Metalinguistic Abilities Research Articles

Oral Portfolio in Spanish as a Third Language: Harnessing the Potential of Self- and Peer-Assessment

Even though research in second language acquisition has demonstrated the importance of oral production and interaction, there is a growing tendency toward distance learning. Therefore, in order to include oral practice and evaluation in an online course, a new pedagogical tool was designed, namely the oral portfolio. This article describes and analyzes an oral portfolio which included learner production and self- and peer-assessment. Combining these aspects provided data on both linguistic and metalinguistic abilities. The results revealed a relationship between oral competency and self- and peer-assessment abilities, suggesting a beneficial role of metalinguistic reflection in the development of oral communication skills. Moreover, this study explored how self- and peer-assessment could be better implemented in a language course. Based on the observations gathered throughout the study, we believe that learners need to be trained and to develop the formative assessment competency, in order to maximize the benefits, for assessment to be as sustainable as possible.

How age and meta-linguistic abilities modulate ERP patterns in French-speaking children

How age and meta-linguistic abilities modulate ERP patterns in French-speaking children

Metalinguistic awareness and literacy among semitic-bilingual learners: a cross-language perspective

In the current study we examined three questions. First: How does emergent bilingualism affect the development of metalinguistic awareness in kindergarten and first grade? We compared the changes in scores of tests of phonological awareness and morphological awareness from kindergarten to first grade, in two bilingual groups (Hebrew–Arabic and Arabic–Hebrew) and two monolingual Hebrew and Arabic speaking groups. The results revealed a bilingual advantage in kindergarten in both languages, which persisted into first grade for the native Arabic speakers in both phonology and morphology, and in phonology for the native Hebrew speakers. Importantly, all groups showed approximately equal improvement in metalinguistic abilities between kindergarten and first grade. Second: How does exposure to a typologically similar second language affect literacy acquisition in first grade? In both languages, there was a bilingual advantage in nonword reading and spelling, but no effect on reading speed. Third: What are the relationships between literacy measures in first grade and morphological, and phonological awareness in kindergarten, and how are these relationships impacted by bilingualism? These relations were slightly different for the two languages. For children learning to read Hebrew, morphological skills in kindergarten predicted both nonword reading and spelling measures in first grade. For children learning to read Arabic, only parental education predicted nonword reading and reading speed. For spelling, language experience interacted with metalinguistic abilities, with morphological abilities predicting the scores of bilinguals and phonological skills predicting the scores of monolinguals. The significance of the results for cross-language effects in literacy acquisition are discussed.

Word learning by young sequential bilinguals: Fast mapping in Arabic and Hebrew

ABSTRACTWe tested children attending bilingual Hebrew–Arabic kindergartens on a fast mapping task. These early sequential bilinguals included those with Hebrew as their home language and those with Arabic as their home language. They were compared to monolingual Hebrew and Arabic speakers. The children saw pictures of unfamiliar objects and were taught pseudowords as the object names that followed typical Hebrew, typical Arabic, or neutral phonotactics. Memory, phonological, and morphological abilities were also measured. The bilingual groups performed similarly to each other, and better than the monolingual groups, who also performed similarly to each other. Memory and the interaction between language experience and metalinguistic abilities (phonological and morphological awareness) significantly accounted for variance on the fast mapping tasks. We predicted that bilinguals would be more sensitive to phonotactics than monolinguals. Instead, we found that Arabic speakers (bilinguals and monolinguals) performed better with Hebrew-like stimuli than with Arabic-like stimuli, and no effect of phonotactics for Hebrew speakers. This may reflect the diglossia in Arabic language acquisition. The results suggest that the process of fast mapping is sharpened by multilingual experience, and may be sensitive to sociolinguistic factors such as diglossia.

