Perceived learning difficulty and actual performance: Explicit and implicit knowledge of L2 English grammar points among instructed adult learners

This paper draws on an approach that conceptualizes L2 learning difficulty in terms of implicit and explicit knowledge. In a study with L1 Mexican Spanish university-level learners (n=30), their teachers (n=11) and applied linguistics experts (n=3), we investigated the relationship between (a) these groups’ difficulty judgements of 13 selected L2 English structures and (b) perceived learning difficulty and learners’ actual performance on measures of implicit and explicit knowledge. Our findings show that experts’ learning difficulty judgements did not lead to significant predictions, while the learners’ own difficulty rankings correlated significantly with their performance on the measure of explicit knowledge. Although correlations based on teachers’ difficulty rankings did not reach statistical significance, the judgements of this group were the only ones which showed trends towards successful prediction of learners’ performance on both the implicit and the explicit L2 measures. Thus, the teachers exhibited a trend towards the best overall prediction ability. Perceived Learning Difficulty and Actual Performance 2 Perceived learning difficulty and actual performance: Explicit and implicit knowledge of L2 English grammar points among instructed adult learners In accordance with much applied linguistics research carried out in recent decades (e.g., DeKeyser, 2003; 2005; N. Ellis, 1994b; Rebuschat, 2013, 2015; Roehr-Brackin, 2014; Roehr, 2010), the study reported in this paper is based on the assumption that explicit and implicit knowledge of language are represented differently and that explicit and implicit learning of language involve distinct cognitive processes. This differentiation between explicit and implicit knowledge and learning is reflected in the measures typically employed to assess these constructs as well as in the conceptualization of second language (L2) instruction as either explicit or implicit (Norris & Ortega, 2001). In the present paper, we additionally conceptualize the notion of learning difficulty in terms of this dichotomy in that we differentiate between explicit and implicit learning difficulty, that is, the difficulty of learning something as explicit knowledge as opposed to learning something as implicit knowledge (R. Ellis, 2006). It would be advantageous if a taxonomy of explicit and implicit learning difficulty (Roehr & Gánem-Gutiérrez, 2009) based on criteria that can be applied to grammar points as presented in instructional materials could be used to accurately predict learning difficulty of different L2 constructions and their associated pedagogical grammar rules. This would allow for direct implications for the adult L2 classroom; for instance, in a mixed-ability, generalpurpose adult class, teachers may wish to focus on L2 structures and metalinguistic rules of moderate learning difficulty (DeKeyser, 2003), so all learners can benefit. The present study investigated this issue by (1) comparing the learning difficulty judgements of applied linguistics experts, instructed adult learners, and their teachers for selected L2 grammar Perceived Learning Difficulty and Actual Performance 3 points, and (2) establishing the nature of the relationship between perceived learning difficulty and actual learner performance in terms of explicit and implicit knowledge of the selected L2 grammar points.