Abstract
Much of the literature on explicit teaching about language has suggested that equipping students with metalinguistic knowledge is as an important means of enhancing students’ participation in learning. Yet in the context of international jurisdictions which are placing a renewed emphasis on knowledge about language, there is a notable lack of research into the nature of learners’ metalinguistic understanding about writing, as evident in their ability to reflect on written language. Using an analytical framework shaped by Vygotsky's and Hallidayan theories of concept formation and language learning, this paper provides insights into the nature of metalinguistic understanding as manifested in ways in which learners engage with grammatical concepts. Drawing on data selected from two parallel studies in Australia and England in which students aged 9–13 were interviewed about their metalinguistic understanding of writing, our analysis has found that learners’ metalinguistic understanding is more strongly oriented to identification – naming and specifying taught grammatical concepts. The findings have important implications for pedagogical strategies that might facilitate higher-level metalinguistic understanding, enabling learners to elaborate, extend and apply their grammatical knowledge.
Highlights
This paper aims to extend the current knowledge on the nature of metalinguistic understanding about writing, as evident in students’ ability to reflect on written language
At the heart of this concern is the conception that the ways in which students engage with a grammatical concept as reflected in their talk about language is a visible display of their metalinguistic understanding
It does this by drawing on data from two studies in Australia and England which both examined the explicit teaching of grammar in the context of writing in junior secondary school contexts. These data provide the opportunity to draw on a larger data set, one not restricted by national boundaries. Through this we offer an exploratory investigation of how students develop their metalinguistic understanding about writing in response to explicit teaching about language
Summary
This paper aims to extend the current knowledge on the nature of metalinguistic understanding about writing, as evident in students’ ability to reflect on written language. At the heart of this concern is the conception that the ways in which students engage with a grammatical concept as reflected in their talk about language is a visible display of their metalinguistic understanding. There are jurisdictions where curriculum policy is giving increasing emphasis to the explicit teaching of knowledge about language in subject English. In England the National Curriculum for English (NC:E) re-introduced grammar in 1988. Subsequent revisions (DfE, 1995, 1999) all included some reference to grammar, but the latest version (DfE, 2014) is the most explicit, specifying what grammatical knowledge must be
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