Harney, Noone, & Conway (2015), âindividuals think metacognitively in two ways: first, individuals must be aware of their own cognitive processes (e.g., through ...
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Strategies to develop metalinguistic awareness in adult learners Dr. Sonia El Euch & Dr. Alain Huot Education department Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Canada)
WEFLA 2015, International Conference on Foreign Languages, Communication and Culture, Holguin (Cuba), April 27-29
Abstract The development of metalinguistic awareness is a crucial component of teaching practice. Many studies showed the importance of metalinguistic awareness in school achievement in different subjects (e.g. reading, mathematics, writing). Several strategies have been therefore used to enhance metalinguistic awareness through phonemic awareness, syntactic awareness, and lexical awareness tasks (e.g. Roth, Speece, Cooper, & De La Paz, 1996; Yuill, 1998; Zipke, 2008). However, these strategies are exclusively aimed at school learners and are therefore not appropriate for adult learners. Because metalinguistic awareness is involved at all levels of learning (Pinto & El Euch, 2015; Pinto, Titone, & Gil, 2000), this paper describes a few teaching strategies to enhance the metalinguistic awareness level in adult learners and highlights the importance of metacognition as a global process in developing metalinguistic awareness.
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If you are a future language teacher, the development of metalinguistic awareness will be a very important component of your teaching practice. What is metalinguistic awareness, you may ask?
What’s metalinguistic awareness? It is simply the ability to think about language and talk about it. When a teacher asks his/her learners to discuss the use of some words or to explain the pertinence of an argument, s/he is promoting the development of metalinguistic awareness. On a more academic level, metalinguistic awareness refers to having an explicit knowledge about the structural features of language (Gaux & Gombert, 1999). More precisely, it is about allowing “the individual to step back from the comprehension or production of an utterance in order to consider the linguistic form and structure underlying the meaning of the utterance. Thus a metalinguistic task is one which requires the individual to think about the linguistic nature of the message, to attend to and reflect on the structural features of language. To be metalinguistically aware, then, is to know how to approach and solve certain types of problems which themselves demand certain cognitive and linguistic skills.” (Malakoff, 1992, p. 518) It is a high-level cognitive ability which is part of the more general concept of metacognition. The meta morpheme in both metalinguistic and metacognition is a Greek prefix that means beyond and that entails going beyond language and cognition to call for an intentional, explicit and conscious ability. Metalinguistics refers then to the consciousness or awareness of the linguistic aspects of a language. Similarly, metacognition “is generally understood as the ability to contemplate one’s own thinking, to observe oneself when processing cognitive tasks, and to organize the learning and thinking processes involved in these tasks” (Seel, 2012). Metacognition involves, therefore, the notion of awareness of one’s cognitive processes that enables the individual to analyse and control the way s/he thinks and learns. By calling on metacognitive skills, one increases his/her performance skills in a variety of situations where cognitive processes are involved. Figure 1 illustrates how the concepts of metacognition and metalinguistics relate to each other.
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Global process
Specific process
Awareness types
meta-memory
phonological meta-learning
semantic metacognition
metalinguistics syntactic meta-attention
pragmatic meta-social cognition
Figure 1 : Metacognition and metalinguistic awareness (adapted from Tunmer, Pratt, & Herriman, 1984)
Why is metacognition important and why should we teach metalinguistic awareness? Metacognition is an important cognitive process involved in different aspects of an individual’s life. At home, for example, analysing the children’s responses to their parents’ demands enables the parents to adjust their future demands in order to enhance a good parent-child communication. It is here an example of a metacognitive strategy called self-regulation. Planning is another metacognitive strategy that teachers use at school. For example, when teachers plan lessons, they consciously choose the best strategy for a specific content in order to improve their students’ learning process. Similarly, at work (which can be in school, of course!), metacognition enables school principals to be more efficient. For example, they usually use the self-management strategy to decide what they will do and when they will do it. The most important part of this strategy is also to know why they will do it in a specific way. School principals may also use metacognition to supervise their staff members, especially teachers during supervision meetings. Those meetings are a very good opportunity to make modeling (Gauthier, Bissonnette, & Richard, 2013) and to trigger metacognition in teachers. In fact, metacognition helps teachers develop their own competencies, be aware of their actions, and later go through the same process with their students. As stated by Broyon (2006), “To act effectively on the development of metacognition of their students,
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teachers must have already succeeded in developing their own metacognition, some related intervention strategies, and an ability to analyze their own professional practice by adopting a reflexive habit” (p. 109, our translation).
