key concept: procedural knowledge

on September 10, 2010 2 Comments

Procedural knowledge is, in a nutshell, knowing how to do something. It contrasts with declarative knowledge, which is knowledge about something. For example, I may read about the importance of perfect arm strokes and coordination while swimming and yet drown like a stone when inside the pool. This may sound obvious, I know, but as far as language learning goes, theres more to it than meets the eye. Declarative knowledge enables a student to describe a rule and perhaps apply it in a drill or a gap-fill. Procedural knowledge, on the other hand, enables the student to apply that rule in real language use. ot surprisingly, procedural knowledge does not translate automatically into declarative knowledge ! try asking a native speaker to explain why exactly she said "Ive been there# rather than "I went there#. In the same way, declarative knowledge does not automatically cross over into communicative language use. In other words, students may be able to describe a grammar rule and manipulate it through controlled exercises, but consistently fail to apply the rule in communication ! spoken or written. $ver the past thirty years or so, some of the most heated %but perhaps pointless&' debate in ()T has centered around the *uestion of whether teachers can help students proceduralize declarative knowledge - in other words, move from knowing that to knowing how. +ome people %like ,rashen' claim that declarative and procedural knowledge are two separate entities, while others believe that declarative knowledge can be procedurali-ed through practice. Theres a third group that argues that its noticing %and renoticing' rather than practice that will push students interlanguage development forward. In other words, there is far from unanimous agreement that practice makes perfect as far as language learning goes. .y the way, click here for another post on declarative knowledge vs procedural knowledge. /lick here for my contribution on +cott Thornburys wonderful 0-1 blog. Thanks for reading.

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