Application of Grammatical Judgment Tests to the Measurement of Explicit versus Implicit Knowledge in EFL Classroom

The distinction between implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge and their distinct roles and contributions to the second language acquisition has been the recent subject of debate among second language acquisition researchers (Ellis, 2004).. To bridge this gap, whereas the first question of this study aimed at appraising the explicit vs. implicit grammar instruction among EFL leaners, further investigation was accomplished to illuminate the relationship between EFL learners’ explicit/implicit grammar knowledge and their general language proficiency. To this end, 40 EFL leaners participated in the first phase of the study. While the participants in the first experimental group received explicit interventional program (Ellis & Worthington, 1994), the second experimental group benefitted from enhanced input instruction (Sharwoodsmith, 1981). The results indicated the superiority of the explicit instruction in developing explicit grammar knowledge among the EFL participants. For the sake of the second phase of the study, a sample population of 140 EFL learners was asked to complete Timed and Untimed Grammatical Judgment Test and the sample TOEFL language proficiency test. A set of correlation coefficients was run and the results revealed that there was no significant correlation between the EFL participants’ implicit knowledge and their language proficiency, while the findings confirmed a statistically significant relationship between EFL learners’ explicit grammar knowledge and the subcomponents of their general language proficiency. The findings have some pedagogical implications for EFL teachers, practitioners, and also material developers.