Metalanguaging Matters

Abstract

In this article, the authors build on empirical data from the ongoing longitudinal research project Signs of language (2008 – 2018) to examine how multilingual children in a primary school setting use metalinguistic resources linked to several written languages. Grounded in social semiotics and drawing on newer social perspectives on metalanguage, the authors focus on a researcher-generated activity designed to invite the children to reflect on language and literacy. In two particular interactions, they explore how the children “engage with the meta” by navigating between different languages and sign systems, and how their use of metalinguistic resources in a referential sense is inextricably linked to a dialogically formed and performative negotiation of social identity and social relations. Thus, adopting a metalanguaging perspective, this article demonstrates how metalinguistic statements about language are closely interwoven with an ongoing production and negotiation of the communicative situation.

Unfolding language awareness in a plurilingual context: A study of metalinguistic, practical, and critical language awareness

“…Existing classroom-based research in the diverse field of LA has described many LA practices similar to the ones found here, such as metalinguistic learning spaces, metalanguaging, and crosslinguistic practices in a multilingual literacy context (Daugaard, 2013;Laursen, 2019;Laursen et al, 2018), LA moments in the context of a specific, multilingual task (Gorp & Verheyen, 2018), or language-aware student practices (Krogager Andersen, 2020). Thus, the unique contribution of this study to the field lies not in the detailed analysis of each specific form but in the empirical documentation and analysis of the many and varied ways in which LA may manifest itself in the classroom, that is, in the comprehensive overviews of LA manifestations provided.…”

“…The classroom context requires a specific perspective on LA as a sociocognitive phenomenon observable in student discourse and forms of engagement with language (Svalberg, 2009). Comparable conceptualizations of LA have been used by existing classroom‐based studies, describing, for example, LA moments (Gorp & Verheyen, 2018), metalanguaging (Laursen, 2019; Laursen et al., 2018), or language‐aware student practices (Krogager Andersen, 2020).…”

Tværsproglighedens veje: Om sproglig bevidsthed, tværsproglighed og didaktisk forandringsarbejde i en folkeskolekontekst

“…Denne pointe har hos nogle forskere (Fukuta, Tamura & Kawaguchi, 2019;Jørgensen, 2008;Laursen et al, 2018;Normann Jørgensen, 2010) ført til en anden måde at taenke over og tale om sprog på vha. begreberne languaging og translanguaging.…”

“…Kontrasten mellem den kognitivt orienterede og den socialt orienterede forståelse af sprog og sproglig bevidsthed er både teoretisk og metodologisk, idet den kognitive lingvistik anser sprog og sproglig bevidsthed for at vaere primaert kognitive faenomener, der bedst kan undersøges eksperimentelt (se fx Bialystok, 2015; N. C. Ellis & Wulff, 2014;Grosjean et al, 2013;Jessner, 1999), hvorimod den socialt og socio-kulturelt orienterede sprogforskning typisk ser sprog og sproglig bevidsthed som sociale, interaktionelle faenomener -noget der gøres snarere end noget der er, og derfor undersøger interaktion og sproglig praksis (se fx Dufva & Alanen, 2005;Laursen et al, 2018;Thorne & Lantolf, 2006;van Compernolle, 2015).…”

“…At sproglig bevidsthed i form af saerlige sproglige praksisser udøves i klasserummet, herunder i sprogundervisningen, findes der mange eksempler på i den sociokulturelt og socialsemiotisk inspirerede litteratur på området (Daugaard, 2015;Dufva & Alanen, 2005;Laursen, 2001;Laursen & Mogensen, 2016;Laursen et al, 2018). Laesningen af disse undersøgelser giver et mangfoldigt billede af (isaer tosprogede) elevers kreative, reflekterede og kompetente sproglige og metasproglige praksisser.…”