Transforming Tertiary EFL Learners’ Meta-Linguistic Knowledge and Practices: A Longitudinal Case Study/Preoblikovanje metalingvističkog znanja i metoda učenja engleskoga kao stranoga jezika na tercijarnoj razini: longitudinalna studija slučaja

Abstract

This study reports on how the explicit teaching of language use as meaning-making in context (i.e., language use as a dynamic interaction between context, meaning, and linguistic features) impacted tertiary English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' meta-linguistic knowledge of the English language, as well as their language learning practices. Based on a qualitative analysis of interviews, conversations, and written samples gathered from one college-level EFL student over one academic year, the study shows that the EFL student's appropriation of a new meta-linguistic perspective of language use as meaning-making in context-which differed from her previous understandings of language use as de-contextualized sentential accuracy-was a process of interacting with diverse factors. These factors included her passion for challenging herself and constructing her professional identity. Additionally, over the year, the EFL student also adopted corresponding language literacy practices, which resonates with the endorsed language literacy valued by authentic English language communities.