key concept: procedural knowledgeon 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, there’s 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.

Not surprisingly, procedural knowledge does not translate automatically into declarative

knowledge – try asking a native speaker to explain why exactly she said “I’ve 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.

Over the past thirty years or so, some of the most heated (but perhaps pointless?)

debate in ELT has centered around the question of whether teachers can help students

proceduralize declarative knowledge - in other words, move from knowing that to

knowing how.

Some people (like Krashen) claim that declarative and procedural knowledge are two

separate entities, while others believe that declarative knowledge can be

proceduralized through practice. There’s a third group that argues that it’s 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.

By the way, click here for another post on declarative knowledge vs procedural

knowledge.

Click here for my contribution on Scott Thornbury’s wonderful A-Z blog.

Thanks for reading.

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