10. Developing Metalinguistic Awareness in L3 German Classrooms

Abstract

The paper focuses on an experiment that has been conducted with experimental groups of L3 German learners, with the aim of answering the question whether a systematic input with the purpose of establishing cross-linguistics relations between the students' L1 Croatian, L2 English and L3 German can a) make a difference in the level of L3 mastering and b) support the development of students' metalinguistic awareness. The experiment included two groups – an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG). 56 students in the EG took part in the experiment and gradually received an input divided into five modules. Each module consisted of exercises that required cross-linguistic inferencing on lexical, morphological, syntactic and textual level. Exercises were accompanied by questions encouraging students to think about cross-linguistic differences and similarities and supporting the development of their metalinguistic awareness. The instruments used to measure the impact of the systematic input are tests of objective type combined with questionnaires. Both the experimental and the control group completed these in the initial phase and after the work on the fifth module has been finished. The results have shown that the EC subjects are better skilled in the use of metacognitive strategies, which help them analyse their L3 learning process than the CG subjects. Furthermore they performed better at verbalizing their observations about language elements which can contribute to the facilitating and hindering effects of their L1 and L2 in the process of learning L3. The EG subjects were to a larger extent ready to explain their answers about cross-linguistic influences, and they could use more complex metalanguage and name more categories of potential transfer than the participants of the CG. These results can be a starting point for the assumption that focused MA training in the classroom context can contribute to its development.The results have also confirmed a significant correlation between the indicators of MA and the achieved L3 competence, which is the answer to the second research question. Without any attempt of generalisation, it can be therefore expected that students who have greater awareness of language and language learning will most probably show higher competence in the target language.