The acquisition and development of metalinguistic skills: challenges and opportunities in RML settings

Jeroen Darquennes (Namur)The acquisition and development of metalinguistic skills: challenges and opportunities in RML settings1. Language policy at the supranational level

2. Terms and definitions: (meta)linguistic/language awareness etc.

3. Pedagogical approaches

4. Metalinguistic awareness / skills in RML-settings

Language policy at the supranational levelEuropean Commission

Communication: Multilingualism as an asset (2008)

one language as a platform for learning anotherone of the main objectives: to raise awareness of the value and opportunities of the EUs linguistic diversity and encourage the removal of barriers to intercultural dialogue

Sylvia Vlaeminck (2003) in context of Action Plan 2004-2006

Emphasis on metalinguistic skills enabling people to cover, at least passively, a wider number of (related) languages

Council of Europe

2006 document

plurilingual education involves

an awareness of and the ability to use transferable skills in language learningan awareness of why and how one learns the language one has chosen

Interaction between

European Commission Council of Europe academia

(re-)interpretation of concepts and terminology

partially overlapping / conflicting definitions

also within academia

nice example: Franois Grins diversity cloverOn terms and definitionsHugo Baetens Beardsmore on bilingualism

open-ended semantics

Same seems to apply to metalinguistic awareness

long history that can be traced back to Roman Jakobson features in

developmental psycholinguisticseducational psycholinguisticscognitive sciences (cognitive linguistics)applied linguistics

Tunmer & Herriman (1984: 12): To be metalinguistically aware is to begin to appreciate that the stream of speech, beginning with the acoustic signal and ending with the speakers intended meaning, can be looked at with the minds eyes and taken apart.

Hakuta (1985: 65): the ability to think in an abstract way about language

Warren-Leubecker/Carter (1988: 728): the ability to consciously reflect upon and attend to language forms as objects in and of themselves, rather than the ability to simply use these forms to convey meaningMalakoff & Hakuta (1991: 147): At the most general level, metalinguistic awareness may be defined as an awareness of the underlying linguistic nature of language use. It allows 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

Baker (2000: 71): language is inspected and thought about as a system to understand and produce conversations, rather than simply used.understanding and producing conversations

refers to more than intra-linguistic features also refers to extra-linguistic features

reflections on language as a social construct

linguistic awareness ? metalinguistic awareness ? language awareness ? Metalinguistic awareness ~ Cavalli (2005)

la conscience du fonctionnement de la langue et de ses modalits dapprentissage

intra-linguistic dimension

conceptualisations mtalinguistiques propos, par exemple, des registres de langues

is, at least in some way, related to extra-linguistic dimensionPedagogical approachesFrom awareness skills / competence

metalinguistic awareness

partly present without a person being (fully) aware of it

part of it needs to be triggered, part of it needs to be acquired

can be (further) developed and turned into skills / competencies

operationalization of metalinguistic awareness

pedagogical approachesReflection on pedagogical approaches has started in the 1970s (cf. CoE conference in Turku, 1972)

The more abstract goals seem to be clear and involve making pupils (people in general) aware of

the existence of linguistic diversity and (historical, social, functional, etc.) language variationthe existence and negotiation of language norms and standardsthe dynamic nature of languages and language use (involving, in multilingual surroundings, forms of code-switching etc.)the existence of multiple linguistic identities (language biographies)the distance between languages / language varieties (making reference to language families)the function of phonetical, phonological, morpho-syntactic and lexical features related to the distance between languages / language varieties (related to intercomprehension)the (at times rather complicated) relation between sound and orthography

Existing approaches

promoting diversity (and writing skills)

e.g. Evlang (Eveil aux langues)

intercomprehension

e.g. EuroCoM

DIL (didactique intgre des langues)Evlang

dveloppement dattitudes positives face la diversit linguistique et culturelletransferts de connaissances et dhabilets entre les langues maternelles et une langue de scolarisationdveloppement des capacits mtaphonologiques (lapprentissage des correspondances entre les sons et les lettres => favoriser la russite de lapprentissage de la lecture et de lcriture)EuroCom

den Europern in realistischer Weise Mehrsprachigkeit zu ermglichen und zwar durch Konzentration auf rezeptive Sprachkompetenzen bei gleichzeitiger Ausweitung auf alle Sprachen jeweils einer Sprachfamilie

beweist dem Lerner, dass er von seiner Muttersprache und einer einzigen gelernten Fremdsprache her bereits unerwartet viel Kenntnisse mitbringt, um Texte in einer verwandten, aber noch nicht gelernten Sprache verstehen zu knnen

schpft alle Kenntnisreserven aus, die fast ohne Lerninput mobilisierbar sindDas Aufspren von Bekanntem in Fremdem vollzieht sich auf zwei sprachlichen Fundamenten:

der Sprachverwandtschaft

hat Prioritt~ Laute, Morphologie, Wortbildung, Syntax

den Internationalismen

die 7 Siebe

Die 7 Siebe (example: EuroComRom)

der internationale Wortschatzder panromanische WortschatzLautentsprechungenGraphie und Aussprachepanromanische syntaktische Strukturenmorphosyntaktische ElementePrfixe und SuffixeDIL (French L2 and English L3 in Val dAoste)

Objectifs pour les lves (objectifs cognitifs), e.g.

crer une ambiance plurilingue motivanteemployer une langue connue, le franais (emploi vhiculaire), pour en approcher une inconnue, langlaismettre en place des situations scurisantes de co-apprentissage et de recherche continue olalternance est sollicite/encouragelerreur nest pas sanctionne et linterlangue est accueillie comme phase du parcoursllve est le vrai acteur de son parcours cognitifStimuler/sensibiliser louverture vers dautres ralits/culturesObjectifs pour les lves (objectifs linguistiques)

enrichissement lexicalacquisition de langages spcifiquessensibilisation aux emprunts linguistiquessoin/perfectionnement des aspects phontiques et de lortographedveloppement de lexpression oraleObjectifs pour les professeurs, e.g.

un dveloppement systmatique et intgr du curriculum de laire linguistique (cohrence, efficacit, economie)un partage et une intgration dobjectifs cognitifs et linguistiques lintrieur de squences dapprentissage communesun transfert de stratgies et dacquisitions de type linguistique et pragmatique dune langue lautreune planification plus ponctuelle et des critres dvaluation mieux partagsLa cration despaces/moments dutilisation des langues de faon fonctionelle aux situations communicatives, aux destinataires, aux buts de la communication (valorisation de lalternance)

Metalinguistic awareness / skills in RML settingsConsidering the extra-linguistic dimension

deserves a place in every educational setting in Europecertainly not a priority only for schools in RML settingwhen used in RML settings

helps to increase the image of the minority languagehelps to approach language variation, translanguaging, dynamic multilingualism as something quite normal

conditions

time needs to be available / allowed for the extra-linguistic dimension in the curriculum(all) language courses need to include an extra-linguistic dimension (that should not have a negative effect on the other objectives that need to be reached)language teachers need to find a (collective) way to deal with the extra-linguistic dimension (language practice + evaluation)the extra-linguistic dimension in the school needs to be compared to the extra-linguistic dimension outside of the school

Considering the intra-linguistic dimension

in RML (or any other) setting questions concerning

source language(s) and target language(s) ~ distance between languageslevel ~ agegoals (receptive / passive / translanguaging / ) ~ societylight version vs. full option

stress the added value