Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages

by Nick C. Ellis (Editor)

The distinction between implicit and explicit learning is currently a major theme within cognitive psychology, particularly in relation to learning and memory. Reasoning that no single discipline is responsible for the learning process, the editor employs a cognitive approach to combine contributions from specialists in disciplines such as psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and computing. The book presents a general study of how learning takes place and applies this knowledge. Learning can take place implicitly, with explicit problem-solving skills, or as a result of explicit instruction, specifically to how these various processes affect and influence language acquisition.

Key Features
* Concerns human learning generally and the ability to acquire languages in particular, bringing together the disciplines of psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and computing
* Examines one type of learning
* 3/4 language acquisition
* 3/4 drawing together some of the principal scientists and ideas in the area

Genres: Education, Language

599 pages, Hardcover

Published February 6, 1995

About the author

Nick Ellis is Professor of Psychology at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research interests address a range of issues in applied psycholinguistics. He has published broadly in the areas of first and second language acquisition; implicit and explicit learning; dyslexia; vocabulary acquisition; the role of working memory; and computational modeling. He was the editor of Language Learning from 1998-2002. Consideration of usage-based and connectionist models of language and their insights for second language learning have been important themes in his research for the past several years. His most recent work focuses on frequency effects and their possible implications for second language acquisition.