Jeroen Darquennes (Namur) The acquisition and development of
metalinguistic skills: challenges and opportunities in RML
settings
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1. 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
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Language policy at the supranational level
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European Commission Communication: Multilingualism as an asset
(2008) one language as a platform for learning another one 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
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Council of Europe 2006 document plurilingual education involves
an awareness of and the ability to use transferable skills in
language learning an awareness of why and how one learns the
language one has chosen
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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 clover
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On terms and definitions
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Hugo 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
psycholinguistics educational psycholinguistics cognitive sciences
(cognitive linguistics) applied linguistics
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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 meaning
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Malakoff & 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.
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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
?
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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 dimension
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Pedagogical approaches
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From 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
approaches
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Reflection 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 variation the existence and negotiation
of language norms and standards the dynamic nature of languages and
language use (involving, in multilingual surroundings, forms of
code-switching etc.) the existence of multiple linguistic
identities (language biographies)
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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
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Existing approaches promoting diversity (and writing skills)
e.g. Evlang (Eveil aux langues) intercomprehension e.g. EuroCoM DIL
(didactique intgre des langues)
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Evlang dveloppement dattitudes positives face la diversit
linguistique et culturelle transferts de connaissances et dhabilets
entre les langues maternelles et une langue de scolarisation
dveloppement des capacits mtaphonologiques (lapprentissage des
correspondances entre les sons et les lettres => favoriser la
russite de lapprentissage de la lecture et de lcriture)
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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
sind
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Das Aufspren von Bekanntem in Fremdem vollzieht sich auf zwei
sprachlichen Fundamenten: der Sprachverwandtschaft hat Prioritt ~
Laute, Morphologie, Wortbildung, Syntax den Internationalismen die
7 Siebe
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Die 7 Siebe (example: EuroComRom) der internationale Wortschatz
der panromanische Wortschatz Lautentsprechungen Graphie und
Aussprache panromanische syntaktische Strukturen morphosyntaktische
Elemente Prfixe und Suffixe
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DIL (French L2 and English L3 in Val dAoste) Objectifs pour les
lves (objectifs cognitifs), e.g. crer une ambiance plurilingue
motivante employer une langue connue, le franais (emploi
vhiculaire), pour en approcher une inconnue, langlais mettre en
place des situations scurisantes de co-apprentissage et de
recherche continue o lalternance est sollicite/encourage lerreur
nest pas sanctionne et linterlangue est accueillie comme phase du
parcours llve est le vrai acteur de son parcours cognitif
Stimuler/sensibiliser louverture vers dautres ralits/cultures
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Objectifs pour les lves (objectifs linguistiques)
enrichissement lexical acquisition de langages spcifiques
sensibilisation aux emprunts linguistiques soin/perfectionnement
des aspects phontiques et de lortographe dveloppement de
lexpression orale
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Objectifs 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
communes un transfert de stratgies et dacquisitions de type
linguistique et pragmatique dune langue lautre une planification
plus ponctuelle et des critres dvaluation mieux partags La cration
despaces/moments dutilisation des langues de faon fonctionelle aux
situations communicatives, aux destinataires, aux buts de la
communication (valorisation de lalternance)
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Metalinguistic awareness / skills in RML settings
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Considering the extra-linguistic dimension deserves a place in
every educational setting in Europe certainly not a priority only
for schools in RML setting when used in RML settings helps to
increase the image of the minority language helps to approach
language variation, translanguaging, dynamic multilingualism as
something quite normal conditions
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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
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Considering the intra-linguistic dimension in RML (or any
other) setting questions concerning source language(s) and target
language(s) ~ distance between languages level ~ age goals
(receptive / passive / translanguaging / ) ~ society light version
vs. full option stress the added value