Grammaticality judgment as a function of explicit and implicit instruction in Spanish

This study investigated whether the methodologies of explicit and implicit language instruction account for differences in the identification of grammatically well-formed sentences for college students who have completed one semester of college Spanish. Students in the explicit language classes were instructed in the grammar-translation approach wherein explicit statements of the rules of grammar were taught. Students in the implicit language classes were instructed in the comprehension of Spanish sentences through the use of pictures and Total Physical Response activities. A grammaticality judgment test was used to compare the grammatical knowledge of these two instructional groups. The grammatical elements and the lexical items of the grammaticality judgment test were units that were common to both methods of instruction. Students in the implicit grammatical instruction classes achieved significantly higher scores than students in the explicit grammatical instruction classes. These results suggest that language instructional procedures result in the use of different language processes to judge the grammaticality of sentences.