THE EFFECTS OF IMPLICIT INSTRUCTION ON IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT

• Published in: Studies in second language acquisition Vol. 38; no. 2; pp. 177 - 215
• Main Author: Godfroid, Aline
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.06.2016; CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Subjects: College Students; Direct Instruction; German; German as a second language instruction; German as a second language learning; German language; Grammar; Incidental Learning; Interviews; Knowledge; Knowledge Level; Language acquisition; Language Processing; Learning outcomes; Learning Processes; Linguistic Input; Memory; Michigan; Morphology (Languages); Oral Language; Pretests Posttests; Prior Learning; Salience; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Student Attitudes; Studies; Task Analysis; Teaching Methods; Verbs; Vowels; Michigan; United States > US
• ISSN: 0272-2631; 1470-1545
• DOI: 10.1017/S0272263115000388

This study extends the evidence for implicit second language (L2) learning, which comes largely from (semi-)artificial language research, to German. Upper-intermediate L2 German learners were flooded with spoken exemplars of a difficult morphological structure, namely strong, vowel-changing verbs. Toward the end of exposure, the mandatory vowel change was omitted, yielding ungrammatical verb forms (compare Leung & Williams, 2012). Two pre- and posttests—word monitoring and controlled oral production—gauged the development of learners’ implicit and explicit knowledge, respectively. Interviews revealed 33 out of 38 L2 learners remained unaware of the ungrammatical verbs in the input flood; however, they showed significant sensitivity during listening as evidenced by a reaction time slowdown on ungrammatical trials. The unaware learners also improved significantly from pretest to posttest on the word-monitoring task, but not the oral production measure, unless the verbs’ salience in the input flood had resonated with them. Thus, implicit instruction affected implicit knowledge primarily, although prior knowledge and memory could potentially account for interactions between implicit processing, implicit knowledge, and explicit knowledge.