Metalinguistic Competence Research Articles

Relationship between children's theory of mind and metalinguistic competence in early childhood

Relationship between children's theory of mind and metalinguistic competence in early childhood

Leserelevante Kompetenzen an der Schwelle vom Kindergarten zur Schule

While formal reading instruction only starts at school, the acquisition of competencies relevant to reading has its origins in early childhood. According to the model used in the project »Wortschatz und Wortlesen. Aneignung im fruhen Schulalter« (WuW), early reading competence is based on three pillars: print knowledge, orally acquired linguistic competencies, and precursor abilities. The present article discusses results regarding competencies relevant to reading at the point of school entry, based on the data of 137 Swiss children with Swiss German as their fi rst language. Our aim is to examine the thesis that besides the empirically proven impact of phonological awareness and letter knowledge other dimensions need to be considered in order to do justice the complexity of early reading. Results show that in a synchronic perspective, there is only a weak correlation between vocabulary breadth as well as depth and word reading. Print knowledge and the metalinguistic competence of word awareness, in contrast, seem to be signifi cant factors.

English academic writing proficiency in higher education: Facilitating the transition from metalinguistic awareness to metalinguistic competence

Students entering higher education are expected to develop into proficient academic writers in the course of their studies. The article focuses on metalinguistic awareness in the development of English (L2) academic writing proficiency in higher education. It builds on an on-going study investigating the role of metacognitive skills in the development of L2 academic writing proficiency in higher education. It bases its findings on an initial questionnaire which aimed at clarifying the students’ understanding of “an academic text” and “academic writing” in English, and how well they perceived themselves to mastering L2 academic writing. The article sheds light on the extent to which metalinguistic awareness of L2 academic vocabulary and language is present in the students’ thoughts about L2 academic writing as expressed in their responses to the questionnaire, and discusses the findings and their implications for how to further facilitate students’ development of L2 academic writing proficiency. The analysis reveals that the students possess elements of metalinguistic awareness about L2 academic writing but that their awareness is limited, particularly in relation to practical use of academic vocabulary. The results also indicate that the students lack the metalinguistic competence necessary to put their awareness into practice. The study concludes that raising students’ metalinguistic awareness is necessary to facilitate their further development in L2 academic writing proficiency. It argues that metalinguistic conversations can be an important tool in this process, and emphasizes that greater focus on such conversations as facilitators of L2 academic writing proficiency is needed within L2 higher education.

Les approches plurielles : vecteurs du développement de la compétence métalinguistique des collégiens

Cet article cherche à décrire les processus cognitifs mis en jeu par la mise en œuvre d’une approche plurielle fondée sur des langues inconnues (APLI) au sein du cours d’anglais en classe de cinquième. Il s’agit, en effet, d’examiner les liens cognitifs et linguistiques que les élèves établissent entre les langues inconnues observées (néerlandais, italien puis finnois) dans le cadre d’activités métasémantiques inscrites dans l’APLI et les langues de leur répertoire linguistique (L1-français et L2-anglais). Les APLI aident l’élève à développer sa compétence métalinguistique puisque la résolution du problème d’accès au sens nécessite la conscientisation des savoirs et savoir-faire acquis de manière antérieure à la séance d’APLI. En outre, il apparaît que les stratégies de comparaison et de traduction naturellement mises en œuvre par les élèves s’appuient avant tout sur des connaissances déclaratives alors que la déduction et l’inférence nécessitent à la fois des connaissances déclaratives et procédurales.

Attività rivolte allo sviluppo e al consolidamento della competenza metalinguistica nell'ambito dell'italiano commerciale (Naloge za razvijanje in utrjevanje metajezikovne zmožnosti v okviru pouka poslovnega italijanskega jezika)

