Literacy, Second Language Learning, and the Development of Metalinguistic Awareness: A Study of Bilingual Children’s Perceptions of Focus on Form

Abstract

The following study reports findings from an assessment of bilingual children’s editing and correction strategies as applied to writing samples produced in response to a structured composition task. A total sample of 479 attempts at editing/correction was recorded and analyzed for the purpose of describing what appear to be developmental tendencies across the elementary grades. The 45 subjects from a bilingual indigenous community in Central Mexico were also evaluated on a series of academic language and literacy tasks, as well as an assessment of metalinguistic awareness related to the two languages which they speak or understand (Spanish and Náhuatl). The article examines the relationship among factors related to bilingual proficiency, literacy learning, and the development of metalinguistic awareness.