Skill Acquisition Theory and SLA

Lecture 3
Second Language Acquisition for Teachers
In this lecture
 Explicit vs implicit
 A definition of skills
 Skills acquisition in PE
 Language learning as skills development
 Criticism

REVIEW
 Implicit learning = no rules are formulated
 Explicit learning = learning w/ awareness at the point of learning
ðconscious, done w/ attention
 DILEMMA
Relationship btw. explicit & implicit:
 Non-interface position
 Interface position:
 Weak: ð”noticing”
 Strong: ð automization via plentiful practice
Skills
 Definition
 a skill is the combined ability and knowledge that allows you to
complete a task to a high standard
 skills are
 learnt
 permanent changes in behavior
 aimed at achieving a goal
Skill Acquisition Theory
 assigns roles for both explicit and implicit learning in SLA.
 claims that adults commence learning something through
mainly explicit processes, and, through subsequent sufficient

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practice and exposure, proceed to implicit processes (VanPatten
& Benati, 2010)
DeKeyser: Skill Acquisition Theory
The learning of a wide variety of skills shows a remarkable
similarity from initial representation of knowledge through
initial changes in behavior to eventual fluent, spontaneous,
largely effortless, and highly skilled behavior, and that this set
of phenomena can be accounted for by a set of basic principles
common to the acquisition of all skills. (p. 97)
¹
3 stages
of skills development
Cognitive stage
you learn what is needed to perform the skill
 the learner creates a mental picture of the skill (demonstration
needed)
 attention to step by step procedures
 high attentional demand – lots of thinking
 you tend to perform the skill slowly
 frequent errors occur
 lots of feedback required (teacher/peer/coach)
Associative stage
concerned with the practice of the motor skill
 learners refine accuracy & consistency of the motor skill
 there is a reduced number of errors
 learner gradually gets more successful & fluent
 learners compare performance to the mental model & begin to pay
attention to feedback
 longer than the cognitive stage
 actions get smoother, more accurate, better timed, more efficient
Autonomous stage
 sequencing and timing of subroutines have become automatic

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 less conscious attention needed
 learner analyses own performance & adjusts own actions
 skill improvement: continued but less rapid
 progress results from attention to fine details

Skill Acquisition in SLA

 learning a second language is considered to be like learning any
other skill, e.g., playing a musical instrument.
 from declarative to procedural knowledge
declarative: conscious knowledge of facts, concepts or ideas that can be
stored as propositions.
procedural: unconscious knowledge of how an activity is done.
Once knowledge is proceduralized it is accessible in a ‘program’ (ready
made chunks) rather than ‘bits and pieces’ of information ð implicit
kn.

 "Implicit knowledge is procedural whereas explicit knowledge is

declarative" (p. 11)
 "Implicit knowledge is tacit and intuitive whereas explicit knowledge is
conscious" (p. 11)
 "Implicit knowledge is only evident in learners‟ verbal behavior whereas
explicit knowledge is verbalizable" (p. 13)
 "Default L2 production relies on implicit knowledge, but difficulty in
performing a language task may result in the learner attempting to exploit explicit
knowledge" (p. 13)
 "There are limits on most learners’ ability to acquire implicit knowledge
whereas most explicit knowledge is learnable" (p. 14) (Miért nem tanulsz?)
 "L2 performance utilizes a combination of implicit and explicit knowledge"
(p. 15)
(Ellis, 2009)

Practice
 “Practice is the subclass of learning that deals only with improving
performance on a task that can already be successfully performed” (p. 2).
 Practice which is required for learning in skill Acquisition Theory,
according to Dekeyser (2007b) should be meaningful. In fact, DeKeyser

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has questioned the utility of mechanical drills by considering them to
provide just language-like behavior rather than language behavior.

 "Within this theory, development involves the use of declarative

knowledge followed by procedural knowledge, with the latter‟s
automatization." Therefore, SLA is conceived to be a progression
through three stages, declarative, procedural, and autonomous.

Criticism
 Skill Acquisition Theory provides a rationale for the strong-interface
position, as acknowledged by Ellis (2009) Ellis & Shintani (2013), the evidence
for all of the three positions (i.e., the noninterface position, the strong interface
position, and the weak interface position) is mainly indirect, and they have not
been extensively investigated empirically.
 In fact, this is also the very problem which undermines Skill Acquisition
Theory since, as mentioned by DeKeyser (2007b), this theory is
under-researched.
 the idea that acquisition of all L2 features starts with declarative
knowledge is rather far-fetched, since both vocabulary and grammar
acquisition in an L2 must involve incidental learning to a great extent
and such learning does not need a declarative stage.

ò
Weak interface position.

Recommended reading
 Jensen, J. C.(2007). Skill acquisition and second language teaching. Kinki
University Department of Language Education Journal,3, 119-135. Retrieved from
kurepo.clib.kindai.ac.jp/modules/xoonips/download.php?file_id=7469
 Taie, M. (2014). Skill Acquisition Theoory and it important concepts in SLA.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(9), 1971-1976.

Thank you for your attention.