Exploring second language acquisition

Abstract

This paper discusses the role of implicit and explicit knowledge in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Through Action Research (AR) across a three-year period, involving 160 native English-speaking adult participants from Australia, with little to no exposure to second/foreign language learning, this research explores how language students draw on their explicit and implicit knowledge of their native language to inform their sense-making of a second language. This research finds that students utilise their explicit/implicit knowledge of their native language as a framework to make sense of the target language, in this case, Portuguese. It further finds that students with poor explicit knowledge in their native language have difficulty grasping explicit instruction in the target language.