The Role of Grammar Awareness in Learning English Wh-Movement by Chinese L2 Learners

This experimental study aimed at examining the role of grammar awareness in learning English wh-movement by Chinese EFL learners. Eighty adult native speakers of Chinese took grammaticality judgment tests (GJT) in order to find out whether they were constrained by Chinese wh-in-situ parameters. The mean scores of the GJT in the pretest and posttest were compared to observe the effect of the grammar awareness-raising model (GARM) guided instruction on wh-movement. Both within-group and between-group comparisons showed that when L2 learners were aware of the target linguistic phenomenon, their performance in judging the grammaticality of the wh-movement was improved. It is concluded that the role of grammar awareness in learning English wh-movement is positively related to the subjects’ performance in GJT.