《メタ言語能力》を育てる教材の開発( 音声言語の教育をどうするか)

《メタ言語能力》を育てる教材の開発( 音声言語の教育をどうするか)

Are belief‐based justifications associated with metalinguistic awareness? A cross‐sectional study in school‐age children

AbstractPrevious research has consistently demonstrated that false‐belief (FB) understanding correlates with and predicts metalinguistic ability in preschoolers. Surprisingly, however, there is scant evidence on the question of whether this relation persists at later ages. The present cross‐sectional study sought to fill this gap by examining the association between FB understanding, belief‐based justifications and metalinguistic awareness. A sample of 150 children primary‐school children between 8 and 11 years of age were administered a test of receptive language, a second‐order theory‐of‐mind task and a comprehensive metalinguistic battery. The results of correlational and regression analyses showed that explicit metalinguistic awareness (in particular, performance in the Ambiguity and Phonemic Segmentation subtests) was significantly predicted by children's belief‐based responses to the justification question in the theory of mind task but only for children with small receptive vocabularies; in contrast, FB understanding made no independent contribution (either alone or in interaction with other measures). These findings complement and advance existing data by showing that, in school‐age children, the association between the 2 domains involves more mature, verbally explicit levels of FB understanding and metalinguistic awareness.Highlights We examined the relation between metalinguistic awareness and theory‐of‐mind in primary‐school children. Metalinguistic awareness was associated to belief‐based justifications, but only for children with small vocabulary. In school‐age children the ability to provide verbal justifications plays a key role in the relation between theory‐of‐mind and metalinguistic awareness.

On L2 Learners’ Metalinguistic Ability and Related Issues: A Synthesis of Theory and Practice

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it presents an overview of pertinent research dealing with aspects of metalinguistic awareness (MLA) and to posit a link between (MLA) and students’ performance in multi-dimensional linguistic problems. Second, it reports on the outcomes of an experiment on some foreign language learners. The subjects of the present study (N=80) were in their fourth year of academic study in the Department of English and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Menufia University, Egypt. Forty subjects were males and the other forty were females. Two tasks were used: (1) “Sentence Completion” task, and (2) “Error Recognition and Correction” task. In the first task, a list of 15 incomplete sentences was given to the subjects who were asked to choose the word or phrase that best complete the sentence. The focus, in this task, was on the meaning of the sentence rather than the form, although accurate understanding of the formal properties of language is a must. In the second task, students were asked to detect the word or phrase that must be changed in order for the sentence to be correct. A list of 25 sentences with four words underlined, and marked (A), (B), (C), and (D) was given to the subjects. Finally, students were individually interviewed to explain and comment on their performance in the previous tasks. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results were obtained and conclusions were made.

Different mechanisms in learning different second languages: Evidence from English speakers learning Chinese and Spanish

Word reading has been found to be associated with different neural networks in different languages, with greater involvement of the lexical pathway for opaque languages and greater invovlement of the sub-lexical pathway for transparent langauges. However, we do not know whether this language divergence can be demonstrated in second langauge learners, how learner's metalinguistic ability would modulate the langauge divergence, or whether learning method would interact with the language divergence. In this study, we attempted to answer these questions by comparing brain activations of Chinese and Spanish word reading in native English-speaking adults who learned Chinese and Spanish over a 2 week period under three learning conditions: phonological, handwriting, and passive viewing. We found that mapping orthography to phonology in Chinese had greater activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) than in Spanish, suggesting greater invovlement of the lexical pathway in opaque langauges. In contrast, Spanish words evoked greater activation in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) than English, suggesting greater invovlement of the sublexical pathway for transparant languages. Furthermore, brain-behavior correlation analyses found that higher phonological awareness and rapid naming were associated with greater activation in the bilateral IFG for Chinese and in the bilateral STG for Spanish, suggesting greater language divergence in participants with higher meta-linguistic awareness. Finally, a significant interaction between the language and learning condition was found in the left STG and middle frontal gyrus (MFG), with greater activation in handwriting learning than viewing learning in the left STG only for Spanish, and greater activation in handwriting learning than phonological learning in the left MFG only for Chinese. These findings suggest that handwriting facilitates assembled phonology in Spanish and addressed phonology in Chinese. In summary, our study suggests different mechanisms in learning different L2s, providing important insights into neural plasticity and important implications in second language education.

