Explicit Grammar Instruction and Development of Implicit Knowledge

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of explicit L2 knowledge obtained through explicit grammar instruction to development of implicit L2 knowledge. Forty-five Korean-speaking adult learners of English participated in the study and were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental groups, who received (1) explicit grammar instruction plus incidental L2 exposure (EI) or (2) incidental L2 exposure only (I), or one control group, who did not receive any instruction. Learning was assessed by an untimed grammaticality judgment task (UGJT), a primary measure for explicit knowledge, and an oral elicited imitation task (OEIT), a primary measure for implicit knowledge. The analyses found that the EI group showed superior performance on the UGJT as well as OEIT whereas no superior performance was found from the I group. Therefore, this result suggests that the outcome of explicit grammar instruction positively affect development of implicit L2 knowledge, and the incidental L2 exposure alone does not offer a sufficient condition to develop implicit knowledge.