The Role of Language-Analytic Ability in Children’s Instructed Second Language Learning

Abstract

Language-analytic ability, or the ability to treat language as an object of analysis and arrive at linguistic generalizations, is at the core of the constructs of language learning aptitude and metalinguistic awareness, which are implicated in our ability to learn explicitly. In the context of child second language (L2) learning, it has been argued that children learn primarily implicitly and that the most important component of aptitude may be memory ability. However, no empirical research to date has investigated the relationship and development of aptitude and metalinguistic awareness longitudinally as well as examined their predictive power for children's L2 achievement in the classroom. In a study with English-speaking learners aged 8-9 (N 5 111), we found that although aptitude and metalinguistic awareness were (still) dynamic, they significantly predicted children's achievement in L2 French. Moreover, language-analytic ability proved to be the component with the strongest predictive power. This finding suggests that it may not be level of cognitive maturity alone that determines children's approach to L2 learning; experiencing explicit, form-focused instruction may foster the role of language-analytic ability even in children as young as 8-9 years.

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

“…This implies that it may actually be possible even for quite young children to learn explicitly, provided that they are exposed to age-appropriate form-focused instruction. The pattern of findings obtained in this study is in direct contrast with the results obtained in the most directly comparable study (Muñoz, 2014), which is all the more remarkable as the children in Roehr-Brackin & Tellier's (2019) study were, at ages 8-9, at the younger end of the scale.…”

“…However, classroom-based studies concerned with explicit and implicit knowledge and learning in children or adolescents have rarely investigated the role of aptitude, although the cumulative findings of aptitude research on the one hand and research on explicit and implicit knowledge and learning on the other hand are sufficiently robust to allow for specific predictions to be made. Erlam (2005) and Roehr-Brackin & Tellier (2019) Taken together, the points discussed so far can be consolidated into a general argument for replication: the studies in focus worked with less frequently represented populations, a less investigated target language and included important predictors. Therefore, it is particularly crucial that the potentially very impactful findings obtained in the original studies be substantiated.…”

“…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. This implies that it may actually be possible even for quite young children to learn explicitly, provided that they are exposed to age-appropriate form-focused instruction.…”

“…Second, both original studies work with school-age learners, i.e. adolescents (Erlam, 2005) and children (Roehr-Brackin & Tellier, 2019). The vast majority of research in the area of explicit and implicit L2 knowledge and learning, just like the vast majority of research in all other areas of SLA, has relied on educated adult participants at college or university level.…”

Grammaticalité des formes verbales en production lors de l'apprentissage précoce de l'anglais langue étrangère : un enseignement intégré fait-il une différence à l'école primaire?

“…A significant decrease in -s omission requires language-analytical skills which develop at an older age (García Mayo and Villarreal Olaizola, 2011). This maturational limitation could be overridden through explicit, form-focused instruction which has been shown to foster grammatical awareness not only in adult but also in young L2 learners (Lichtman, 2016;Roehr-Brackin and Tellier, 2019). As already mentioned, the L2 instruction received by our learners both in their CLIL and EFL classes was predominantly implicit, with limited explicit grammar instruction and, hence, little conducive of noticing verbal affixes.…”