Implicit and Explicit Grammatical Knowledge in Predicting Reading Comprehension of Vietnamese EFL Learners

Abstract

This study explored the predictive power of implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge in explaining the reading comprehension of Vietnamese EFL students and examined how these two types of grammatical knowledge could differently predict for students having dissimilar reading abilities. The participants of the study comprised 51 Vietnamese adult learners of English having different proficiency levels. They completed three English tests including a timed grammatical judgment tests, an untimed grammatical judgment test, and a reading comprehension test. Correlational and regression analyses were conducted, and the results indicated that both implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge significantly correlated with and significantly predicted reading comprehension. However, the two types of grammatical knowledge lost their correlation and predictive power when it came to the more proficient reading group. In the case of the lower level group, explicit grammatical knowledge did not correlate with or contribute to reading, but implicit grammatical knowledge remained as a significant contributor.