Knowledge representations underlying covert metalinguistic activity: a working hypothesis

Abstract

Covert metalinguistic activity has received little attention in the field of second language (L2) education, even though the few studies that have examined this type of attention to language note that it plays a role in L2 learning and use. However, little is known about this phenomenon. The study reported in this article focuses on the knowledge representations at the basis of covert metalinguistic activity. The interaction of seven groups of bilingual learners writing collaboratively in their L2, English, was analysed into language-related episodes (LREs). The data show that turns with explicit knowledge of language occurring in covert LREs may constitute evidence that the knowledge representations underlying this form of attention to language are likely explicit (i.e. conscious and potentially verbalisable). Further support for this working hypothesis comes from arguments found in related literature about explicit knowledge. The article emphasises the need for further research on this type of metalinguistic activity and discusses methodological approaches that might help confirm this hypothesis, as well as pedagogical implications.

Keywords:

• metalinguistic activity
• explicit knowledge
• language-related episodes
• collaborative interaction

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Ellen Cray, Daphnée Simard, Samuel Navarro and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments to earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

1. In Gutiérrez (2008), the actual terms used are ‘explicit’ and ‘implicit’ metalinguistic activity. It has been noted (S. Navarro, personal communication, 5 September 2009; D. Simard, personal communication, 9 November 2009; anonymous reviewer, 21 May 2010), however, that these terms lead to confusion with the concepts of explicit and implicit knowledge. Thus, in my recent work and in this article, I have changed them to overt and covert metalinguistic activity.

2. All names are pseudonyms. Transcription conventions: xxx = incomprehensible speech; … = pause; parentheses = description of non-verbal events; square brackets = translation of utterances in French. Functional descriptors such as ‘reads’, ‘proposes’, ‘repeats’, and others are inserted in parentheses throughout the excerpts with the intention to help the reader understand what is taking place in the interaction. In addition, the turns containing the constructs illustrated in the excerpts have been underlined to facilitate identification.

3. This description is based on the participants’ self-description as language users, the teacher's comments on their ability to use French and English, and my own observations of their language use.

4. The classification of the participants into lower or higher achieving was based on their grades for the course and on the teacher's judgement. The use of this criterion to determine the composition of the groups does not imply that a heterogeneous grouping is more or less beneficial than a homogeneous grouping and it merely reflects the teacher's request.

5. The percentages of intra- and inter-rater reliability also include the further coding of covert metalinguistic activity LREs with explicit knowledge.

6. The use of this type of tasks is fairly common in studies about implicit and explicit knowledge.