Explicit grammar rules and L2 acquisition

Abstract

This article reports an empirical study that examines to what extent learners can identify and understand the grammatical structures they produce when they speak spontaneously. In the study, 20 upper-intermediate Polish learners of English were interviewed in English by the researchers. The structures used accurately by each learner were isolated and each of the participants was then administered a separate test. The task in the test was first to identify correct sentences and then to provide relevant grammar rules. The results show that in most cases, the learners were able to identify and explain the grammar rules that accounted for their own accurate L2 performance. In terms of second language acquisition (SLA) theory, this means that there were few grammatical structures or categories that the learners knew only implicitly. For teachers, the study indicates that explicit grammar rules can, in an indirect way, contribute to SLA.

Explicit Knowledge and Processes From a Usage‐Based Perspective: The Developmental Trajectory of an Instructed L2 Learner

“…The present findings support the argument that the participant, an instructed adult, made use of explicit knowledge and processes in his L2 learning and performance. This in itself is relatively uncontroversial, given that there is empirical support available for a role of explicit learning in (adult) SLA (R. Ellis, ; Hu, ; Macaro & Masterman, ; Norris & Ortega, ; Scheffler & Cinciała, ; Spada & Tomita, ). Nevertheless, the contribution is unique insofar as empirical evidence of explicit processes in action is rarely presented in instructed SLA studies, as in the present case, and conceptual integration into a usage‐based framework seems to be as yet entirely absent in the field.…”

“…In view of these characteristics, it is unsurprising that explicit knowledge and learning have received much attention in instructed SLA research. It has been demonstrated that explicit knowledge about the L2 can be taught to and learned by cognitively mature learners (e.g., Hu, ; Macaro & Masterman, ; Scheffler & Cinciała, ), as one would expect. Moreover, research has shown that explicit knowledge is correlated with aspects of L2 proficiency.…”

Metacognitive awareness of skilled and less-skilled EFL writers

“…Although skilled writers showed much higher procedural awareness, one cannot deny the fact that strategy has a capability of becoming implicit and automatized to that extent that it could be hardly ever accessible to skillful writers' consciousness (DeKeyser 2003;Scheffler and Cinciała 2010). Moreover, no agreements have been reached in term of the degree of consciousness involved in metacognitive knowledge and strategy (Cary and Reder 2002).…”

Factors of Success and Failure in Second Language Learning

“…Learning L2 at an early age through the naturalistic approach facilitated the formation of implicit grammatical knowledge (Ellis, 2009) and native-like pronunciation (RogersonRevell, 2011). The implicit knowledge which is intuitive and automatic (Scheffler & Cinciata, 2010) is the rationale why Fatimah could maintain the accuracy of her grammar use in the interview. Furthermore, Fatimah stated that her motivation was a factor that pushed her to learn the language harder.…”