Teachers will, in their turn, transfer the acquired metacognitive strategies to their learners. And, in the case of language teachers, not only metacognition but also metalinguistic awareness should be developed. Several reasons should motivate teachers to design educational activities that aim at developing metalinguistic awareness in learners. First off, metalinguistic awareness enables the learner to understand how language is used in various contexts. Once developed to a high level, it helps the learner use language with high confidence in a variety of contexts (home, school, work, etc.) because s/he is in control of the message s/he would like to convey. In addition, many studies have shown the importance of metalinguistic awareness in school achievement in different subjects, such as reading (Bialystok, 1988), mathematics (MacGregor & Price, 1999), and writing (de Haro, Delgado, & López, 2012). And, several researchers have shown that in young learners certain metalinguistic tasks, usually phonemic awareness, predict performance level on literacy tasks (Frost, 2001; Kamii & Manning, 2002; Ukrainetz, Cooney, Dyer, Kysar, & Harris, 2000; Zipke, 2007, 2008) .
Strategies to develop metalinguistic awareness in adults To be developed fully, any skill needs to be practiced in various contexts and on a long time period. This applies to metalinguistic awareness and to metacognition as a whole. According to Hogan, Dwyer, Harney, Noone, & Conway (2015), “individuals think metacognitively in two ways: first, individuals must be aware of their own cognitive processes (e.g., through self-monitoring or self-regulation); second, individuals must be able to apply available cognitive processes for purposes of learning or devising solutions to problems (e.g. using critical thinking or reflective judgment)” (p. 75). To promote the development of metacognition, school principals, teachers and learners should use metacognitive strategies, such as planning, self-assessment and self-regulation. When applied to language, these strategies enhance the development of metalinguistic awareness. Since this development is not limited to a specific age range, it should be promoted at all learning levels. Unfortunately, the available educational activities to develop metalinguistic awareness have been designed for young learners and as such are not appropriate for adult learners. As a growing number of studies (e.g. Bloor, 1986; El Euch, 2010, 2011) have shown a very low level of metalinguistic awareness in undergraduate students and have related this level to the students’ low performance level in tests that call for analytic and argumentative skills, this paper suggests some educational activities suitable for adults.
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Self-talk An essential strategy to develop metacognition is self-talk. School principals involve this strategy in their problem solving process to make sure their actions are well understood. Teachers also usually call for this strategy to enhance their classroom management skills. But, more importantly, self-talk should be encouraged in learners as part of their learning development. Self-talk is an important strategy for success in that it develops an awareness of what is expected in a text, be it oral or written in order to ensure the clarity and exhaustiveness of the message. When students learn to identify an incomplete, fuzzy or ambiguous message, they can be trained to change this message to make it explicit through self-talk. Later, they will transfer this strategy to their own messages in the process of producing them whether orally or in writing. By thinking about the language used in a text, learners can develop an awareness of the different parts of speech to make the message more explicit. Self-talk makes people stretch their thinking, analyse the language they are using or facing and make sense of it beyond its intuitive use. Instances of self-talk can be the following, though not exhaustively: “Will my message be clearly understood without any confusion?” “Can I express this differently to make it clearer?” “Can my words/my explanations be more explicit/more precise?” “Will my message have a negative effect on the reader/listener? An effect that is not intended in the first place...” “What makes me sure that I understood well? Can I relate what I understood to the other parts of speech?” “Did I answer each question thoroughly addressing each element in the instructions?” (In the case of a testing situation) Self-talk can also be in a declarative affirmative way to foster positive feelings of self-achievement. For example: “I can make this text exhaustive by explaining, justifying and giving examples.” “I’m going to write this text in a way they will think I’m smart.” “I’ll do a good job.” “I’ll give this text/task my best shot!” “There is a way to make my text/work better and I’ll do it.” Many of these examples are used by school principals while writing their texts or during their oral communications. They are not all specific to language and, therefore, to metalinguistic awareness. Hence, they develop metacognitive ability in general situations and metalinguistic awareness in language situations.
