Exploring The Effects Of Implicit And Explicit Instruction

For at least the past two decades, the study of implicit and explicit learning has occupied a central place in second language acquisition (SLA) studies, although its precise role in SLA has been a matter of debate. This research has been prompted by rival claims by Krashen (1981, 1982, 1985, 1992) and Schmidt (1990, 1994, 1995, 2001) regarding the facilitative effects of conscious awareness of the form of input during second language acquisition.Compared with the research on the role of implicit approach and explicit approach on second language acquisition in ESL contexts, relatively little research has been conducted in EFL contexts. Therefore, this thesis is an attempt to examine the effects of implicit L2 grammar instruction and explicit L2 grammar instruction in the context of China where English is taught as a foreign language.The subjects involved were 60 first-year non-English majors studying at Chongqing University. They were divided into an Implicit group and an Explicit group, 30 students in each group. Results of t-tests analysis showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups in the overall English proficiency and the prior grammar proficiency. The learning target, the nominative absolute structure, was embedded in the reading task.Learning effects were measured by means of a fill-in-blank test. The subjects took part in the test 3 days and 8 weeks after the treatment respectively: the immediate grammar test and the delayed grammar test. Relevant data was analyzed by using SPSS software package 13.0. A series of t-tests were performed to compare the learning effects of the two groups. Results indicated that explicit rule explanation facilitated English learning. These results confirmed Schmidt's (1990, 1994, 1995, 2001) hypothesis that consciousness at the level of rule awareness is strongly facilitative of subsequent learning, and contradicted with Krashen's (1981, 1982, 1985, 1992) claim that nonconscious learning is superior to conscious learning. The study provides useful insights into our understanding of explicit instruction that is of pedagogical significance to EFL instruction.