Among foreign language teachers and researchers, it has been widely acknowledged that grammatical knowledge of a foreign language comprises two types of mental storage. One of the two, explicit knowledge, is quite likely linked to adjectives such as “slow” and “conscious,” whereas the other, implicit knowledge, is associated with words such as “fast” and “unconscious.” The present study challenges this conventional and popularized view, by addressing the consciousness and speed dimensions of Japanese EFL learners’ (N = 24) knowledge about tough movement. We conducted a grammaticality judgment task adopting two experimental paradigms: (a) a subjective measure of consciousness known as the meta-knowledge criterion, and (b) response time modeling. The participants judged the grammaticality of the stimuli under the two conditions, (a) control and (b) tough movement, and described their mental state during judgments (explainable vs. intuitive) trial by trial. We analyzed the dynamics among the recorded judgment responses, reaction times, and responses on the subjective measure. The results supported the hypothesis that the consciousness and speed dimensions intersect obliquely. This means that unconscious knowledge does not entail faster grammatical performance. Some pedagogical implications, particularly in light of English grammar teaching in Japan, are also discussed.
GJT
Measuring Japanese learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge of constraints on verb semantics: A case of assertive predicates in English as a Foreign Language.
This study attempted to uncover, using untimed and rapid grammatical judgment tasks (GJTs)1, how constraints on verb semantics are represented in Japanese EFL learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge. Non-assertive predicates were chosen as target structures, and the participants were eighteen Japanese graduate students. In the untimed condition, the participants were allowed to take as much time as they wanted, whereas in the rapid condition they were instructed to perform as rapidly as possible. The results of a two-way ANOVA revealed that the main effect of grammaticality was statistically significant, though the main effect of task type was not. In addition, no significant interaction between the two factors was found either. This indicates that the participants were not able to correctly reject the ungrammatical sentences in both conditions. Thus, it can be concluded that the participants had neither explicit nor implicit knowledge of the rule of non-assertive predicates.
Tamura, Y. & Kusanagi, K. (2015b). Measuring Japanese learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge of constraints on verb semantics: A case of assertive predicates in English as a Foreign Language. International Journal of Curriculum Development and Practice, 17 (1), 25–38.
Asymmetrical representation in Japanese EFL learners’ implicit and explicit knowledge about the countability of common/material nouns.
By the use of grammaticality judgment tasks in two conditions (untimed and rapid), the present study examined Japanese EFL learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge about the countability of common and material nouns. It is well known that Japanese EFL learners exhibit long-lasting difficulty in attaining knowledge of countability. However, previous studies have not taken the explicit/implicit distinction of L2 knowledge into account. Hence, the present research conducted a grammaticality judgment study, targeting highly proficient Japanese EFL learners (N = 18). The stimuli consisted of both grammatical and ungrammatical sentences including number agreement errors with two conditions (common vs. material nouns; k = 12 for each). The results of a two-way ANOVA (task type: untimed and rapid, by the stimuli type: common and material nouns) clearly revealed that there was a statistically significant interaction between the two factors, showing a large effect size. This suggests that (a) there was no effect of task type on the material nouns, which might lead to the conclusion that the participants were not aware of the countability of material nouns, even as explicit knowledge; (b) the accuracy score of common nouns substantially declined, which means that the countability of common nouns was not fully acquired as implicit knowledge.
Tamura, Y. & Kusanagi, K. (2015a). Asymmetrical representation in Japanese EFL learners’ implicit and explicit knowledge about the countability of common/material nouns. Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan, 26, 253–268. [Full Article]
Reinvestigating Consciousness-Raising Grammar Tasks and Noticing
This is a case study dealing with the relationship between consciousness-raising (CR) grammar tasks and noticing, replicating the work of Fotos (1993). Using only a reading and underlining task as a measure of noticing in order to successfully capture noticing as a complex cognitive process is inadequate because the way in which learners process target grammar structures can vary greatly depending on their level of awareness. Therefore, post-experimental stimulus-cued retrospective interviews were added to obtain both quantitative and qualitative detailed information on processing input. Nine post-secondary ESL learners who studied in a university preparation course participated in this study. Present and past counterfactual conditionals were chosen as target grammar structures. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: a direct CR group given a teacher-centered deductive lesson and an indirect CR group where the students learned the target structure inductively in a dyad style. Pre- and post-Grammatical Judgment Tests (GJTs) were also administered to assess the effectiveness of these two methods of instruction. One week after the treatment, each student engaged in a reading and underlining activity immediately followed by a retrospective interview. Although no quantitative difference was found between the two groups in noticing and GJT scores, qualitative data revealed that the learners processed the underlined target structures very differently.
Yu Tamura 