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Cross Language Transfer of Metalinguistic Awareness: a Meta-Analytic

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Cross Language Transfer of Metalinguistic Awareness: a Meta-Analytic Cross Language Transfer of Metalinguistic Awareness: A Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Model for Chinese-English Bilingual Children A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Literacy/Second Language Studies Of College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services by Xuejiao Diao M.Ed. University of Cincinnati, OH, USA April 2014 Committee Chair: Mary Benedetti, Ed.D. ABSTRACT While a number of studies have been conducted to investigate the construct of metalinguistic awareness in Chinese-English bilingual children, the results are conflicting regarding whether bilingualism facilitates the transfer of metalinguistic skills across English and Chinese. This dissertation was designed to offset the shortcomings of relatively small sample sizes in prior research by synthesizing prior study results using meta-analysis and meta-analytic structural equation modeling. These methods were used in order to reveal a holistic picture of the construct of metalinguistic awareness and its relationship with other moderators. Using meta- analysis, this study examined if Chinese-English bilinguals and Chinese or English monolinguals have equal performance on various metalinguistic tasks. A proposed Bilingual Metalinguistic Awareness Model was then fitted to the meta-analytic data to bring to light the best measurement model for the construct of metalinguistic awareness and its relationship with Chinese and English language proficiency, cognitive development, language instructional methods, and social influence. The dissertation analyzed data from 49 studies, including, 27 correlation matrices, and found no statistical differences between Chinese or English monolingual children and Chinese- English bilingual children in terms of metalinguistic awareness. The study also found the good fit of the measurement part of the Bilingual Metalinguistic Awareness Model. Significant correlations were identified between Chinese and English metalinguistic awareness, metalinguistic awareness and cognition. However, Chinese and English language proficiency were found not to be significantly correlated with metalinguistic awareness. The findings were interpreted in light of the heterogeneity and methodological flaws of studies included. Theoretical and pedagogical implications were also discussed. ii iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have encouraged and guided my research. I express my deepest gratitude and sincere thanks to my advisor Dr. Mary Benedetti for her valuable guidance, warm encouragement, and continuous support in my doctoral study and research. I would also like to thank my committee member Dr. George Richardson. His insightful comments and immense knowledge in statistics are instrumental to my research. I would also like to thank my committee member Dr. Cathryn Crosby for her enthusiasm, support and remarks. I also express my gratitude to the faculty at School of Education, University of Cincinnati. In particular, I would like to thank Drs. Virginia Gonzalez and Leigh Lihshing Wang for their input, expertise, and help. I thank my parents Xingtian Diao and Conghui Wang for their unconditional love. I could not have lived my dreams without their support. I also thank my parents in law Zhanjun Guo and Yuexia Zhang for helping me taking care of my daughter when I was working toward my degree. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my husband Wei Guo. His love, devotion, encouragement, and patience give me strength and confidence to tackle challenges head on. I also thank my daughter Angelina for giving me inspirations in this dissertation research. Seeing her grow everyday brings me immense happiness and I dedicate my dissertation to her. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Statement of Problems ................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Purposes of the Study .................................................................................................... 4 1.3. Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 4 1.4. Significance of the Study .............................................................................................. 5 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................... 7 2.1. What Is Metalinguistic Awareness? .............................................................................. 7 2.2. Domains of Metalinguistic Awareness .......................................................................... 8 2.3. Cognition and Metalinguistic Awareness .................................................................... 16 2.4. Language Proficiency and Metalinguistic Awareness ................................................ 18 2.5. Language Instruction and Metalinguistic Awareness ................................................. 19 2.6. Sociocultural Factors and Metalinguistic Awareness ................................................. 21 2.7. Age and Metalinguistic Awareness ............................................................................. 21 3. THE BILINGUAL METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS MODEL ..................................... 23 4. METHODS ........................................................................................................................... 25 4.1. Meta-Analysis ............................................................................................................. 25 4.2. Structural Equation Modeling ..................................................................................... 26 v 4.3. Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling ............................................................. 26 4.4. Data Collection ............................................................................................................ 27 4.5. Data Analysis .............................................................................................................. 31 5. RESULTS ............................................................................................................................. 37 5.1. Results of Meta-Analysis ............................................................................................ 37 5.1.1 Description of Studies ....................................................................................... 37 5.1.2 Publication Bias ................................................................................................ 38 5.1.3 Overall Effect of Chinese-English Bilingualism .............................................. 40 5.1.4 Effects of Moderating Variables ....................................................................... 43 5.2. Results of Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling ............................................ 48 5.2.1 Description of Studies ....................................................................................... 48 5.2.2 Fixed-Effects Model ......................................................................................... 48 5.2.3 Random-Effects Model ..................................................................................... 52 6. DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................................... 55 6.1. Discussion of Meta-Analysis ....................................................................................... 55 6.2. Discussion of Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling ...................................... 57 7. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 62 8. LIMITATIONS ..................................................................................................................... 64 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 65 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................... 73 Appendix A. Coding Sheet ................................................................................................... 73 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Metalinguistic Awareness Domain Measurements in Previous Studies .................... 9 Table 2 Results of effect sizes and Q statistic for overall effects of Chinese-English billingualism ................................................................................................................. 41 Table 3 Homogeneity
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