This paper will present a theoretical analysis of research on metalinguistic understanding, illustrating how current research does not yet adequately address metalinguistic development in writing. Existing research on metalinguistic understanding has focused more on language acquisition, oral development and bilingual learners. Research on metalinguistic understanding in writing has tended to look more closely at young learners developing writing skills in spelling, transcription and orthography. Thus, theoretical accounts of metalinguistic understanding are currently insufficient to explain developing metalinguistic mastery of composing text and the relationships between declarative and procedural metalinguistic knowledge in writing. If we are to understand better the nature of metalinguistic understanding in relation to writing in learners in the later phases of compulsory education, it is important to develop theoretical clarity about the key concepts involved in order to frame empirical studies which are both conceptually and methodologically rigorous and educationally relevant.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllanK. K. (1982). The Development of Young Children’s Metalinguistic Understanding of the Word. The Journal of Educational Research, 76, 89–93. doi:10.1080/00220671.1982.10885429
2.
BereiterC.ScardamaliaM. (1987). The psychology of written composition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence.
3.
BialystokE. (1987). Influences of bilingualism on metalinguistic development. Second Language Research, 3, 154–166. doi:10.1177/026765838700300205
4.
BialystokE. (1999). Cognitive complexity and attentional control in the bilingual mind. Child Development, 70, 636–644. doi:10.1111/cdev.1999.70.issue-3
5.
BialystokE. (2007) Acquisition of literacy in bilingual children: A framework for research. Language Learning, 57, 45–77.
6.
BialystokE.BaracR. (2012). Emerging bilingualism: Dissociating advantages for metalinguistic awareness and executive control. Cognition, 122, 67–73. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2011.08.003
7.
BourassaD.TreimanR.KesslerB. (2006). Use of morphology in spelling by children with dyslexia and typically developing children. Memory and Cognition, 34, 703–714. doi:10.3758/BF03193589
8.
CalkinsL. M. (1983). Lessons from a child: On the teaching and learning of writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
9.
CampsA.MilianM. (Eds.). (1999). Metalinguistic activity in learning to write. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
10.
CaravolasM.KesslerB.HulmeC.SnowlingM. (2005). Effects of orthographic consistency, frequency, and letter knowledge on children’s vowel spelling development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 92, 307–321. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2005.08.001
11.
CazdenC. B. (1976). Play with language and meta-linguistic awareness: One dimension of language experience. In BrunerJ. S.JollyA.SylvaK. (Eds.), Play: Its role in development and evolution (pp. 603–608). New York, NY: Basic Books.
12.
ChenH.JonesP. (2012). Understanding metalinguistic development in beginning writers. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 9, 81–104.
13.
CioffiG. (1984). Observing composing behaviours of primary-age children: The interaction of oral and written language. In BeachR.BridwellL. S. (Eds.), New directions in composition research (pp. 171–190). New York, NY: Guildford.
14.
CiseroC. A.RoyerJ. M. (1995). The development and cross-language transfer of phonological awareness. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 20, 275–303. doi:10.1006/ceps.1995.1018
15.
CulioliA. (1990) Pour une linguistique de l’enonciation: Tome 1 [Towards a linguistic enunciation: Volume 1]. Paris: Ophrys
16.
D’warteJ. (2012). Talking about texts: Middle school students’ engagement in metalinguistic talk. Linguistics and Education, 23, 123–134. doi:10.1016/j.linged.2011.07.001
17.
DahlK. L.FrepponP. (1995). Acomparison of inner-city children’s interpretations of reading and writing instruction in the early grades in skills-based and whole-language classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 31, 50–75.
18.
DowningJ.OliverP. (1974). The child’s conception of ‘a word’. Reading Research Quarterly, 9, 568–582. doi:10.2307/747003
19.
EllisR. (2009). Implicit and explicit learning, knowledge and instruction. In EllisR.LoewenS.ElderC.ErlamR.PhilipJ.ReindersH. (Eds), Implicit and explicit knowledge in second language learning, testing and teaching (pp. 3–30). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
20.
FlowerL.HayesJ. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication, 32, 365–387. doi:10.2307/356600
21.
FontichX.CampsA. (2014). Towards a rationale for research into grammar teaching in schools. Research Papers in Education, 29, 598–625. doi:10.1080/02671522.2013.813579
22.
FortuneA. (2005). Learners’ use of metalanguage in collaborative form-focused L2 output tasks. Language Awareness, 14, 21–38. doi:10.1080/09658410508668818
23.
GombertE. J. (1992). Metalinguistic development. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
24.
GombertE. J. (2003). Implicit and Explicit Learning to Read: Implication as for Subtypes of Dyslexia. Current Psychology Letters: Behaviour, Brain and Cognition, 10, Special Issue on Language Disorders and Reading Acquisition. RetrievedMarch, 2006fromhttp://cpl.revues.org/document202.html
25.
GravesD. (1983). Writing: Teachers and children at work. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
26.
GutierrezX. (2008). What Does Metalinguistic Activity in Learners’ Interaction During a Collaborative L2 Writing Task Look Like?The Modern Language Journal, 92, 519–537. doi:10.1111/modl.2008.92.issue-4
27.
