A Correlation Study Of Explicit/Implicit Grammar Knowledge And Listening Comprehension Proficiency

Explicit and implicit knowledge is an inter-disciplinary study focusing on applied linguistics and psycholinguistics in second language acquisition. The concept of implicit learning was firstly proposed by A. S. Reber(1976) in the 1960 s. Since that, experts and researchers have conducted many studies and experiments. A large part of them concerns explicit/implicit knowledge, interrelation problems, the relationship between two types of grammar knowledge and various other parts of English proficiency. However, it is found that the research on the relationship between explicit/implicit grammar knowledge and English listening comprehension proficiency is insufficient. The empirical studies on improving students’ listening comprehension proficiency in terms of explicit and implicit grammar knowledge need be further strengthened.The present study is intended to find out the relationship between explicit/implicit grammar knowledge and listening comprehension proficiency of Chinese non-English majors. The study tries to address three questions:1. What are the explicit/implicit grammar knowledge achievements and listening comprehension proficiency of non-English majors?2. What’s the relationship between non-English majors’ explicit/implicit grammar knowledge and their listening comprehension proficiency?3. If certain correlation exits, is there any difference between high and low level group on the influence from explicit and implicit grammar knowledge?One hundred and forty non-English major sophomores in China University of Petroleum(East China) are taken as the examinees in this empirical research and three kinds of tests are taken: untimed metalinguistic knowledge test to examine explicit grammar knowledge, timed grammaticality judgment test to test implicit grammar knowledge and CET-4 listening comprehension stimulated test to test listening comprehension proficiency. The data are analyzed by SPSS 18.0. Major findings are as follows.1. The learning situation of subjects’ explicit and implicit grammar knowledge is not optimistic. Some grammar points need strengthening and difficult grammar points need in-depth explanation. Students perform excellently in listening comprehension under massive CET-4 listening exercises.2. Both explicit and implicit grammar knowledge contributes strongly to listening comprehension. Comparatively speaking, subjects’ explicit knowledge has a stronger correlation with listening comprehension proficiency.3. High level group’s listening comprehension proficiency is closely associated with explicit grammar knowledge. Explicit and implicit grammar knowledge both contributes greatly to low level group’s listening comprehension proficiency, and implicit grammar knowledge contributes more significantly.The findings of the present study will not only provide empirical support for the correlation studies between explicit/implicit grammar knowledge and listening comprehension proficiency but also have practical meanings on non-English majors’ grammar and listening teaching.