Measuring metasyntactic ability among heritage language children

Metasyntactic Ability (MSA) refers to the conscious reflection about syntactic aspects of language and the deliberate control of these aspects (Gombert, 1992). It appears from previous studies that heritage-language learners tend to demonstrate lower MSA than their monolingual counterparts (Lesaux &...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bilingualism (Cambridge, England) England), 2013-01, Vol.16 (1), p.19-31
Main Authors: SIMARD, DAPHNÉE, FORTIER, VÉRONIQUE, FOUCAMBERT, DENIS
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children
Developmental Stages
Elementary School Students
English (Second Language)
French
French language
Grammar
Heritage Education
Heritage language
Language
Language Proficiency
Linguistics
Localization
Measurement
Metalinguistics
Monolingualism
Native Language
Native language acquisition
Native Speakers
Portuguese
Portuguese language
Production and comprehension processes
Psycholinguistics
Psychology of language
Questionnaires
Reading Comprehension
Reading Difficulties
Reflection
Repetition
Researchers
Second Language Learning
Semantics
Semiotics
Sentences
Syntax
Task Analysis
Vocabulary Development
Word Recognition
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Metasyntactic Ability (MSA) refers to the conscious reflection about syntactic aspects of language and the deliberate control of these aspects (Gombert, 1992). It appears from previous studies that heritage-language learners tend to demonstrate lower MSA than their monolingual counterparts (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003). In the present study, we verified whether the same results would be obtained among Portuguese heritage children living in a French-speaking environment when their MSA is measured using two different tasks. The participants were 22 Portuguese heritage children and 22 French monolingual elementary school children (mean age = 10.9 years). Five measurement instruments were used: a reading comprehension task; a language proficiency task; two metasyntactic tasks: a replication task in which the children had to identify and reproduce an error, and a repetition task, in which they had to repeat sentences containing syntactic errors; and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The results showed that when reading comprehension and language proficiency were controlled for, no effect of language background could be observed. However, reading comprehension and language proficiency differently influenced performances on MSA tasks.
ISSN:1366-7289
1469-1841
DOI:10.1017/S1366728911000071