Explicit Teaching in Japanese High Schools: What does SLA research indicate and what might a native teacher perceive?

Paul McBride

Tamagawa Upper Secondary Division (High School) Educational Research Journal

160-167

Most second language acquisition (SLA) researchers agree that becoming competent in a second language (L2) is primarily due to having implicit knowledge. Yet, most Japanese teachers predominantly choose explicit teaching techniques. Further, there is a body of SLA research which suggests that explicit and implicit knowledge are completely separate so that explicit knowledge cannot be converted into implicit knowledge. A native teacher of English (NTE) in Japan whose views about teaching and learning have been shaped by this body of research may find the situation paradoxical. Both the SLA research and their experiences in education prior to coming to Japan may cause them to question the efficacy of explicit teaching. 

In spite of this, SLA research does support explicit teaching techniques. There is an emerging view among SLA researchers that explicit knowledge can convert into implicit knowledge if the learner is ready to acquire the targeted feature.