Metalinguistic Awareness in Multilinguals: Cognitive Aspects of Third Language Learning

Abstract

The development of competence in two or more languages can result in higher levels of metalinguistic awareness. These facilitate the acquisition of language by exploiting the cognitive mechanisms underlying these processes of transfer and enhancement. In this paper, the role of metalinguistic awareness in multilinguals is discussed within the framework of a systems-theoretic approach to multilingual proficiency as taken in the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism. Selective data from trilingual adults (bilingual Italian/German learners of English) on their use of certain problem-solving behaviour in think-aloud protocols during the process of academic writing are shown to provide evidence of certain processes taking place while performing in a third language. At the same time, this study of metalinguistic thinking isused to point to applied perspectives of research on third language acquisition, going beyond second language research. It is argued that prior language knowledge should be reactivated in the language classroom and that consequently multilingual education should also focus on the similarities between languages in order to increase metalinguistic awareness in both teachers and students.