Implicit knowledge
Implicit knowledge is automatic and easily accessed and provides a great contribution
to building communicative skills. Implicit knowledge is unconscious, internalized
knowledge of language that is easily accessed during spontaneous language tasks,
written or spoken (Brown, 2000). Implicit knowledge is gained in the natural
language learning process. It means that a person applies a certain grammatical rule in
the same way as a child who acquires her/his first language (for example, mother
tongue). According to Brown (2000), the child implicitly learns aspects of language
(for example, phonological, syntactical, semantic, pragmatic rules for language), but
does not have access to an explanation of those rules explicitly. As an example, Jack
speaks and writes English with good use of present tense, although he has no idea
about the grammatical rule behind it. To sum up, implicit knowledge is gained through a sub-conscious learning process. This is illustrated by the fact that native
speakers of a certain language do not always “know” (consciously) the rules of their
language (Krashen, 1987).