Prispevek prikazuje pogostnost in tipologijo nalog za razvijanje in utrjevanje metajezikovne zmožnosti v okviru poučevanja poslovnega italijanskega jezika, pri čemer se posebej osredinja na poslovne dopise. Čeprav naloge s poudarkom na omenjeni zmožnosti, ki omogoča razvijanje zavedanja o jezikovnem sistemu, kar vključuje razumevanje in poimenovanje jezikovnih sredstev z ustreznimi termini in njihovo uvrščanje v sistem, predstavljajo le manjši odstotek vseh nalog v proučenih gradivih za poučevanje poslovnega italijanskega jezika, njihova vloga ni zanemarljiva. Slušatelje namreč ozaveščajo o pomenu različnih sporazumevalnih praks pri stilistični in materialni izvedbi dopisov in o relevantnosti določenih makrostrukturnih elementov, ki so v določenih tematskih zvrsteh (ponudba, naročilo, reklamacija itn.) pričakovani. Analize, opravljene v 6 različnih učbenikih, so ugotovile zanimive podobnosti in razlike med posameznimi gradivi ter tipološke skupine nalog, za katere je značilna raba nekompleksnega metajezika in pretežno receptivna naravnanost. Pridobljene ugotovitve učitelju lahko služijo za nadaljnje izboljševanje in dopolnjevanje obstoječih učnih modelov in lastnih gradiv, namenjenih poučevanju poslovne korespondence.

Written composition performance of students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

ABSTRACTAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is frequently associated with learning disabilities. The present study examined the written composition of children with ADHD, which depends to a large degree on continuous self-regulation and attentional control skills for organizing information and maintaining the level of effort. Fifty children with ADHD and 50 normally developing children, matched on age and IQ, were assessed using a composition writing task. The results contribute to prior research findings by showing that the children with ADHD performed significantly worse than the comparison groups on the majority of the planning, translation, and revision process measures usually employed to assess the quality of written compositions. Deficiencies in executive functioning or poor linguistic and metalinguistic competence could account for the results found. More research is needed to clarify the underlying causes of the written composition performance profile of children with ADHD.

Zum Lehren und Lernen von Phraseologismen im DaF-Studium. Überlegungen zu Inhalten und Methoden ihrer Vermittlung anhand eines Unterrichtsmodells

The contribution advocates a systematic inclusion of phraseology in university programs of the study of German as a Foreign Language. The author presents her own model of instruction that is based on a multimedial teaching and study material. The objective is to develop not only the students' linguistic competence, but also their metalinguistic awareness of phrasemes as a specific linguistic phenomenon. The author's aim is to give a theoretically well founded description of teaching processes focusing on a symbiosis of mediating linguistic as well as metalinguistic competence in the field of phraseology in German as a Foreign Language.

A Study of Students’ Metalinguistic Competence and Its Probable Effect in the Cambridge School Certificate Final Examinations

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which students’ understanding of key words in examination questions might influence their performance as illustrated by the number of subjects in which they obtain pass grades in the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate Examination (COSCE). The term used to refer to key words in this study is ‘metalinguistic’.It is a term that means more than what Kemp (2006, p.1) refers to as ‘grammatical metalinguistic awareness’. In the context of this study it refers to words or phrases that are used to describe language as an object of study. Procedurally, questions were designed to assess students’ understanding of metalinguistic terms. The percentage scores of the metalinguistic tests were calculated and then compared with the number of ‘O’ level passes obtained by students to determine whether high scores in the metalanguage tests were comparable to the number of ‘O’ level passes obtained by the research subjects. It was discovered that high metalinguistic test scores were associated with greater ‘O’ level passes and low scores, with fewer ‘O’ level passes.Keywords: metalinguistic awareness, linguistics metalanguage, metalinguistic incompetence, metalinguistic competence variable, idealization, metalinguistic score

ADAM JAWORSKI, NIKOLAS COUPLAND AND DARIUSZ GALASINSKI (eds.), Metalanguage: Social and ideological perspectives

Adam Jaworski, Nikolas Coupland and Dariusz Galasiński (eds.), Metalanguage: Social and ideological perspectives. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2004. Pp 324. Pb Euro 30,79.It is commonplace in linguistics to argue that human language is unique in being able to represent itself, an insight that has underpinned much of the early work undertaken by sociolinguists in the area of language attitudes and folk linguistics. However, the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of sociolinguistics, informed not least by recent work in (critical) discourse analysis and language ideology studies, has highlighted the extent to which this central metalinguistic function represents more than a mere cognitive ability to reflect on language “as object.” This is because it is through metalanguage (ML) that we are able to convey our ideas not only about what language is, but what we think it ought to be. As such, ML shows itself to be more than simply self-serving: It is inherently ideological. Seen in conjunction with an increasing awareness of the nature of language as not only socially contextualized but also contextualizing, the notion of metalinguistic competence is therefore closely bound up with hegemonic struggle at a particular point in history (late modernity) when many traditional social boundaries might well be being dismantled but where new ones are constantly emerging in their stead – a process to which language and discourse are indisputably central.

