There are two parts of your memory that apply to learning: Declarative model and the Procedural model. There have been theories of how both types of models are segmented when it comes to learning a language.
What is declarative knowledge?
Declarative memory typically refers to facts. As it applies to language, declarative memory refers to the memorization of things like the definition of a word, the translation of a word, how to spell a word. Other examples would be memorizing countries, state capitals, phone numbers, etc.
What is procedural knowledge?
Procedural memory typically refers to a process or how to perform a cognitive activity. Take riding a bike or driving a car, for example. You remember how to ride a bike or how to use stick-shift as part of your procedural knowledge. As it pertains to knowledge, grammatical rules are often considered process through the procedural system. In 1997, a paper was published that supported empirical evidence this this was the case.
This article highlights two different types of capacities: One is a "mental lexicon" which contains your memorized words. The other is "mental grammar" which refers to how we combine words to form larger words, and/or phrases and sentences. The article further correlates how these types of memory capacities influence certain types of diseases. For example, Alzheimer's Disease causes impairments of learning new words and remembering previously learned words, facts and events. However, grammar was largely unaffected. Those who suffered from Alzheimers also had more trouble converting irregular verbs to past tense forms (dig/dug) vs regular (look/looked) or novel (plag, plagged) verbs.
The memory study further concluded that Parkinson's Disease had the opposite effects with declarative and procedural memories deficiencies. The impairment lies within the procedural knowledge, showing increased grammatical difficulties. The point is that procedural and declarative knowledge are different systems and both can be used for language learning.
Language learning with your declarative system
A system like our language learning system can help with your "mental lexicon" and fuel your declarative memory, an important part of learning a new language. What is important to remember is that becoming bilingual will require both parts, and that the language learning machine can only help with part of your learning experience. Re-enforcing what you learn with grammar rules and language immersion can complete your language experience. Our language learning machine can help make the transition from language immersion a little less stressful since you'll be one step ahead.
