Implicit/explicit grammatical knowledge of fifth and sixth grade students in Japanese elementary school

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13255
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University of Education
• Principal Investigator: Uchino Shunsuke 北海道教育大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (80825456)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 文法知識 / 暗示的知識 / 明示的知識 / 小学校英語 / 実態調査

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The development of students' knowledge about the words that can be filled in the slots of [a] what, [b] subject, and [c] verb in the structure of What [a]sport do [b]you [c]like? was measured by the tasks of grammaticality judgement, gap filling, and metalinguistic knowledge. The main findings of the study are as follows. First, the students' grammatical knowledge developed during the sixth grade. Second, the degree of knowledge acquisition varied depending on the position of the slot, even for the same structure. Third, students who acquired implicit and procedural knowledge sometimes acquired metalinguistic knowledge as well, but grammatical terms were rarely used in the explanation of rules.

Free Research Field

教室内第二言語習得

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

明示的な文法指導がほとんど行われていない小学校外国語の授業を通してでも，児童が暗示的知識を元にした英語運用能力を身につけていると考えられること，また言語使用経験を元に学習者自身が推論によって明示的知識の獲得に至る可能性があることは，言語活動を通した言語習得を目指す小学校英語教育の在り方を肯定的に評価する研究結果であると解釈できる。また本研究は現行学習指導要領への移行期間に実施したものであり，2度の調査の間の児童の学習量は50単位時間であったことから，教科となり学習時間も増えた現在では，よりいっそう児童の知識が発達している可能性がある。