Early metalinguistic competence: Speech monitoring and repair behavior.

Early metalinguistic competence: Speech monitoring and repair behavior.

Early metalinguistic competence: speech monitoring and repair behavior.

This article examines 2-3-year-olds' responses to specific (e.g., "Where did he go?") and neutral (e.g., "What?") requests for clarification. The focus is on children's ability to locate the linguistic errors that provoked neutral questions of clarification and their success in providing appropriate repair. It is argued that this behavior provides evidence for a speech monitor that detects errors and enables repair. Contrary to A. Karmiloff-Smith's (1992) claim, control over the production and comprehension of specific structures does not necessarily precede monitoring. Rather, metalinguistic abilities that are implicated in speech monitoring develop simultaneously with the acquisition of primary linguistic behavior and do not require awareness. It is claimed that such metaprocesses are fundamental to the use of language as a vehicle for the expression of intentional content.

Perception of Word Junctures by Children

A comparative study was undertaken to assess the relative magnitude of the effects of linguistic context on the perception of word-juncture boundaries in 30 young school-aged children, 30 older school-aged children, and 30 adults. Minimally contrasted two-word phrases differing in word-juncture boundaries were embedded in a meaningful sentence context, nonmeaningful sentence context, and in neutral phrase context. Groups performed similarly in the neutral phrase context, and two older groups performed better than the young group in the meaningful context. The poorest performances occurred during the nonmeaningful context, with a significant difference among age groups. Heavier reliance upon top-down processing and less developed linguistic and metalinguistic competence may account for the observed differences among groups.

Reading Assessment and Illettrisme

Abstract The scope and consequences of functional illiteracy in industrialised countries are first examined in the French context and discussion is then focused on the assessment of reading skills. The paper divides forms of assessment into two categories: the global approach and the analytical approach. The global approach is characterised by assessment of reading competence through results obtained on reading tasks. Data are mainly obtained from classic psychometric measures and thus are liable to the same drawbacks as are encountered when these methods are used in other domains. The analytical approach is based on the identification of elementary skills and strategies implemented by the reader, as defined by underlying reading and the reader models which make more or less implicit reference to the reader's metalinguistic competence acquired primarily through the learning of grammar. >Examples of studies using the global and analytical approaches are reviewed and suggestions put forward for further rese...

Reading and spelling skills in the first school years predicted from phonemic awareness skills in kindergarten

A series of metalinguistic tasks, including segmentation and synthesis of words, were given to 143 children in kindergarten. The children were followed up in school where reading and writing achievement was assessed with several tests and ratings. A causal model was postulated concering the relationships between general abilities, metalinguistic competence, and reading and spelling skills. The quantitative implications of the model were worked out by path analysis, which revealed an orderly and interpretable picture. The most invariant and important determinant of basic reading and spelling skills was the analysis of simple words. Failure and success in school could be predicted with high accuracy on the basis of preschool data. Over 70% of the children were classified correctly in the extreme quartiles as to their future school achievement. The methodological advantage of applying path analysis instead of conventional multiple regression analysis on the present problem was discussed.

What is a Word?

Language is a means of expressing knowledge and at the same time an object of knowledge. How do children, in addition to using Ianguage, acquire the capacity to think about language? The authors postulate that this ‘metalinguistic competence’ develops along with general cognitive structuration as described by Piaget. The present research concerns the concept of ‘the word’, experimentally studied with children aged 4–10 years. It shows a slow development of this concept from an initial indifferentiation between word and thing (at the level of metalinguistic thought and not at the level of know-how) towards the capacity of conceiving the word both as a meaningful constituent element of larger units and as a unit which is itself built up from smaller elements.