a claim to fame: the neurolinguistic approach induces implicit and explicit knowledge of knotty grammar

The neurolinguistic approach (nla) to language teaching nests, among others, the claim that both internal and external grammars (i.e., implicit and explicit grammar knowledge) can be in place through an intensive sentential orality-based pedagogy. it involves an orality-reading-writing-orality literacy loop in theme-based in-class projects. this study put nla’s claim to the test specifically focusing on iranian efl learners’ development of implicit and explicit knowledge of the present perfect tense. this tense has been reported to be one of the most complicated grammatical structures for iranian efl learners, owing to l1-l2 differences in its use. for the purpose of the study, forty-nine pre-intermediate efl learners comprising two intact classes assigned to an experimental group (eg; n=25) and a control group (cg; n=24). eg underwent 3 1.5-hr sessions of nla-based instruction on the three uses of the targeted tense. each session began and ended with authentic oral practice of the structure. there were 2 phases of theme-based paragraph reading and paragraph writing in between the 2 oral practice phases. cg, on the other hand, was presented with reading texts embedding multiple examples of the tense, rule explanation, and follow-up communicative tasks. a timed grammaticality judgment test and limited-focus interviews were employed to measure the participants’ implicit knowledge, and an untimed grammaticality judgment test and a metalinguistic knowledge test were employed to measure their explicit knowledge. anova results showed cg and eg’s comparable significant gains on explicit knowledge measures, but only eg’s significant gain on implicit knowledge measures. the findings substantiate nla’s potential for the development of both internal and external grammars, and have implications for instruction of “knotty” grammatical structures, which efl learners find difficult to master owing to l1 interference.'