第二言語学習における暗黙的学習の支援と奨励（1/3）
授業でしっかり教えたはずの英語が、実際の会話では使えない――そんな経験はありませんか？
それは、明示的に学んだ知識が「暗黙的知識」にまで定着していないからかもしれません。
本稿では、英語教育に長年携わるPac先生が、第二言語習得の観点から、暗黙的学習とは何か、なぜそれが重要なのか、そして教室でどのように促すことができるのかを、理論と実践の両面から考察します。
明日からの授業に取り入れられるヒントも多数。言語教育に携わるすべての方に読んでいただきたい内容です。本記事は、全3回にわたる連載の第1回です。ぜひ続編とあわせてご覧ください。
※今回より英語原文のみの掲載となります。
Supporting and Encouraging Implicit learning
in Second Language Learning (1/3)
Imagine one day you run into a former student. This individual was one of the best performers in your class, but at this moment in time they are struggling to maintain a simple conversation even though you explicitly taught this very type of conversation in class. What happened? This is something many EFL instructors and learners have asked themselves at some point. For whatever reason, that explicit knowledge has not become implicit. Is there any way to prevent this from happening? Some say that this is simply a matter of focused practice. However, it might be the case that there was also a lack of implicit learning. If so, we need to address three issues: what exactly implicit learning is, why we should be encouraging it, and how we can support it.
Explicit VS Implicit Learning
When teachers talk about classroom learning, what they are mainly referring to is explicit learning. According to Hulstijin (2005), explicit learning occurs when students need to develop rules and concepts based on the input they are given. This could include common tasks, such as matching phrases to their definitions based on context or error-checking exercises to confirm understanding of the grammar rules. On the other hand, implicit learning occurs when an individual acquires a skill without using input to discern any specific concepts or ideas about that skill. This was demonstrated in relation to language learning when Reber (1967) showed that learners were able to correctly apply artificial grammar rules after being shown examples with similar patterns. The other key difference between explicit and implicit learning is that the latter is always happening (Ellis et al., 2015). This means that the two processes are not exclusive. In the vocabulary task mentioned above, the learner may be implicitly learning non-targeted language. This is part of the reason the distinction between explicit and implicit can be slightly blurred (Hulstijin, 2005). Therefore, the focus of this article is how to encourage implicit learning and not how to teach it. We must also acknowledge that many of the components of implicit learning, such as a student’s background knowledge and learning preferences, are out of an instructor’s control. Nevertheless, we should not ignore it. Although not apparent on the surface, implicit learning might be the difference between students who have plateaued in their progression versus students who have achieved an advanced level of fluency in their L2.
References:
・Hulstijn, J.H. (2005). Theoretical and empirical issues in the study of implicit and explicit second-language learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 129–140.
・Reber, A. S. (1967). Implicit learning of artificial grammars. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 6 (6), 855– 863.
・Ellis, N. C. (2015). Implicit AND explicit language learning: Their dynamic interface and complexity. In P. Rebuschat (Ed.), Implicit and explicit learning of languages (pp. 3–23). John Benjamins.