Explicit learning: The learners conscious and deliberate attempt to master some

material or solve a problem. This is the learning type emphasized by most school
instruction.
Implicit learning: Acquiring skills and knowledge without conscious awareness, that is,
automatically and with no conscious attempt to learn them.
Dilemma: While most academic learning is heavily based on explicit
learning, the main language learning model for humans the mastery
of our mother tongue predominantly involves implicit processes
without any explicit teaching: children acquire the complex system of
their L1 through engaging in natural and meaningful communication
with their parents and other caretakers. Thus, if the implicit L1
acquisition process is a universally shared experience, isnt it the
obvious conclusion that we ought to model any subsequent L2 learning
enterprise after this?
Problem: Implicit learning, which does such a great job in generating
native-speaking L1 proficiency in infants, does not seem to work
efficiently when we want to master an L2 at a later stage in our lives.
In consequence, the ineffectiveness of implicit learning mechanisms
makes it necessary for us to draw on the additional resources of
various explicit learning procedures.
Conclusion: The real challenge of modern language instruction is find ways to maximise
the cooperation of explicit and implicit learning
Three key issues lie at the heart of the most forward-pointing discussions about the
explicit-implicit cooperation in the literature: (a) focus on form and form-focused
instruction; (b) fluency and automatization; and (c) formulaic language

Focus on form (FonF) and form-focused instruction (FFI)

-FonF and FFI indicate a concern with the structural system of
language from a communicative perspective. In other words, they

represent a halfway position between a concern for communicative

meaning and the linguistic features of the language code, calling for a
primarily meaning-focused instruction in which some degree of
attention is paid to form.
-Thus FonF/FFI refer to a new type of grammar instruction embedded
within a communicative approach. According to Rod Ellis (2008), the
main types include:
+ Input-based options (e.g. input flooding)
+Explicit options (e.g. inductive instruction)
+Production options (e.g. inducing learners to produce utterances
containing the target
structure)
+Corrective feedback (e.g. recasts or explicit correction

SOME PROBLEMs WITH COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

The communicative reform was centred around the radical renewal of
the linguistic course content i.e. communicative competence
without any systematic psychological conception of learning to
accompany it. Thus, communicative syllabuses were informed by a
number of elaborate theories, e.g.:
-Austin and Searles speech act theory,
-Hymes model of communicative competence and its application to L2
proficiency by Canale and Swain (1980; Canale, 1983),
- Hallidays systemic functional grammar.
In contrast, the only learning-specific principle that was available for
CLT practitioners was the broad tenet of learning through doing,
referring to the assumption that the learners communicative
competence develops automatically through their active participation
in seeking situational meaning, that is, their engaging in
meaningful communicative tasks.

Thus, it is fair to conclude that CLT did not properly address the
psychology of learning.
Partly because of the vagueness of the seeking situational meaning
tenet, the varieties of CLT practised around the world are rather
diverse and are often contradictory to each other (e.g. with respect to
teaching grammar). There is no single text or authority on it, nor
any single model that is universally accepted as authoritative
(Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p. 155)
SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF THE NEW PRINCIPLED COMMUNICATIVE
APPROACH
1. The personal significance principle: PCA should be meaning-focused and personally
significant. This has been the basic tenet of student centred, communicative language
teaching and we believe that this principle is just as valid now as when it was first
formulated.
2. The controlled practice principle: While the overall aim of communicative language
learning is to prepare the learners for meaningful communication, skill learning theory
suggests that PCA should also include controlled practice activities to promote the
automatization of L2 skills.
3. The declarative input principle: To facilitate automatization, PCA should involve
explicit initial input components that are then proceduralised through practice. This
declarative input can be offered in many ways, including the potential utilisation of
accelerated learning techniques and even rote learning.
4. The focus on form principle: While maintaining an overall meaning-oriented
approach, PCA should also pay attention to the formal/structural aspects of the L2 that
determine accuracy and appropriateness at the linguistic, discourse and pragmatic levels.
5. The formulaic language principle: PCA should include the teaching of formulaic
language as a featured component. There should be sufficient awareness raising of the
significance and the pervasiveness of formulaic language in real-life communication, and
selected phrases should be practiced and recycled intensely.
6. The language exposure principle: PCA should offer learners extensive exposure to
large amounts of L2 input that can feed the learners implicit learning mechanisms. In
order to make the most of this exposure, learners should be given some explicit
preparation in terms of pre-task activities, to prime them for maximum intake.
7. The focused interaction principle: PCA should offer learners ample opportunities to
participate in genuine L2 interaction. For best effect, such communicative practice should
always have a specific formal or functional focus, and should always be associated with

target phrases to practice.