An Investigation On Non-english Majors’ Explicit And Implicit Linguistic Knowledge And Their Correlations

From the past thirty years, the study of explicit linguistic knowledge (ELK) andimplicit linguistic knowledge (ILK) has become the hot topic in SLA. Despite theoutcomes of the studies, there are still some controversies between ELK and ILK. AsEllis claimed,“The question of whether the two types of knowledge are to be seen asdichotomous or continuous is a matter of controversy. While there was controversyregarding the interface of explicit and implicit knowledge at the level of learning.”(2009b,16) Besides, there is still controversy in the separateness of the representationof the two types of knowledge and whether the processes of implicit and explicitlearning are similar and different.Regarding the above controversies, the aims of the present paper are as follows.Firstly, the composite states of the ELK and ILK of Chinese Non-English majors aremeasured by using R. Ellis’s Untimed Grammaticality Judgment Test (UTGJT) andTimed Grammaticality Judgment Test (TGJT). Secondly, after investigating thecomposition of their ELK and ILK, the correlation between them are analyzed bySpearman Rank Correlation Analysis.In terms of research methodology, there were248Non-English majorsparticipating in the study. They were selected from five classes in one medium-levelChinese science and engineering college. TGJT was used for testing the learners’ ILKand UTGJT was for ELK. After the tests, the scores of the tests were analyzed to seehow well they mastered the grammatical structures. Then correlation between thelearner ILK and ELK was analyzed by Spearman Rank Correlation Analysis. In theend, the correlation between the scores of the same grammatical structures in TGJTand UTGJT was evaluated to see whether there was relation between them and howthey were correlated respectively.The findings of the study were as follows. Firstly, in general, the learners gothigher accuracy percentage in UTGJT than that in TGJT, which meant that they weremore competent in ELK than ILK. Secondly, as for ELK, learners did better in somegrammatical points than other structures. This was also true in ILK. Thirdly, learners’ELK and ILK were in positive correlation. Fourthly, by comparing the accuracypercentage of the ELK and ILK of each grammatical structure, some were in positivecorelation, and some in negative correlation.This study could give some implications to teachers and Non-English majors. From the analysis of the scores of the tests, the teachers could know how wellNon-English majors mastered the grammatical structures. Then, they could adjusttheir teaching methods. In the same way, by knowing the composition of their ELKand ILK, Non-English majors could choose more efficient methods to study English.