The effects of implicit and explicit instruction on simple and complex grammatical structures for adult English language learners.

摘要

The problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of implicit and explicit instruction of simple and complex grammar structures for adult English language learners.;Method. An empirical study was conducted. Seventy students enrolled in a private, secondary school, in grades seven through twelve and at three proficiency levels, were taught grammar lessons over two different rules using two different methods. They were administered three tests: a pre-test, a post-test and a delayed-post-test over the grammar forms. The dependent variable was correct items from the tests. Chi-square was used to find if there was a significant difference between the two treatments at the .05 level of confidence.;Results. For the first question, which asked the overall learning of the forms, the findings significantly supported the explicit approach over the implicit approach on the post-test and the delayed-post-tests. The second question, which asked specifically about the complex rule overall, again the findings supported the explicit approach over the implicit approach on both tests. Furthermore, at the beginner proficiency level, for the complex rule, the findings significantly supported the explicit approach over the implicit on both tests, and at the advanced level, for the complex rule, the findings significantly supported the explicit approach on the post-test. There was no significant difference between the treatments at the intermediate level for the complex rule. The third question, which asked about the simple rule, the findings were that there was no significant difference between the treatments overall or at any proficiency level on either test.;The results supported the premise that teaching does make a significant difference in learning, that explicit instruction is significantly better than implicit for the complex rule, that both methods are equally effective for the simple rule, and that structures do not have to match proficiency levels or be sequenced by complexity for significant learning to take place.