The metalinguistic knowledge of undergraduate students of English language or linguistics

It is often asserted that UK school-leavers know less grammatical terminology than in earlier years. However, objective data on this supposed phenomenon are somewhat scarce. The study reported in this paper aimed to see whether and to what extent knowledge about language (KaL) has declined over thre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language awareness 2013-11, Vol.22 (4), p.320-337
Main Authors: Alderson, J. Charles, Hudson, Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
changing levels of metalinguistic knowledge
College students
Comparative Analysis
English (Second Language)
English Instruction
Exit Examinations
Foreign Countries
Foreign language learning
Grammar
Knowledge
knowledge about language
Language Tests
Linguistics
Longitudinal Studies
Metalinguistics
National Curriculum
Native Speakers
Pretests Posttests
Second Language Instruction
Second Language Learning
Spain
Surveys
Undergraduate Students
undergraduate studies of linguistics
United Kingdom
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Summary:It is often asserted that UK school-leavers know less grammatical terminology than in earlier years. However, objective data on this supposed phenomenon are somewhat scarce. The study reported in this paper aimed to see whether and to what extent knowledge about language (KaL) has declined over three decades, and how this might relate to university studies and the English school-leaving examinations known as A-level. We analysed data collected in a test-based survey of UK university undergraduates and compared them with a similar test-based survey conducted in 1986. We also put the studies in context by comparing the performance of UK home students with that of students in and from other countries. In addition, we analysed recent pre- and post-test data on whether courses of instruction in grammar improve undergraduates' knowledge of grammatical terminology. Our results show a general reduction in school-leavers' knowledge of grammatical terminology since 1986. Moreover, UK students have a much weaker knowledge than do non-UK students. Studying a foreign language leads to somewhat better levels of KaL, but this is not true for English language A-level. However, our results confirm that university-level instruction does improve awareness of and ability to use grammatical terminology. We end by discussing the value of KaL.
ISSN:0965-8416
1747-7565
DOI:10.1080/09658416.2012.722644