Metalinguistic awareness in children with differing language learning experience

Abstract

Theoretical research concerned with the notion of second language (L2) learning difficulty has resulted in specific criteria that can be used to predict the learning difficulty of different languages in terms of both explicit and implicit knowledge. The characteristics of the constructed language Esperanto suggest that this language has lower explicit and implicit learning difficulty than other languages. It may therefore be a suitable 'starter language' for child L2 learning in the classroom. Specifically, we propose that Esperanto may facilitate the development of metalinguistic awareness and, as a consequence, boost children's budding capacity for explicit learning. This would be particularly advantageous in the minimal-input setting of the average foreign language classroom. We present findings from an empirical study which compared 11 to 12-year-old English-speaking children who had learned Esperanto and a European L2 (N = 35) with children who had learned various combinations of European and non-European L2s (N = 168) in terms of their performance on a measure of metalinguistic awareness. No significant differences in overall level of metalinguistic awareness were identified, but the Esperanto group significantly outperformed the comparison group on one of the eleven metalinguistic tasks included in the measure.Moreover, the Esperanto group displayed a more homogeneous performance than the other groups of children. This suggests that learning Esperanto may have a lasting levelling effect, reducing differences between children with varying metalinguistic abilities.Metalinguistic awareness in children with differing language learning experience 2

Explicit and implicit knowledge and learning of an additional language: A research agenda

“…A small number of recent studies have specifically focused on children's metalinguistic awareness and its potential impact on additional language learning in the limited-input setting of the typical primary-school classroom (Roehr-Brackin & Tellier, 2019; Tellier & Roehr-Brackin, 2013, 2017). The findings indicate that even at ages 8–9, children's metalinguistic abilities develop significantly following age-appropriate form-focused language instruction.…”

Are planned languages less complex than natural languages?

“…Tellier (2013b) illustrates that there is no consensual definition of metalinguistic awareness in L2 learning, and she is working on the development of a measure of it. Preliminary results of the empirical studies are also presented in Tellier and Roehr-Brackin (2013).…”

Investigating explicit and implicit L2 knowledge and learning: Replications of Erlam (2005) and Roehr-Brackin and Tellier (2019)

“…Needless to say, the identification of an instructional approach where one size really does fit all would be a revelation to the language teaching profession, language learners and the publishing industry alike. Subsequent studies have taken up the idea of a potential levelling effect through learners' habituation in order to retrospectively explain obtained patterns of results (Rodríguez Silva & Roehr-Brackin, 2016;Tellier & Roehr-Brackin, 2013;Tomak, 2019), but there is currently no other study that has taken the bull by the horns, as it were, and set out to directly and deliberately replicate Erlam's (2005) key finding. Roehr-Brackin & Tellier (2019) argue that language-analytic ability, a component of language learning aptitude that is typically assumed to be of importance in adult L2 learning, may be a predictor in child L2 learning as well.…”