

Result 5/10 (I cannot write Catalan, but i can understand and speak!)

Italian – working in Verona Italy for 7 years and some of that time actually living there, I was exposed to Italian through immersion and subconscious learning, plus scaffolding from French, Spanish and Catalan. I had no lessons but can understand it perfectly and can also speak fairly fluently! No explicit learning whatsoever!

Explicit 0 : Implicit 10

Result 9/10 (I cannot write it very well but can understand and speak very well!)

German – working in Germany for about 13 years and living there for approximately 10 of those years, I was exposed to German through immersion and subconscious learning. At first, it was really hard for me to come into the language as my brain was wired to “Latin” languages but then I started scaffolding from English. I had a few lessons (no more than 10 I think) and can understand it fairly well and can also speak fairly well but there are a lot of grammar mistakes and sentence order issues due to the lack of explicit learning!

Explicit 3 : Implicit 10

Result 6/10 (I always say that I have “wild German” as it is very much what I have picked up subconsciously – I definitely cannot write it but can understand and speak very well!)

As Neurolanguage Coaches, we work with clients to understand what it means when we talk about conscious learning and subconscious acquisition. Together we work on strategies for both language learning and language acquisition. Many of our learners are extremely busy, stressed and burdened with workload, so with very little time to actually sit and learn anything, let alone a new language!

We help learners to understand how to replicate immersion settings and we also work in such a way that we stimulate learners to have “learning insights”, which then assists the process of “making conscious, the subconscious knowledge”. In addition, we know that every learner is different and we adapt and accommodate the learning process to each and every individual no matter whether a beginner or an advanced learner wanting to go deeper and deeper into the language.

What about you? Can you identify with the explicit/implicit knowledge input and what about your language learning journeys? I would love to hear about them!

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