In this section, we have explored different learning processes:

Skill development involves gradually automatizing either declarative knowledge provided through explicit learning or knowledge acquired through implicit induction ('picking things up'). We automatize through practice. However, in the course of acquiring and perfecting a complex skill, we need to restructure our knowledge to take in new elements we may have missed, and to be able to extend our skill to different contexts. We seem to need some kind of feedback - explicit or implicit - to trigger this restructuring process.

Concept development can be either explicit or implicit; we can be taught concepts, which we then use deductively, or we can induce concepts from our experience. Knowledge which is implicit has the advantage of being speedy to use, but may be difficult to review and modify, while explicit knowledge can provide information that is important for accurate performance, but may be too cumbersome to use easily and effortlessly.

Child language acquisition appears extraordinary in that it does not involve a strong explicit ('taught') element: in other words, development of the complex concepts of the language system seems to happen almost entirely through implicit induction. Furthermore, children are able to successfully automatize this knowledge without relying on extensive explicit feedback. One explanation for the rapidity and effortlessness of first language acquisition is that children are helped by a mental template for grammar (a Universal Grammar), which adults seem not to be able to access with such ease. It may be that there is a critical period for effortless language acquisition.

As we have indicated in our discussion, it seems likely that second language acquisition involves aspects of all these types of 'learning'. We will now turn to examine how these different theories of learning have influenced practical approaches to teaching second languages.