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Cited by 458

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 60 of the 60 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Definition and Measurement of L2 Explicit Knowledge

Ellis, Rod·2004·Language Learning

Abstract

A number of theories of second language (L2) acquisition acknowledge a role for explicit L2 knowledge. However, the testing of these theories remains problematic because of the lack of a widely accepted means for measuring L2 explicit knowledge. This article seeks to address this lacuna by examining L2 explicit knowledge from two perspectives. First, it considers explicit knowledge as a construct. How can explicit knowledge be defined? How does it differ from other constructs such as L2 proficiency and language aptitude? Second, the article considers how L2 explicit knowledge can be measured. It critically reviews some of the ways in which explicit knowledge has been operationalized in second language acquisition research and discusses some of the instruments that have been used to measure L2 explicit knowledge. It concludes with some guidelines for investigating explicit knowledge as analyzed knowledge and as metalanguage.

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Metadata

Authors
Ellis, R.
Venue
Language Learning
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2004-05-10
Volume
54
Issue
2
Pages
227-275
ISSN
  • 0023-8333 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-9922
OpenAlex
W2007453606
Cited by
458
References
60
FWCI
100.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Definition and Measurement of L2 Explicit Knowledge. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2004.00255.x
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Ellis, R. (2004). The Definition and Measurement of L2 Explicit Knowledge. Language Learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2004.00255.x

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.