The Effect Of Explicit And Implicit Instruction On English Collocation Acquisition In Junior High Schools

Collocation is the core of the second language vocabulary knowledge and collocation learning programs need to include both an explicit and an implicit learning(N.Schmitt,2008;Xing,2013).In the field of English language teaching,there has been a debate about the effect of explicit and implicit instruction and mainly focuses on grammar teaching,but so far there has been little research exploring the difference between explicit instruction and implicit instruction on lexical knowledge,even less with regard to collocation knowledge.At the first step in addressing this distinction,based on the theory of Noticing Hypothesis and Input Hypothesis,one classroom experiment in the real condition was designed to examine the effects of explicit instruction and implicit instruction on junior high school students' collocation acquisition,especially the different effects of explicit and implicit instruction on collocation retention.Through collocation familiarity test,32 collocations were selected to be taught in total.60 12-year-old students participated in the teaching experiment which lasted 13 weeks.30 participants in one class as the experimental group were trained by explicit instruction and 30 participants as the control group were trained by implicit instruction.Finally,the collocation knowledge was measured at three points by means of two different tests:a form recognition test(FRT)and a free written response task(FWRT).This study attempts to explore the following questions:1.Which type of instruction,explicit or implicit,leads to a better performance on junior high learners' collocation acquisition in general?2.Which type of instruction,explicit or implicit,leads to a better performance on junior high learners' collocation acquisition in long-term memory?After the data collection and sorting,the researcher used SPSS 24.0 for data analysis.The result of pre-test shows that there is no significant difference between the two classes.Then the results of the immediate post-test and the delayed post-test indicate that explicit instruction as well as implicit instruction has positive effects on collocation learning both on the form recognition test and the free written response task.One possible reason is that the target collocations which are fit for junior high school students are relatively simple.The other more important reason is that explicit instruction through the explicit strategies highlights the target collocations.And implicit instruction also draws students' attention effectively through presenting the target collocations in context.Besides,the practice following teaching process strengthens the input of target collocations.All of these treatments ensure the acquisition of the target collocations.Secondly,we find that explicit instruction has a better immediate effect on collocation learning than implicit instruction both on the form recognition test and the free written response task.It indicates that explicit instruction draws more attention of students than implicit instruction.Finally,for the long-term effect,although students'performance decline in the delayed post-test,the long-term effect of explicit instruction appears to be significantly better than that of implicit instruction.The limitations of working memory may be a reason for explaining the result.In conclusion,explicit instruction leads to a better performance on collocation acquisition both in the short term and the long term as compared to implicit instruction in this study.It may depend on the qualities of these two different instructions as well as the time effect.Based on these findings,English teachers should use various kinds of ways to attract students' attention in teaching process and apply the suitable instruction to collocation teaching effectively.