Investigated metalinguistic awareness in learning to read Spanish, focusing on print awareness, phonological awareness, decoding, and reading comprehension. Studies of 136 preliterate Spanish children indicated a relationship between phonological awareness and reading and revealed the importance of syllabic awareness in developing other levels of…

Discusses a conceptual framework outlining what is known about language development and metalinguistics, and considers ways in which this may provide a reference framework to guide the work of the various committees responsible for developing the language curriculum. The example of the curriculum in Ireland is used to explore the practical…

Argues that young Danes are changing the notion of standard Danish. Data gathered in the Danish town of Naestved indicated standard Danish is moving in the direction of low Copenhagen speech. Suggests that young Danes operate with two standards when it comes to language: one for school where excellence is perceived in terms of superiority; and one…

Reports on research that was undertaken as part of a Bachelor of Teaching Honours degree program where researchers looked at a Japanese program in a Tasmanian government primary school. Describes the strategies that were used to develop learners' metalinguistic awareness. (Author/VWL)

This article examines patterns of national, cultural, and linguistic identification among Chilean-Swedish transmigrant adolescents in and around Stockholm, Sweden. Drawing from ethnographic interviews and observations, analysis focuses on adolescents' (a) views on ethnic and national identity; (b) general perceptions of Chileans and Swedes; and…

This paper will present an analysis of the notion of cultural and linguistic diversity in the new curriculum for primary schools in France (MEN, 2003). First, it will explain how this notion is linked both to a wider choice of languages and to the teaching of one foreign or regional language only. We shall argue that, despite the wide theoretical…

This paper examines the out-of-class English language learning activities of student teachers in Hong Kong, using questionnaires, interviews and learner diaries. The study found that while many of the students devoted considerable time to studying and practising English outside the classroom, much of this time was spent on more receptive…

This study is a modest attempt to use three Korean primary school children and their English diaries as go-betweens to mediate in an apparent dispute between the founding fathers of socio-cultural theory about the nature of language and language awareness. According to Bruner, Vygotsky holds that mediation by others and self-mediation of written…

Observations of spontaneous behaviors and comments of one child pertinent to emergent literacy are reported. The following areas are addressed: letter/numeral naming; the meaning of print; the communicative function of print; conception of meaning-units or words; language games; awareness of the sound of language; and the relationship between…

Describes a two-year research project in Portugal for the purpose of helping teachers cope with the problem of teaching Cape Verdian children (nonnative speakers of Portuguese) to read Portuguese successfully. (SR)

Some teaching and learning that occurred in the English on the Job Project, a long-term English-as-a-Second-Language program for immigrant employees in Australia, is reported. Language awareness, which was intentionally exploited or developed to increase second-language (L2) proficiency, had a significant positive effect on L2 development.…

Examined children's metapragmatic knowledge, or knowledge about linguistic forms. Children were read narratives in which a protagonist made a request. Children evaluated the request, explained their judgments, and suggested alternative formulations of the request. Findings showed that five year olds had metapragmatic knowledge and that…

Addresses the complex requirements of language goals in Jamaica--the impetus for Creole linguistics to inform pedagogical practice and by implication, teacher involvement in that theorizing. Examines teachers' roles in a national program to improve standards of literacy in Jamaican schools. (PA)

This paper investigates L2 English learners' reactions to mixed personality in a pedagogic grammar. Personality refers to how authors represent themselves in a text and interact with their readers (e.g. personally via the use of personal pronouns or impersonally via the use of the passive, etc.); mixed personality occurs when an author switches…

A survey of textbooks and official Ministry of Education programs of study for the Province of Ontario, Canada, revealed three stages in the history of teaching English language in intermediate and secondary schools. Prior to the mid-1960s language study was fundamentally the study of formal grammar and standard usage. From the mid-1960s until the…