How to assess students’ explicit and implicit knowledge

韩森宇

【Abstract】Evidences suggest that language aptitude is involved in the development of explicit as well as implicit knowledge. Tests of implicit knowledge ask students to rely on feel or intuition， rather than on linguistic knowledge. Based on previous researches， this paper is to explore ways to assess students implicit knowledge， and which aspects should be improved in the existing grammar tests.

【Key words】explicit knowledge； implicit knowledge； oral imitation test

Introduction

There are some disadvantages of the existing ‘pencil and paper tests. In multiple choices questions， for example， the reliability should be doubted if the correct answer is too obvious， or if students can easily eliminate other choices. Secondly， such tests tend to test students declarative knowledge shortly， students may choose the answer according to their conscious awareness of linguistic norms within enough time. Thus new types of tests are needed.

Explicit and implicit knowledge

Explicit knowledge is ‘conscious， declarative， anomalous， and inconsistent （R.Ellis， 2008）， and explicit memory depends on conscious recollection. In other words， learners are consciously aware of some aspects or features of the target language. Implicit knowledge， however， is ‘intuitive， procedural， systematically variable， automatic （R.Ellis， 2008）， and thus available for fluent and unplanned language use. R.Ellis （2005） made a research summary showing that studies have focused mainly on explicit knowledge of L2 grammar， and most SLA studies have adopted untimed grammaticality judgment tasks （GJTs） as its measurement， followed by other two types： language aptitude tests， and tests of metalanguage.

Researches on measuring implicit knowledge have been controversial， as De Keyser （2003） pointed out that it becomes tough but quite needed to design a pure method measuring learners implicit knowledge. Some researchers holds a negative view that no language task can directly assess implicit knowledge. At present， there are mainly three ways to measure implicit knowledge， namely： Timed grammaticality judgment test， oral narrative test and oral imitation test. （R. Ellis， 2006）

Possible solutions

The existing grammar tests can be improved by asking students to state the grammatical rules that lead them to choose the answer and their certainty about the decision. （e.g. Teachers can use a percentage scale in which 100% means totally certain and 0% means totally uncertain.） In this way， teachers can receive better feedbacks from students and can have a face-to-face talk with those who failed in the tests or those achieve high scores but are uncertain about their choices.

In order to measure students implicit knowledge， oral imitation test is adopted. The test consists of both grammatical and ungrammatical statements about a target structure or grammar， which are orally presented to learners one at a time. Learners are required to first indicate whether they agree or disagree with the statement by saying ‘Yes， or ‘No. Immediately after making judgment， they are asked to repeat the statement in correct English. Scores are given according to the scales provided by Ellis （2006）. Learners are under pressure to perform in real time and would need to rely mainly on feel or intuition rather than on the grammatical form. To make the test more effective， time constrict should be given when leaners make the judgments and repeat the statements， so they have little chance to resort to their explicit knowledge.

References：

[1]De keyser，E.（2003）.Explicit and implicit judgments of L2 grammaticality[J].Language Learning，1979，（29）：81-103.

[2]Melissa A.Bowles.（2011）Measuring implicit and explicit linguistic knowledge：What can heritage language learners contribute？ University of Illinois.

[3]Rod Ellis.（2005）.Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of second language：A psychometric study.Studies in Second language Acquisition，27，141-172.

[4]Rod Ellis，Shawn Loewen，and Rosemary Erlam.（2006）.Implicit and explicit corrective feedback and the acquisition of L2 grammar.University of Auckland.

[5]Rod Ellis.（2008）.The Study of Second language Acquisition.（Second Edition）Oxford University Press.