Grammar Instruction From The Perspective Of Implicit And Explicit Learning Theory

Grammar-translation method dominates the grammar teaching in China for a long time. It overly emphasizes the explicit explanation of rules and rule transformation at the expense of learner's grammar perception and grammar use in context. That is the reason for inconsistency in grammar competence and grammar knowledge, which hinders the development of leaner's communicative competence. With the development of Second Language Acquisition and teaching reform, researchers and teachers have consensus on that teaching grammar form contributes to language acquisition. Achard (2008) claimed that the current problem in grammar teaching is not whether it should be taught or not, but how it is taught. The hot debated topic centers on whether grammar should be instructed implicitly or explicitly. Studies in Cognitive Psychology and the Second Language Acquisition indicate that communicative teaching focuses on the implicit teaching of grammar communicative functions through tasks. Though this method excels in developing language performance, it can not address the accuracy of grammar to full extent. Explicit teaching is better to impart systematic grammar knowledge than implicit teaching, and the combination of the two methods produces the best result. The question is how implicit teaching and explicit teaching can be integrated in grammar teaching to develop learner's grammar knowledge and grammar competence.This thesis analyzes the implicit and explicit grammar teaching by the implicit learning and explicit learning theory in cognitive psychology and the second language acquisition, tries to address the problem of grammar teaching in college English by a case study of absolute construction via implicit-explicit-implicit teaching and explicit-explicit-implicit teaching, and then discusses the teaching effect of different sequences on the college students'intake of complex and simple English grammar.The research question is how to integrate effectively the explicit and implicit grammar instruction in order to facilitate the transformation from explicit grammar knowledge to implicit grammar knowledge and improve learners'grammar competence. The question is specified into two in this experiment:1) Which is more effective in teaching absolute construction, implicit-explicit-implicit task teaching or explicit-explicit-implicit task teaching?2) Which is more effective in teaching grammar rules of absolute construction in different degrees of grammar complexity?This thesis first introduces the research background, questions, instrument and significance, then reviews the implicit and explicit learning theory, implicit teaching and explicit teaching in grammar teaching. Next it presents and discusses the experimental study to explore how the two methods are integrated in absolute construction teaching for reference to college English grammar teaching, and then does some analysis on the results. The study adopts an experimental design combined with observation and interview. The subjects were 62 first grade non-English majors from 2 intact classes. They were randomly assigned to 2 experimental groups for one month experiment of absolute construction teaching, 20 minutes every week. The experimental group received implicit-explicit-implicit task teaching, and the control group received explicit-explicit-implicit teaching. Data were collected from the paper tests of absolute construction before and after the experiment.The result of the experiment reveals that 1) there is no significant difference in learning effect between experimental group and control group, though the scores the experimental group got is higher than the control group; 2) experimental group performed better than control group in using the simply absolute construction yet not significantly different and there is no difference in learning complex absolute construction in two groups; 3) experimental group were more active and prompt in producing structures of absolute construction.