Metacognition & Metalanguage

Why is it important? (Nixon, 2013)

Metalanguage is the ability to look at language as a thing; to evaluate language as a process or even a system; and to maneuver around successfully in using language. Typically, adults do not talk about the syllables in the words they are speaking or the actual meaning of a word in a sentence — which are metalinguistic skills. The term was coined in the 1970s when researchers used it to describe the process of learning multiple languages, however it applies to many facets of language.

Once you have metalinguistic ability and can understand the intricacies of your native language such as:

• how meaning and nuances and inferences beyond meaning are conveyed, • that meaning can be changed by moving words around • that language is not absolute, that changing the name of an object does not change the object you have the tools for comprehension with metacognition. Metalinguistic ability also sets you to successfully begin to learn another, new language. As a result, you can start to compare and contrast the languages and remember that in one language you do a-b-c, whereas in another, the rule is d-e-f. Metalinguistic awareness also refers to the awareness that you can change language in different ways, that you have the power to manipulate it. For example, if you write a letter to someone and realize afterwards that sentences #4 through #7 do not make sense, you can rewrite those sentences. You have the power to change them.

Metalinguistic Teaching Strategies (Escamilla et al., n.d.)

1. Anchor Charts: We encourage teachers to create anchor charts with their bilingual students to provide explicit comparisons of language features (Buhrow & Garcia, 2006). These anchor charts are co- created by teachers and students and serve to hold a lesson firmly in place. The cart is a stable reference that students can return to when in need of clarification. Anchor charts are used to record and display student thinking, key concepts, and essential skills. These tools for contrastive analysis help students to see the connections across literacy environments. The charts can illustrate several important differences between languages (e.g. Spanish and English) with which students are grappling: annotation devices for writing the date in Spanish and English; differentiation between how the letter “h” works in Spanish and English, difference in how titles of books and stories are written in Spanish and English, and differences in punctuating dialogue (see photo for example).

2. Preview-Review: Preview-review is a technique in which the teacher takes a few minutes prior to teaching a lesson and few minutes following the lesson to have a brief discussion with the students to activate prior knowledge and to summarize key concepts for the topic to be taught (Ulanoff & Pucci, 1999). Though the majority of the instructional time is spent in the targeted language, these few minutes at the beginning and end of a lesson were shown to increase student learning by allowing students to activate schema and solidify essential concepts.

3. Bilingual Books: Books written in two languages (bilingual books) offer unique educational opportunities for emerging bilingual students and their teachers. In bilingual books both languages are represented in one text. Alternatively, one might use two separate interpretations of the same story or text by obtaining texts written in only one language (e.g. a Spanish language text of La caperucita roja and an English language text of Little Red Riding Hood). Bilingual books are commonly used around the world as a way of developing cross-language connections and metalanguage. The use of bilingual books has been demonstrated to improve literacy achievement in English, even in schools where English is the sole medium of instruction. Bilingual books provide opportunities for parents and students to utilize knowledge of their first language to acquire reading skills in the second language. The use of bilingual books allows teachers to show students explicitly how to make use of both their languages to comprehend and create texts. These lessons are not intended to promote concurrent translation, but rather to utilize both languages in a deliberately coordinated way to deepen conceptual knowledge about literacy, to activate prior knowledge or cultural schema, and to help children make connections.

Text adapted from the following:

Escamilla, K., Hopewell, S., Butvilofsky, S., Sparrow, W., Soltero-Gonzalez, L., Ruiz-Figueroa, O., & Manuel, E. (n.d.). Metalanguage. In Biliteracy from the Start. Nixon, G. (2013). Why are metalinguistic skills important? Inside Learning: Our Take on Reading and Learning.

Clarifying Bookmarks

What I can do What I can say

I am going to think about what I’m not sure what this is about, but I think it may mean… the This part is tricky, but I think it means… selected text may mean. After rereading this part, I think it may mean…

I am going to summarize my What I understand about this reading so far is… understanding so far. I can summarize this part by saying…

The main points of this section are…

I am going to use my prior I know something about this from… knowledge to help me understand. I have read or heard about this when… I don’t understand the section, but I do recognize…

I am going to apply related One reading/idea I have encountered before that relates to this is.. concepts and/or readings. We learned about this idea/concept when we studied…

This concept/idea is related to…

I am going to ask questions about Two questions I have about this section are… ideas and phrases I don’t understand. I understand this part, but I have a question about… I have a question about…

I am going to use related text, If we look at this graphic, it shows… pictures, tables, and graphs to help me understand unclear The table gives me more information about… ideas. When I scanned the earlier part of the chapter, I found…