The Role of Explicit Knowledge in Instructed Adult L2 Learning

This article considers explicit knowledge and processes in second language (L2) learning from a usage-based theoretical perspective. The results indicate that explicit knowledge and processes seemed to have a powerful impact on the participant's L2 learning and use, apparently enabling him to override the predicted bottom-up developmental path in certain circumstances and take a top-down approach instead.

View or download the full article in our research repository.

This chapter discusses explicit knowledge about language in second language (L2) learning from a usage-based perspective, which is here defined broadly to include theoretical approaches such as complexity theory, emergentism, cognitive linguistics and related constructionist theories of language.

View the abstract or download the book online at John Benjamins Publishing Company.

The findings of this study suggest both competitive and supportive relationships between cognitive and linguistic subsystems, with the learner's use of metalinguistic tools apparently functioning as a control parameter that allows for continuous progress along the L2 developmental trajectory.

View the abstract or download the book online at De Gruyter.