ABSTRACT
Implicit knowledge is knowledge that we do not know that we know (Dienes, 2008). Much of our first language linguistic knowledge is represented in implicit form, at least in areas of morphology and syntax, and possibly aspects of word meaning as well. Implicit knowledge supports automatic behavior in the sense that it acts quickly and without conscious control, and it is these characteristics that make the acquisition of implicit knowledge desirable from the second language learner’s perspective. And for the researcher it is clearly important to be able to assess whether a learner is employing implicit knowledge to perform a task since this is regarded as the product of true ‘acquisition’ as opposed to mere conscious learning (Krashen, 1981). Without reliable measures of implicit knowledge, therefore, it is not possible to develop a theory of second language acquisition (Ellis, 2005).