A comparison of cognitive flexibility and metalinguistic skills in adult good and poor comprehenders

Good and poor comprehenders exhibit different profiles of cognitive abilities, despite comparable decoding skills. Recent work suggests that executive functions, particularly cognitive flexibility, may underlie poor comprehenders' difficulties in childhood and adulthood. However, metalinguistic skills that enable readers to reflect on various aspects of print may also contribute to poor comprehenders' difficulties. We examined metalinguistic abilities (graphophonemic and syntactic) and cognitive flexibility (graphophonological–semantic and syntactic–semantic) in 24 good and 24 poor adult comprehenders, matched on age‐appropriate non‐word decoding skill and general cognitive ability. Groups differed significantly on graphophonemic awareness, syntactic awareness, and both measures of cognitive flexibility after verbal ability and word identification were controlled. Differences in cognitive flexibility remained significant even when relevant metacognitive skills were controlled. These data demonstrate additional cognitive differences between good and poor comprehenders that can inform theory and practice.What is already known about this topic: Deficits in executive functions contribute to poor comprehenders' difficulties in childhood and adulthood. Child and adolescent poor comprehenders are also lower in metalinguistic skills. What this paper adds: Adult good and poor comprehenders, matched on general cognitive ability and age‐appropriate non‐word decoding, differed significantly on syntactic and graphophonemic awareness, even when verbal ability and word identification were controlled. Groups also differed significantly on cognitive flexibility, even when verbal ability and word identification were controlled. Good and poor comprehenders' differences in cognitive flexibility remained significant when metalinguistic awareness was controlled; however, differences in metalinguistic awareness were attenuated when cognitive flexibility was controlled. Implications for theory, policy, or practice: Findings underscore the importance of metalinguistic awareness and executive functions, particularly cognitive flexibility, to understanding adult poor comprehenders' difficulties. Findings suggest that models of reading comprehension, such as the simple view, should be adjusted to include variables, like cognitive flexibility, that contribute to comprehension beyond decoding and verbal ability. Findings may have clinical utility for identification of poor comprehenders because cognitive flexibility can easily be assessed with brief measures.

The impact of translation on L2 learners’ metalinguistic competence

This paper investigates the effect of translation courses and language proficiency on learners’ metalinguistic knowledge at Isfahan University, Iran. Tests of Metalinguistic knowledge, language proficiency and a background questionnaire were administered to learners of translation fields of study (as the experimental group) and the control group of English literature learners at Isfahan University, Iran. Each of translation and literature groups were further ranked into 4 groups by their language proficiency. It was found that learners’ metalinguistic ability and their language proficiency are not correlated. Multivariate analyses indicated that both groups did not show any awareness of certain properties of language as MLK. However, it was shown that Translation learners were better at language analytic section of the metalinguistic test. It is suggested that translation courses can increase the learners’ language analytic ability. The importance and the theoretical implications of the results are also counted for language teaching and testing.

Cognitive profiles in bilingual children born to immigrant parents and Italian monolingual native children with specific learning disorders

PurposeThe aim of this study is to compare the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children® – fourth edition IV (WISC IV) intellectual profile of two groups of children with specific learning disorder, a group of bilingual children and a group of monolingual Italian children, in order to identify possible significant differences between them.Patients and methodsA group of 48 bilingual children and a group of 48 Italian monolingual children were included in this study. A preliminary comparison showed the homogeneity of the two groups regarding learning disorder typology and sociodemographic characteristics (age at WISC IV assessment, sex and years of education in Italy) with the exception of socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status was then used as a covariate in the analysis.ResultsEven if the two groups were comparable in specific learning disorder severity and, in particular, in the text comprehension performance, our findings showed that the WISC IV performances of the bilingual group were significantly worse than the Italian group in Full Scale Intelligence Quotient (P=0.03), in General Ability Index (P=0.03), in Working Memory Index (P=0.009) and in some subtests and clusters requiring advanced linguistic abilities.ConclusionThese results support the hypothesis of a weakness in metalinguistic abilities in bilingual children with specific learning disorders than monolinguals. If confirmed, this result must be considered in the rehabilitation treatment.

Measuring Metasyntactic Abilities: On a Classification of Metasyntactic Tasks.

