The Correlation between Explicit Grammatical Knowledge, Implicit Grammatical Knowledge and Reading Comprehension Ability of Senior High School Students

王春艳，谢 娜（.阜阳师范学院附属中学，安徽 阜阳 36000；.阜阳师范学院外国语学院，安徽 阜阳 36000）



The Correlation between Explicit Grammatical Knowledge, Implicit Grammatical Knowledge and Reading Comprehension Ability of Senior High School Students

王春艳1，谢 娜2
（1.阜阳师范学院附属中学，安徽 阜阳 236000；2.阜阳师范学院外国语学院，安徽 阜阳 236000）

Abstract:The role of grammar in language teaching has always been the question that researchers debate. In recent years, grammar knowledge has been distinguished in the foreign language acquisition research, namely the implicit knowledge and the explicit knowledge (Dai Manchun 2005; Gu Qiyi 2005). As to the reaserch of implicit and explicit grammar knowledge as well as their measurement, it is easy to find that many scholars have studied the role of two different kinds of grammar knowledge in second language development. But the research on the role of implicit and explicit grammar knowledge in second language reading comprehension is too few, not to mention the research on the role of implicit and explicit grammar knowledge in English reading comprehension in the senior high school. The purpose of this study is to find the relationship between implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge and English reading comprehension ability of senior high school students. In addition, since the vocabulary is important to reading comprehension, this factor will also be considered in the study.

Key Words:explicit grammatical knowledge; implicit grammatical knowledge; English reading comprehension; senior high school students

作者姓名：王春艳（1983-），女，滁州人，阜阳师范学院附属中学一级教师，硕士。主要研究方向：英语语言文学。谢娜（1976-），女，安徽淮北人，阜阳师范学院外国语学院副教授，硕士。究方向：应用语言学和英语教学论。

The role of grammar in language teaching has always been the question that researchers debate. In language teaching, grammar is necessary, especially for senior high school students. As a result, there have been extensive researches in this field. The purpose of the present study is to understand the implicit grammatical knowledge (IGK) and the explicit grammatical knowledge (EGK) of senior high school students （SHSS）and try to find the relationship between implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge as well as reading comprehension ability (RCA) of senior high school students.

1.Background of the study

As we know, the grammar knowledge is of multiple dimensions, which functions differently in discourse understanding. In recent years, knowledgeof foreign language has been divided into two kinds in foreign language acquisition research, namely implicit knowledge and explicit knowledge (Dai Manchun 2005; Gu Qiyi 2005). Implicit knowledge refers to a kind of language knowledge which has already been internalized, without conscious processing in the use of the foreign language, while explicit knowledge is declarative knowledge, which is often obtained through the special learning of linguistic rules. Therefore, the explicit knowledge is often expressed as the ability to describe language rule system as well as the consciousness for linguistic characteristics (N.Ellis, 2008). People usually think that the obvious feature of implicit knowledge is automatic processing, while the obvious feature of explicit knowledge is controlled processing (R. Ellis 2005; Hulstijn 2005). In a word, foreign language acquisition researchers have basically reached a consensus that the grammar knowledge is distinguished into two different dimensions.

There are also some studies focusing on the relationship between the implicit, explicit grammatical knowledge and reading comprehension ability (Zhang Dongbo, Zhao Shouhui 2011). It is generally considered that there exists significant correlation between implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge and reading comprehension ability. Reaserchers have found the implicit grammatical knowledge contributed greater than the explicit grammatical knowledge to the development of the reading comprehension ability. However, the subjects of their study are 190 graduate students in a certain college of Shanghai, that is to say, they are the advanced learners of English. On the current vision clinics, the research on the role of implicit and explicit grammar in second language reading comprehension is too few, not to mention that on the role of implicit and explicit grammar in English reading comprehension in the senior high school.

2. Instruments

There are four data collection instruments used in the study: one vocabulary test, one implicit grammatical knowledge test, one explicit grammatical knowledge test and one reading test. And after each test, the interview about the test is made.

3. Results

After tests, the achievement of vocabulary, implicit grammatical knowledge as well as explicit grammatical knowledge and reading comprehension was got. What’s more, the author found that there is a correlation between vocabulary and English reading comprehension ability of senior high school students, as well as a correlation between two kinds of grammatical knowledge and reading comprehension ability of senior high school students.

As the vocabulary is controlled as a variable, the partial correlation coefficient between the explicit grammar and reading is 0.259, indicating that there is a weak positive correlation between both. And the examination of the probability of partial correlation coefficient p-value is 0.04, so when the level of significance α is equal to 0.05, p value is less than α. The correlation coefficient of the test can not reject the null hypothesis, that is to say, the explicit grammar and reading is not zero correlation.

Table 1: Correlation between EGK and RCA of SHSS as the Vocabulary Controlled

With the same method, it can be concluded that there is also a correlation between implicit grammatical knowledge and reading comprehension ability of senior high school students, no matter whether the vocabulary is controlled as a variable.

Table 2: Correlation between IGK and RCA of SHSS as the Vocabulary Controlled

After the vocabulary is controlled, it can be drawn from the statistical analysis that the contribution of the implicit grammar to reading comprehension is greater than the contribution of the explicit grammar to reading comprehension. (See Table 1 and 2).

4. Conclusion

The present study aims at revealing the relationship between explicit and implicit grammatical knowledge and reading comprehension ability of senior high school students. The study obtains the following findings:

1) The subjects’ explicit grammatical knowledge is not quite good and need improving, while the achievement of the subjects’ implicit grammatical knowledge is better than their explicit grammatical knowledge, and teachers should make students realize the importance of the implicit grammatical knowledge, that is to say, senior high school students do not have enough explicit grammatical knowledge, but they have more implicit grammatical knowledge than explicit grammatical knowledge.

2) The number of the vocabulary of most senior high school students is enough, or it is safe to say that most of senior high school students havegrasped the fundamental vocabulary, but a few of subjects’ vocabulary needs improving. Performance of reading comprehension ability of senior high school students is good. However, there is a need of the improvement of reading comprehension ability. The subjects’ vocabulary can affect the senior high school students’ reading comprehension. In another word, there is a strong relationship between the vocabulary and reading comprehension ability of senior high school students.

3) Generally speaking, there is a correlation between explicit grammatical knowledge and reading comprehension ability of senior high school students. At the same time, there is a correlation between implicit grammatical knowledge and reading comprehension ability of senior high school students. And it can also be found out that the contribution of the implicit grammar to reading comprehension is greater than the contribution of the explicit grammar to reading comprehension, with the vocabulary controlled.

In a word, according to this study, the author can got the conclusion that grammar teaching or grammar instruction is necessary and important in the senior high school, especially, to the improvement of students’ reading comprehension. In recent years, many people misunderstood that grammar should be weakened; it is not the case in China. For most students will take the NMET (National Matriculation Entrance Test), which will largely decide students’ fate, the NMET is a guiding stick in English teaching and learning in the senior high school. Different kinds of students have different kinds of purposes and tasks when learning English. For the senior high school students, the main task when learning English is to get high marks in the NMET. Also, we all hope that in this process, students can develop their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. But the English teaching in our country has separated the explicit learning from the implicit learning. And people have been debating about them for a long time, that is, which one should be emphasized more. Under the pressure of the NMET, people have long been neglecting students’ implicit learning and preferring the explicit learning while communicative strategies stress the use of language, neglecting the standard of a language, thus causing “illiterate English”.

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收稿日期：2015-12-02

基金项目：阜阳师范学院基础教育研究项目（2014JYXM61）。