Insights from Skill Acquisition Theory for grammar activity sequencing and design in Foreign Language Teaching

ABSTRACT

This article presents a framework for the elaboration of Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) grammar materials for adults based on the application to SLA of Skill Acquisition Theory (SAT). This theory is argued to compensate for the major drawbacks of FLT settings in comparison with second language contexts (lack of classroom learning time and limited amount of in-classroom and out-of-the classroom exposure to the target language). SAT is rooted on the distinction of declarative, procedural and automatised knowledge. These are developed in three stages (declarative, procedural and automatic) along a gradual long-term process – DECPRO. Such a cognitive sequence stresses the causal role of declarative knowledge in the attainment of procedural knowledge, which is automatised afterwards and allows for fluent language processing and production. SAT as applied to FLT grammar favours the explicit teaching of declarative knowledge (grammar rules) prior to (semi)communicative language practice and it also influences two essential intertwined aspects in the praxis of language teaching: First, activity sequencing, which should comply with DECPRO; second, the nature of the activities suitable to foster the development of each one of such cognitive stages. Moreover, the pedagogical implementation of SAT allows for the revitalisation of the currently reviled grammatical/structural syllabuses. Likewise, it highlights the need for instruction to avoid hindrances to learning provoked by an undesirable mismatch between cognitive phases and the pedagogical action aimed at their activation and development.

KEYWORDS:

• Skill acquisition
• declarative knowledge
• procedural knowledge
• automatised knowledge
• Foreign Language Teaching
• practice

Notes on the contributor

Raquel Criado is Associate Professor in the English Department of the University of Murcia, Spain. Her main research field is Language Teaching, where she focuses on the cognitive processes underlying linguistic learning and the manner in which such processes are reflected in FLT materials, with a view to improving the quality of such materials and optimising students’ learning. She was awarded the 2010 ‘Leocadio Martín Mingorance' English Language and Linguistics Research Prize (15th edition) of the Spanish Association for English and American Studies (AEDEAN). From 2009 to 2015 she was the co-director of the ‘Language Teaching and Syllabus Design' Panel of AESLA (Spanish Association of Applied Linguistics) and the director of the ‘Corpus, Language Acquisition and Teaching' Panel of AELINCO (Spanish Association of Corpus Linguistics). She was also Editorial Assistant of the nationally and internationally indexed journal International Journal of English Studies (IJES) from 2010 until 2013. Currently she is the Principal Investigator of a research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness entitled ‘Design and Validation of a Tool to Categorise Pedagogical Activities in Terms of Explicit and Implicit Teaching Within ELT' (2014–2016).

ORCID

Raquel Criado http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0444-3901

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Research Project Ref. FFI2013-44979-R (‘Design and Validation of a Tool to Categorise Pedagogical Activities in Terms of Explicit and Implicit Teaching Within ELT').