Researchers working on metasyntactic abilities (i.e., the metalinguistic ability associated with syntax) face the problem of defining and measuring them. Metasyntactic abilities is a multifaceted concept, which encompasses various types of behaviours, from being able to intentionally manipulate syntactic structures to being able to state syntactic rules, and the way in which it is defined and measured varies greatly from one study to another. The present paper proposes a theoretically informed classification of syntax related tasks. The first part presents previous research defining and distinguishing various types of syntactic and metasyntactic abilities and their interrelations. In the second part, commonly used tasks are described and analyzed in terms of the framework presented, with the aim of better pinpointing the type of ability measured by each task. Ultimately, with this analysis of commonly used tasks, we hope to offer criteria for discriminating between the various measures of metasyntactic abilities.

Becoming fluent: how cognitive science can help adults learn a foreign language

Adults who want to learn a foreign language are often discouraged because they believe they cannot acquire a language as easily as children. Once they begin to learn a language, adults may be further discouraged when they find the methods used to teach children don't seem to work for them. What is an adult language learner to do? In this book, Richard Roberts and Roger Kreuz draw on insights from psychology and cognitive science to show that adults can master a foreign language if they bring to bear the skills and knowledge they have honed over a lifetime. Adults shouldn't try to learn as children do; they should learn like adults. Roberts and Kreuz report evidence that adults can learn new languages even more easily than children. Children appear to have only two advantages over adults in learning a language: they acquire a native accent more easily, and they do not suffer from self-defeating anxiety about learning a language. Adults, on the other hand, have the greater advantages -- gained from experience -- of an understanding of their own mental processes and knowing how to use language to do things. Adults have an especially advantageous grasp of pragmatics, the social use of language, and Roberts and Kreuz show how to leverage this metalinguistic ability in learning a new language. Learning a language takes effort. But if adult learners apply the tools acquired over a lifetime, it can be enjoyable and rewarding.

Language skills and phonological awareness in children with cochlear implants and normal hearing

ObjectivesEarly auditory experience plays a major role in language acquisition. Linguistic and metalinguistic abilities of children aged 5–5.5 years with cochlear implants (CIs) were compared to age-matched children with normal hearing (NH) to investigate the effect of hearing on development of these two skills. MethodsEighteen children with NH and 18 children with CIs took part in the study. The Test of Language Development-Primary, third edition, was used to assess language and metalinguistic skills by assessment of phonological awareness (PA). Language skills and PA were then compared between groups. Hierarchical linear regression was conducted to determine whether the language skills explained the unique variance in PA. ResultsThere were significant differences between children with NH and those with CIs for language skills and PA (p≤0.001). All language skills (semantics, syntax, listening, spoken language, organizing, and speaking) were uniquely predictive of PA outcome in the CI children. Linear combinations of listening and semantics and listening, semantics, and syntax correlated significantly with PA. ConclusionThe results show that children with CIs may have trouble with language skills and PA. Listening, semantics, and syntax, among other skills, are significant indicators of the variance in PA for children with CIs.

Descriptive ineffability reconsidered

Ordinary competent language speakers experience difficulty in paraphrasing words such as ‘the’, ‘but’ or ‘however’ as compared to words such as ‘chair’ or ‘run’. The difficulty experienced in the first case is sometimes called descriptive ineffability. In recent debates about meaning types in pragmatics and philosophy of language, descriptive ineffability has been used as a test for the presence of expressive (as opposed to descriptive) meaning, or procedural (as opposed to conceptual) meaning. However, the notion of descriptive ineffability is controversial and in need of further clarification. In this paper I provide two arguments that descriptive ineffability is not a good criterion for distinguishing between types of meaning. First, I show that the effability/ineffability divide does not line up with distinctions in meaning type. Second, I argue that several effability/ineffability patterns are best explained not by the meaning types of words but by differences in the range and scope of speakers’ metalinguistic ability to paraphrase, as it is shaped by experience throughout their lives.

