Investigating the Relatedness of Five Different Operationalizations of Explicit Knowledge of English Morphosyntax: A Levels of Processing Approach

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relatedness of five different operationalizations of explicit knowledge of English morphosyntax within the framework of levels of processing. Two groups of university students, majoring in English translation at BA level, participated in the study. For the purpose of the study, five different operationalizations of the explicit knowledge of English morphosyntax were drawn from the literature and two metalinguistic knowledge tests were constructed. The two measures were piloted; the one with 52 items showed strong overall internal consistency (α=0.98) and the other one with 30 items showed an acceptable overall internal consistency (α=.70). The data analyses using Pearson correlation revealed that there is no high correlation between the five variables, and therefore no serious covariation problem was detected. Moreover, the results of repeated-measures ANOVA showed that there was a significant within-group difference between the performances of each group on the metalinguistic test. The results of the study are discussed within the level of processing (LoP) framework and implications are offered.