Explicit instruction and learning: A focus on learners' metacognitive grammar awareness and knowledge of English tenses

This study explores how undergraduate English language learners develop their metacognitive grammar awareness and knowledge and how they perceive their progress. The sample included 53 first-year English-language female undergraduates from a public university in Saudi Arabia. A consciousness-raising approach was adopted, and tests, questionnaires, blackboard discussions and classroom activities were used to study developmental change. A set of three tests on learners’ knowledge of English grammar tenses were administered over a period of 12 weeks. The results revealed an improvement in their grammar awareness of the targeted 12 English tenses. Additionally, a reflective questionnaire was administered to elicit the participants’ attitudes towards their consciousness learning as well as the consciousness-raising approach. Their attitudes were mainly positive. Their online and classroom engagement differed giving favour to the latter. These findings highlight learners’ need for an L2 explicit and implicit grammar awareness approach that fosters their learning preference.