Research On Implicit Knowledge In College Intensive English Teaching

In the recent years, more and more researches have been conducted into the investigation on knowledge, especially on the explicit and implicit knowledge. Researches focus on the following three dimensions. Firstly, researchers both at home and abroad have disputes over the relationship between explicit and implicit knowledge, which leads to the following four viewpoints: none interface, strong interface, weak interface, as well as the SECI interface. Secondly, previous researches have suggested implicit knowledge facilitates the improvement of foreign language learners’ langue proficiency based on the exploration of relationship between explicit knowledge and foreign language proficiency and relationship between implicit knowledge and foreign language proficiency. Thirdly, studies on implicit knowledge, which are outnumbered by researches on explicit knowledge, concentrate on the definition, characteristics, classifications, and the teaching enlightenments of implicit knowledge. Moreover, all the investigations on implicit knowledge are qualitative, and no research has been carried out from the perspective of language teaching. Therefore, this thesis adopts quantitative research method in order to investigate the relationship between teaching methodologies and implicit knowledge from the perspective of teaching methodologies, which is a new viewpoint.The thesis mainly relates to two language-teaching methods: Grammar-Translation Method and Multi-modal Teaching Method, and an experimental teaching is conducted with 67 sophomores of English majors from a university in Xi’an as the participants. The research results show that:(1) Grammar-Translation Method and Multi-modal Teaching Method are both effective in promoting learners’ implicit knowledge;(2) Compared with Grammar-Translation Method, Multi-modal Teaching Method is more advantageous in strengthening the acquisition of implicit knowledge;(3) There is a positive correlation between implicit knowledge and language proficiency.The text is divided into six parts. The first part is introduction part, which includes research background, research purpose and significance, and the general structure of the thesis.The second part covers the literature from domestic viewpoint as well as overseas viewpoint, including definition of implicit knowledge, classifications of implicit knowledge, characteristics of implicit knowledge, the measurement of implicit knowledge, relationship between implicit and explicit knowledge, relationship between implicit knowledge and teaching methodology, relationship between implicit knowledge and language proficiency, and definitions of some relevant concepts.The third part illustrates two theoretical bases:(1) David P. Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory and(2) Lev Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development.The fourth part elaborates on the research questions, subjects, research instruments, detailed procedures of the experimental study, research methodology, experimental teaching design, and traditional reaching design.The fifth part is the discussion and analysis of the research results on the base of data collection. Moreover, it puts forward some proposals for English teaching.The last part makes a brief conclusion of the paper, and points out deficiencies and defects of the present study. At last, this research is expected to provide inspiration and enlightenment for the future follow-up studies.