Abstract
Dual language immersion (DLI) students can develop high levels of proficiency in their second language at a young age. However, they often have difficulties with their accuracy using advanced grammatical constructions (Watzinger-Tharp et al., 2018), such as using different verbs tenses or gender and number agreement in speaking and writing (Bateman et al., 2020). The goal of this study is to test whether explicit or implicit instructional approaches are more effective in the teaching of one such grammatical concept, specifically reflexive constructions, in two DLI classrooms. In this research, I investigated results from a five-lesson treatment in a case study on two fifth-grade, one-way Spanish dual language immersion classrooms. These students, who were at the Intermediate proficiency level, were assessed on their ability to use reflexive constructions after participating in either implicit or explicit classroom instruction. To facilitate implicit instruction about reflexive constructions, I implemented an approach that focused on counterbalanced strategies (Lyster, 2007), such as noticing, recognizing, guiding, and communicative practice activities. For the explicit approach, I focused on form through the strategies of recognition, demonstration, grammar explanation, practice exercises, and communicative expression activities (Ellis, 2008). After using both treatments, I reported the accuracy of each student's results based on Spanish reflexive constructions surrounding daily routine verbs through a written pre-test and post-test. No significant differences were found between student understanding based on the explicit and implicit teaching approaches. However, the implicit group achieved the same post-test results as the explicit group, even though the implicit group began with lower pre-test scores. Because the testing approach had a ceiling of 28 possible points, it is hard to know if students exposed to either approach would have received higher test scores. The fact that students from the implicit teaching approach improved more than the explicit group may indicate that the implicit teaching approach contributed to the improvement. However, the sample size is small, and further research is needed to determine if more consistent results can be tracked.
Degree
MA
College and Department
Humanities; Spanish and Portuguese
Rights
https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Ward, Paula Valeria, "Implicit vs. Explicit Approaches When Teaching Reflexive Structures in a Fifth-Grade Spanish Dual Immersion Classroom" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 10508.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/10508
Date Submitted
2024-08-16
Document Type
Thesis
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13346
Keywords
dual immersion programs (DLI), content-based instruction (CBI), form-focused instruction (FFI), implicit/explicit instruction, reflexive verbs
Language
english