Using Metalinguistic Awareness in First Grade to Predict Reading Achievement in Third and Fifth Grades

Abstract

Interviews with 98 randomly selected first graders were conducted to evaluate three aspects of metalinguistic awareness: (a) ability to isolate language segments (letters, words, and sentences), (b) understanding of reading as a meaning-gathering process, and (c) understanding of terms used in reading instruction. Consistent with previous research, the first-grade results indicated that many of these beginning readers had only partially developed understandings of the metalinguistic abilities that were examined. Subsequently, the reading comprehension and academic aptitude scores of 65 of the students still remaining in the school system at Grades 3 and 5 were studied. The results indicated that first-grade metalinguistic awareness was a statistically significant predictor of students’ reading comprehension performance in both third and fifth grades, even when academic aptitude was in the regression equation. The implications of those results for further research are discussed.