Evaluation of Implicit VS. Explicit Method Grammar Teaching to Sudanese Undergraduate Students

Abstract

The basic purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of using the implicit focus - on- form task - based learning in teaching grammar to Sudanese EFL college students. This is done by comparing the performance of the subjects taught according to this method to that of subjects who are taught with the use of the explicit method . The general writing post – test is allocated 60 points and it is used to assess the following components : content, organization, vocabulary , grammar , punctuation and spelling. The oral tests are evaluated by two raters . The researcher and the teacher of the speaking skill. The reliability of the oral tests are calculated by measuring cronbach alpha whereas validity is obtained by calculating R² for the five oral sub- parts . Correlation coefficient between the rating of the two raters is examined . These oral tests are as follow; 1- The oral test of the selected examination 2- Three oral tests of the three short tests . 3- The oral test of the general test. In order to analyze the collected data, the researcher uses common descriptive statistical procedures such as means and standard deviations. The reliability of the tests are assessed by using 1- Cronbach alpha Analysis of variance ( ANOVA), 2- Two – factors Repeated Measures Analysis of variance ( RMANOVA) , 3- t - test and 4- Scheffe's test , 5- Pearson Product Moment Correlation . The significance level is set at p < 0.05 . The subjects of the study are first year college learners studying English as a foreign language at the faculty of Education at Gadaref University. The study has two groups: one control whereas the other is the experimental group. Results of the study reveal that a statistically significant difference is existed at( p < 0.05) between the groups of the study on the tests of writing, speaking and grammar in favor of the experimental group. The results also show that the task - based learning methods fares well with structures of different levels of difficulty. It also works well with students of all levels of proficiency. The findings of the study do not support the disadvantage claimed for the task - based learning method that students might establish a superiority of meaning to that of form. Based on the above results, this study recommends that the implicit task – based learning method as a substitute to the explicit method for teaching grammar to Sudanese EFL college learners .