خلاصة:
Considering the future of the application of a dual explicit-implicit learning system to the L2 theory and research, Ellis (2006) argues that further investigation of the distinction is useful for modeling, understanding, and measuring second language proficiency. This study explored the differential accessibility of EFL learners' explicit and implicit grammatical knowledge to their language proficiency. The participants were 160 EFL graduate and undergraduate students at Shahrekord University (Iran). A test battery including a timed grammaticality judgment test (GJT), an untimed GJT, and a TOEFL was used to gather the data. A set of correlation coefficients was computed to explore the contributions of implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge to the TOEFL and its sub-components. The results showed that there was no statistically significant correlation between the EFL learners' implicit grammatical knowledge and their TOEFL (sub-components) scores, but there was a strong relationship between the EFL learners' explicit grammatical knowledge and their general proficiency. A medium relationship also existed between the explicit knowledge and the TOEFL sub-components. Then, a Standard Multiple Regression demonstrated that explicit knowledge better predicted the EFL learners' general L2 proficiency. The results suggest that learning explicit grammatical knowledge is necessary in EFL contexts and needs much more consideration when the primary focus is on the cognitive academic language proficiency or skills.
ملخص الجهاز:
"This study was an attempt to discern whether Iranian EFL students' implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge accounts differentially for the development of the learners' language proficiency and their performance on different sub-components of a measure of general language proficiency.
Although these studies seem to offer clear grounds to assume that grammar is an important component of any model of L2 proficiency and that the implicit/explicit distinction is equally important for understanding the nature of proficiency and the ability to measure it, it still needs further investigation why different measures of proficiency engage different types of grammatical knowledge or involve differential amounts of these types of knowledge (Elder & Ellis).
Further research is thus needed to explore this issue in different ESL/EFL contexts using different measures of implicit and explicit knowledge as well as different measures of L2 general proficiency also including a variety of learner factors such as starting age of instruction, length of instruction, length of years in an English-speaking country, type of instruction, and L2 use.
The Study As noted earlier, the present study focused on the differential accessibility of implicit and explicit L2 grammatical knowledge of EFL learners to their general language performance and the sub-components of their general L2 proficiency.
Therefore, TOEFL, despite its renewed design and form, is still generally envisioned to tap primarily into the cognitive academic language proficiency and in turn encourage the use of explicit knowledge (Elder & Ellis, 2009)."