Caracterización neuropsicológica en niños entre seis y ocho años con antecedente de muy bajo peso al nacer y prematurez

Objective: Medical and neonatal ICU efforts have made it possible to preserve the life of patients born prematurely. The main serious disorders associated with very low birth weight are cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, developmental delay, mental retardation, and epilepsy. Of these children, 50% show intellectual disability, a high incidence of communication or learning disabilities, academic failure, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, specific neuropsychological deficits, and behavioral issues. This study analyzed the neuropsychological characteristics of 45 children between the ages of six and eight who were premature and had very low weight at birth. Methods: Observational, cross-sectional study in children born between 2005 and 2006. Upon parents’ informed consent, tests were applied to measure IQ and superior intellectual ability (WISC-IV and ENI). Results: Adequate performance is observed regarding intellectual capacity, where better performance was observed in those with greater gestational age with statistically significant differences in perceptive reasoning. In extremely premature babies, there was below average performance in metalinguistic abilities, long-term visual memory, verbal fluency, and cognitive flexibility. This reduced performance, along with lower IQ scores, was more notorious in children with a history of sepsis and intraventricular hemorrhage. Conclusions: Preterm birth and very low birth weight has a negative effect on neuropsychological functions. Below average neuropsychological performance (metalinguistic abilities, visual memory, verbal fluency, and cognitive flexibility) could explain neuropsychiatric problems present during growth.

Desarrollo de la conciencia sintáctica y fonológica en niños chilenos: un estudio transversal

The development of syntactic awareness has still not been widely investigated in a transparent orthography, such as Spanish. On the other hand, the increase of phonological awareness and its contribution to reading acquisition has received much more attention, both in opaque and transparent languages. Studies with English and French speaking children have demonstrated that syntactic awareness continues developing after reading instruction begins, and that even at the age of 11 or 14 it is not completely developed. The aim of this study was to describe and compare the development of syntactic awareness and phonological awareness in Chilean children from elementary grades. A sample of 234 Chilean children participated in the study, and they were assessed individually in syntactic and phonological awareness tasks. Results in Spanish confirmed similar findings found in opaque languages, as it was shown that both meta-linguistic abilities are still being developed at the school levels evaluated in this study.

The influence of (central) auditory processing disorder in speech sound disorders

IntroductionConsidering the importance of auditory information for the acquisition and organization of phonological rules, the assessment of (central) auditory processing contributes to both the diagnosis and targeting of speech therapy in children with speech sound disorders. ObjectiveTo study phonological measures and (central) auditory processing of children with speech sound disorder. MethodsClinical and experimental study, with 21 subjects with speech sound disorder aged between 7.0 and 9.11 years, divided into two groups according to their (central) auditory processing disorder. The assessment comprised tests of phonology, speech inconsistency, and metalinguistic abilities. ResultsThe group with (central) auditory processing disorder demonstrated greater severity of speech sound disorder. The cutoff value obtained for the process density index was the one that best characterized the occurrence of phonological processes for children above 7 years of age. ConclusionThe comparison among the tests evaluated between the two groups showed differences in some phonological and metalinguistic abilities. Children with an index value above 0.54 demonstrated strong tendencies towards presenting a (central) auditory processing disorder, and this measure was effective to indicate the need for evaluation in children with speech sound disorder.

Enhancing the metalinguistic abilities of pre-service teachers via coursework targeting language structure knowledge.

Low metalinguistic knowledge of pre-service and in-service teachers is likely to restrict the provision of evidence-based literacy instruction in the classroom. Despite such concerns, relatively few studies have examined the effects of teacher preparation coursework in building pre-service teachers' language structure knowledge. This study examined the effects of 7h of language structure coursework, delivered over 7weeks, on 121 New Zealand pre-service teachers in their initial year of study. Changes in participants' phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and orthographic knowledge were tracked across the teaching period. The impact of the coursework for participants who presented with strong spelling (n = 24) and poor spelling (n = 24) ability was also compared. The cohort demonstrated significant gains across all measures. Strong spellers responded more favourably to the teaching than poor spellers, even when accounting for initial levels of meta-linguistic knowledge. Implications for the development of teacher preparation programmes that enhance the provision of effective literacy instruction are discussed.

VERBAL PORTRAIT OF THE CHILD AND THE LANGUAGE GAME

The article analyzes the impact of the language games on the formation of verbal portrait of the child and his linguistic identity. The formation of children's linguistic identity is associated with the development of meta-linguistic and lingual-creative abilities. The retreat from the norms in adult speech is regarded as one of components, which can stimulate language game and provoke verbal activity of a child. One of the key factors shaping the verbal portrait of a child is the personality of the adults and their speech and the communication strategy they develop in dialogue with the child.