HallidayM. A. K.MatthiessenC. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd ed.). London: Arnold.
28.
HayesJ.FlowerL. (1980). Identifying the organisation of writing process. In GreggL.SteinbergE. (Eds.), Cognitive processes in writing (pp. 3–30). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
29.
HiebertE.CioffiG.AntonakR. (1984). A developmental sequence in preschool children’s acquisition of reading readiness skills and print awareness concepts. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 5, 115–126. doi:10.1016/0193-3973(84)90012-1
30.
HuG. (2011). Metalinguistic knowledge, metalanguage, and their relationship in L2 learners. System, 39, 63–77. doi:10.1016/j.system.2011.01.011
31.
HulstijnJ. H. (2005). Theoretical and empirical issues in the study of implicit and explicit second-language learning: Introduction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 129–140. doi:10.1017/S0272263105050084
32.
JakobsonR. (1963). Essais de Linguistique Generale. Paris: Editions de Minuit.
33.
Karmiloff-SmithA.GrantJ.SimsK.JonesM.-C.CuckleP. (1996). Rethinking metalinguistic awareness: Representing and accessing knowledge about what counts as a word. Cognition, 58, 197–219. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(95)00680-X
34.
KelloggR. T. (1994). The psychology of writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
35.
KirshD. (1991). When is information explicitly represented? In HansonP. P. (Ed.), Information, language and cognition (pp. 340–365). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
36.
LinD.Mcbride-ChangC.DoritA.LevinI. (2011). Mother-child joint writing in Chinese kindergarteners: Metalinguistic awareness, maternal mediation and literacy acquisition. Journal of Research in Reading, 34, 426–442. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01446.x
37.
MacGillivrayL. (1994). Tacit shared understandings of a first-grade writing community. Journal of Reading Behavior, 26, 245–266.
38.
MartelloJ. (2001). Talk about writing: Metalinguistic awareness in beginning writers. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 24, 101–111.
39.
MartinJ. (1985). Factual writing. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
40.
MasnyD. (1987). The role of language and cognition in second language metalinguistic awareness. In LantolfJ.LabarcaA. (Eds), Research in second language learning: Focus on the classroom (pp. 59–73). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
41.
MurrayD. M. (1982). Learning by teaching: Selected articles on writing and teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
42.
MyhillD. A. (2011). ‘The Ordeal of Deliberate Choice’: Metalinguistic Development in Secondary Writers. In BerningerV. (Ed.), Past, present, and future contributions of cognitive writing research to cognitive psychology (pp. 247–274). New York, NY: Psychology Press/Taylor Francis Group.
43.
MyhillD. A.JonesS. M.LinesH.WatsonA. (2012). Re-thinking grammar: The impact of embedded grammar teaching on students’ writing and students’ metalinguistic understanding. Research Papers in Education, 27, 139–166. doi:10.1080/02671522.2011.637640
44.
NorbertF. (1999). Bilingualism, writing, and metalinguistic awareness: Oral-literate interactions between first and second languages. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20, 533–561. doi:10.1017/S014271649900404X
45.
NunesT.BryantP.BindmanM. (2006). The effects of learning to spell on children’s awareness of morphology. Reading and Writing, 19, 767–787. doi:10.1007/s11145-006-9025-y
46.
RobinsonM. (2005). Metalanguage in L1 English-speaking 12-year-olds: Which aspects of writing do they talk about?Language Awareness, 14, 39–55. doi:10.1080/09658410508668819
47.
RoehrK. (2008). Metalinguistic knowledge and language ability in university-level L2 learners. Applied Linguistics, 29, 173–199. doi:10.1093/applin/amm037
48.
RoseD. (2009). Writing as linguistic mastery: The development of genre-based literacy pedagogy. In BeardR.MyhillD.RileyJ.NystrandM. (Eds.), International handbook of writing development (pp. 151–166). London: SAGE.
49.
RothF.SpeeceD.CooperD.De La PazS. (1996). Unresolved mysteries: How do metalinguistic and narrative skills connect with early reading?The Journal of Special Education, 30, 257–277.
50.
StorchN. (2008). Metatalk in a pair work activity: Level of engagement and implications for language development. Language Awareness, 17, 95–114. doi:10.2167/la431.0
51.
TolchinskyL. (Ed). (2001). Developmental aspects of Learning to Write. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
52.
Van LierL. (1998). The relationship between consciousness, interaction and language learning. Language Awareness, 7, 128–145. doi:10.1080/09658419808667105
53.
VygotskyL. S. (1986). Thought and language (Kozulin, A. Ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
54.
WilliamsG. (2004). Ontogenesis and grammatics: Functions of metalanguage in pedagogical discourse. In WilliamsG.LukinA. (Eds.), The development of language: Functional perspectives on species and individuals (pp. 241-267). London: Continuum.
55.
WilliamsG. (2005). Grammatic in schools. In HasanR.MatthiesenC. M. I. M.WebsterJ. (Eds.), Continuing discourse on language (pp. 281–310). London: Equinox.
56.
WilsonA. C.MyhillD. A. (2012). Ways with words: Teachers’ personal epistemologies of the role of metalanguage in the teaching of poetry writing. Language and Education, 26, 553–568. doi:10.1080/09500782.2012.669768
