I think both knowledge and skills are required for foreign language learners. Some may say that knowledge is not needed as a child speaks fluently though he has not learnt any vocabulary or grammatical rules. I can debate here that a child learn grammar and vocabulary informally from the people surrounding him. He does't go to school but he intensively learn vocabulary in his contact with family and neighbors. For a second language learner, he has a short time at his classroom to acquire his foreign language, so he should learn both knowledge and skills and teachers should spend their efforts in integrating knowledge and skills in their teaching as focusing on knowledge only will lead to a learner who can not speak while focusing on skills only will make a students frustrated as he lacks knowledge that fuel him to speak. So teachers of foreign language should think about how to move from knowledge to skills in their teaching and make sure that students can use knowledge they have learnt in their communication.

following answers

Skill and Knowledge are not necessary opposites.

If I had to answer your question very briefly:

No, you don't need knowledge to have very good language skills. The best example is the L1. A child with 6 years already speaks his first language relatively fluently and well, without having learned any linguistic knowledge like grammatical points, vocabulary, idioms.

Some explanations:

I think or I am even quite sure that the knowledge of a language does not automatically lead to better language skills. You can compare that with a professor at a university. He may have the necessary knowledge, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he can pass his knowledge on to the students in the best possible way. To do this, he needs certain didactic skills such as a sensitivity to whether the students can keep up with the content, etc.

Conversely, however, a didactically very competent professor must still have the specialist knowledge. Both sides complement each other.

However, it is difficult to apply the whole principle directly to language acquisition because, in addition to knowledge and skills, there are many other factors that influence second language acquisition and language competence, such as L1, L3, or motivational factors such as language prestige.

Best regards

MFT

With your first question "How can teachers move from skill to knowledge in practice?" did you ment "How can teachers move from knowledge to skill in practice?"

I think both knowledge and skills are required for foreign language learners. Some may say that knowledge is not needed as a child speaks fluently though he has not learnt any vocabulary or grammatical rules. I can debate here that a child learn grammar and vocabulary informally from the people surrounding him. He does't go to school but he intensively learn vocabulary in his contact with family and neighbors. For a second language learner, he has a short time at his classroom to acquire his foreign language, so he should learn both knowledge and skills and teachers should spend their efforts in integrating knowledge and skills in their teaching as focusing on knowledge only will lead to a learner who can not speak while focusing on skills only will make a students frustrated as he lacks knowledge that fuel him to speak. So teachers of foreign language should think about how to move from knowledge to skills in their teaching and make sure that students can use knowledge they have learnt in their communication.

Mehmet Fatih Tankir Thanks for your informative answer. Please accept my apologies for the lack of clarity in my first explanations. I meant that if we begin the process of language teaching by providing the knowledge of a language in the first step with the expectation of gaining the needed skill in the second step, we possibly would not reach to the skill. In fact, I raised the whole question to ask about the practical ways in which we can start the process of language teaching from the skill in the first step to reach to the needed knowledge in the second step. Metaphorically speaking, in my opinion, if we take the initiative from the knowledge side of the bridge, it would be collapsed in half and we would not reach to the skill side. Therefore, in my opinion, it might be better to begin this complex process from another side of the bridge that is the skill.

Dennis Mazur Thanks for your participation in my discussion. It seems that I was not clear enough and please accept my apologies. I did not intend to compare the knowledge and the skill. I wanted to say that despite the fact that they both complete one another, beginning the process of language teaching from the skill side might have better results than doing so from the knowledge side.

Sabri T. S. Ahmed Thanks for your participation in my discussion and your nice answer. In my opinion, the authors of the mentioned book intended to mention that teaching the knowledge of a language with the aim of reaching to the skill in the second step is not a successful path. Therefore, it seems that it might be better to change the initiation point to the skill side.

Mohammad Naghavian , Absolutely they are right in the point that teaching the knowledge of a language with the aim of reaching to the skill in the second step is not a successful path. I believe that Both knowledge and skills should be integrated in language teaching from the first step. I am totally against those who teach only knowledge and blindly believe that they will enable students to speak. In the same way, those teachers who think that they can teach a foreign language in the same way a child learns his mother language should think about the time required for exposing learners to language, the limitations of classroom and that classroom is in fact a formal place and can't provide such an environment that helps children to acquire their native languages. In his contact with people around him, a child acquire knowledge such as vocabulary and grammar unconsciously even if it is not taught formally to him BUT in classroom such knowledge may not be easy to acquire in a short time in classroom that lacks the reality of the environment that obliges a child to contact and learn.

In my opinion, both knowledge and skill are complementary rather than exclusive.

The point is which one we start with? Which knowledge the author talks about: the learned knowledge or the acquired knowledge?

Sabri T. S. Ahmed Then another question pops up: is it possible to integrate the knowledge and the skill in the first step? If yes, how? Another question to be asked is about the lack of the presence of a real environment in language classrooms. Don't you think that it is foreign language teachers' responsibility to design a task that is close to a real one?

Dawood Mahdi Thanks for your participation. Currently, I do not know the answer of your good question about the nature of the knowledge the author talks about. I have to read more of that.

I believe that the babies have an innate ability to acquire knowledge and skills simultaneously.

I feel strongly that both knowledge in English and the subject besides skill is needed for any L2 learners.I mean Knowledge of vocabulary, structure and grammar is essential besides the fluency and the boldness to face the audience, are essential

I think knowledge is something theoretical while skills are practical.