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Predicting To make successful predictions, school principals and teachers make an “educated guess”. They use context and available data to predict someone’s behaviour or an event issue. Predicting or making hypotheses involves relying on available information to guess missing information. Making the correct guess or prediction involves a good analysis of the available information and a sense of logic to reach the plausible missing information. Predicting activates background knowledge, draws attention towards key concepts or key words, and shows learners that they are smart enough to figure out things. After predicting, learners are usually asked to read or listen to the text to check if they made the correct predictions. This process of predicting and revising assists students in thinking, analysing and making a deep sense of the message at hand. If their predictions are incorrect, they will have to relate the new elements and adjust their thinking accordingly, which creates new connections. Here are some predicting activities to be adapted to the learners’ level and to the context (classroom or administrative): -
Predicting the meaning of unknown words from surrounding text;
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Predicting the meaning of a sentence which structure is unknown or complex;
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Predicting a conclusion, based on previous parts of the text;
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Predicting a decision based on pros and cons;
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Predicting an opinion based on for and against arguments;
When targeting the development of metalinguistic awareness, these activities need to be followed by a justification to make sure students make their thoughts explicit.
Paraphrasing Whether for school principals, teachers or learners, successful paraphrasing is one’s own comprehension and production of another person’s oral or written text. It involves not only understanding the message, i.e. analysing the words and sentences to make sense of them, but also to use different sentences and words to express the same ideas. Paraphrasing calls for two cognitive processes: language analysis and language control. Paraphrasing activities can be at different levels: -
At the words level by asking students to provide synonyms. For example: “80% of the participants were women.” (= The majority of the participants were women.)
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At the voice level by asking students to:
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Change the sentence from the active to the passive voice (or the opposite);
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Explain the transformation process;
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Explain when they would use the active voice and when they would use the passive voice.
At the clause level by asking students to: o
Combine two sentences;
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Say if there is another way to combine them;
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Identify the best way, according to them, and justify their answer.
At the linguistic function level by asking students to: o
Change verbs to nouns or vice versa;
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Identify the sentence that seems best to them;
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Explain which sentence they would use.
At the semantic level by asking students to: o
Express the whole meaning of a paragraph in their own words;
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Indicate if the reported information is sufficient and justify their answer.
Summarizing School principals and teachers often use the summarizing strategy, whether to wrap up a meeting or a lesson. Students should be trained to use this strategy efficiently. Below are two suggestions that require summarizing skills. Activity 1 Students are asked to: 1. Highlight (or underline) the parts of text that need to be focused on; 2. Write a text with the highlighted (or underlined) parts; 3. In pairs, students exchange their texts and discuss/justify their choice of the parts of speech they selected from the original text. Activity 2 Students are asked to: 1. Keep a journal for courses; 2. In pairs, they discuss the correctness and the pertinence of the information kept in their respective journals.
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Comparing sentences with discourse markers and coherence relations Coherence relations are relations in discourse that join sentences or clauses to express cause, condition, elaboration, justification or evidence, as defined in Rhetorical structure theory (Mann & Thompson, 1988; Mann, Thompson, & Pery-Woodley, 2001). Discourse markers (e.g. but, because, then, already, etc.) guide the reader or listener in the recognition of these relations. The task of comparing sentences with discourse markers and coherence relations triggers the student’s analysis ability of both sentences. To express the similarity or difference between sentences brings along the student’s language control ability. A comparison task has been involved in several metalinguistic awareness tests (Pinto, 1999; Pinto & El Euch, 2015; Pinto et al., 2000; Pinto, Titone, & Trusso, 1999) to assess the development level of metalinguistic awareness in the comprehension of different types of relations (qualitative, temporal and spatiotemporal). For example, students may be asked to indicate whether each pair of the following sentences 1 deals with the same type of quality and to justify their answers. -
He provided an acceptable solution to the problem.
