jeroen darquennes (namur) the acquisition and development of metalinguistic skills: challenges and...

Jeroen Darquennes (Namur) The acquisition and development of metalinguistic skills: challenges and opportunities in RML settings

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

Language policy at the supranational level

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

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

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

On terms and definitions

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

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

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.

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 dimension

Pedagogical approaches

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

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)

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 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)

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

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

Die 7 Siebe (example: EuroComRom) der internationale Wortschatz der panromanische Wortschatz Lautentsprechungen Graphie und Aussprache panromanische syntaktische Strukturen morphosyntaktische Elemente Prfixe und Suffixe

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

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

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)

Metalinguistic awareness / skills in RML settings

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

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 languages level ~ age goals (receptive / passive / translanguaging / ) ~ society light version vs. full option stress the added value

jeroen darquennes (namur) the acquisition and development of metalinguistic skills: challenges and...

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