Hypotheses about the Interface between Explicit and Implicit Knowledge in Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

The question of whether there is an interface (direct connection) between explicit and implicit knowledge has driven SLA theory and research for over four decades. Traditionally framed in terms of a strong interface, weak interface, and no interface, the interface hypothesis can actually be deconstructed into a more fine-grained set of questions that can now be studied empirically thanks to advances in research methodologies and better measures of explicit and especially implicit knowledge. In this chapter, I review four major bodies of contemporary research that help to elucidate different aspects of the interface hypothesis: (1) the simultaneous acquisition of implicit and explicit knowledge, (2) effects of instruction on real-time processing, (3) the distinction between automatized explicit knowledge and implicit knowledge, and (4) the reverse interface hypothesis. These different research areas show that influences between explicit and implicit knowledge are pervasive and are probably also bi-directional. From a neurocognitive viewpoint, however, none of these influences amount to an interface (Paradis, 2009). It may be time to leave the three-way distinction between interface positions behind in favor of new and more fine-grained theoretical questions that lend themselves to detailed empirical investigation.