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He provided a good solution to the problem.
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Read first, then think.
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Start thinking after reading.
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The city hall is facing the theatre.
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The theatre is facing the city hall.
Playing with language Playing with language involves using figurative language in several ways, such as metaphors, personification, similes, oxymoron, and imagery. It also involves playing with sounds from different languages in the same sentence. Playing with language requires the learner to establish a distance from the text, to go beyond the literal meaning of words to get the intended message. Language analysis is the first step in the process followed by language control, the awareness of the meaning of words and the reasons they are used in a specific context. Playing with language is therefore more specifically related to metalinguistic awareness than to metacognition in general. Nonetheless, school principals and teachers 1
The sentences are taken from Pinto et al. (1999).
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may use it to mainly highlight certain concepts. For example, when holding the annual kickoff meeting, school principals may compare their planning of the school year to a planning for vacation in order to draw the teachers attention to the different steps required and to the objectives to attain (e.g. When someone plans a trip, s/he chooses the destination, the means of transportation, and the places where s/he will stay. When planning a school year, the team must set the final outcomes, the strategies to reach these outcomes, and the meetings calendar so that they can debrief and make sure everyone is on the right path). In a learning context, teachers may ask students to explain how they would interpret metaphors, for example, and to justify the use of the words that make up the metaphor. Examples of metaphors might be: -
The mind is a sponge. 2
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Success is a bastard as it has many fathers, and failure is an orphan, with no takers.
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The teacher planted the seeds of wisdom.
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She cut him down with her words.
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Life is a stage.
Students may also be asked to explain advertising slogans, such as: -
“Wii would like to play.”
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- “We don’t charge an arm and a leg. We want tows.” (From a towing company)
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“Beer, now cheaper than gas. Drink, don’t drive.”
Teachers may also ask students to explain sentences that include a play on words such as in the following sentences: -
Know safety, no injury. No safety, know injury.
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Shortcuts cut life short.
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“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” (Muhammad Ali)
Students may also be asked to explain sentences that seem miscellaneous because they involve two languages (or more), such as:
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Blanc sans N, ça fait black.
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He gave me carte blanche to finish it.
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I’ve just flunked my test! Qué serà serà.
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We finally found time for a tête-à-tête.
Example taken from Pinto et al. (1999).
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Teaching ambiguous language Teaching ambiguous language applies to metalinguistic awareness more than to metacognition, and as such is adopted by teachers more than by school principals, even if these should be cautious when it comes to communicating with teachers and parents in order to avoid unintentional slip-ups. In a learning context, drawing the students’ attention to the possibility that words and sentences may have several meanings will certainly help learners acknowledge the arbitrariness character of language. Later, being aware of the existence of two incompatible meanings to a word or sentence and being able to determine which meaning is preferred will play a major role in reading comprehension (Yuill, 1998). The impact of teaching ambiguous language goes beyond reading comprehension as ambiguity is all around us whether it is intended or not. Teaching ambiguous language actually helps students for life in an ambiguous world. Teaching ambiguous language can be at the semantic and syntactic levels. For example, at the semantic level students may be asked to explain sentences such as: -
Blood work and x-rays showed all is negative. What good news! (How is negative good?)
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“You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen; it said, 'Parking Fine.' So that was nice.” (English comedian Tim Vine)
At the syntactic level, students may be asked to explain sentences that are ambiguous because of their structure, such as the following: -
Please wait for hostess to be seated.
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The children ran outside.
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The chicken is ready to eat.
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The burglar threatened the student with the knife.
Conclusion In conclusion, several studies have shown that effective learners use metacognitive knowledge and strategies to self-regulate their learning (Schraw & Gutierrez, 2015). In a language learning context, effective learners show high levels of analysis and control of language. It is therefore essential to promote the development of metalinguistic awareness in learners because metalinguistic awareness helps learners be in control of their communication skills in the oral and written modes. It also helps them have a very good grasp of the meaning of the messages they read or listen to. These two advantages have an effect on the learners’ standing in society, in addition to the fact that it may strongly favour employment opportunities.
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