Investigating dimensions of metalinguistic awareness: what think-aloud protocols revealed about the cognitive processes involved in positive transfer from L2 to L3

ABSTRACT

The present research examines the role of metalinguistic awareness (MLA) in positive transfer from a second to a third language. The main focus is on levels of metalinguistic reflection which emerged from the analysis of think-aloud protocols (TAPs). Previously, a reflexive dimension of MLA was established by means of the Test d'habiletés métalinguistiques, which required participants to reflect on semantic and morphosyntactic aspects of their native language French. Introspective verbal data collected during a translation task revealed an applied dimension of MLA, which was shown to impact the extent to which unknown words in the target language German (L3) were successfully translated into the participants’ native language French based on the positive influence of their second language English (L2). Besides the fact that this applied dimension of MLA was the strongest predictor of positive transfer, our observations point to the invaluable contribution of introspective data to complement findings based on language-inherent characteristics of crosslinguistic influence.

KEYWORDS:

• Positive transfer
• third language acquisition
• metalinguistic awareness
• think-aloud protocols
• crosslinguistic awareness

Acknowledgments

The author is indebted to the editors of this special issue and to the two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions and comments were very helpful. Very special thanks are owed to Professor Jean-Pierre Chevrot for his invaluable help and support throughout a crucial phase of the research process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Even though the terms ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ suggest value judgments concerning good and bad language use, not all instances mixed language, i.e. the most easily observable kind of (negative) transfer, are necessarily inappropriate.

2. Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel: A junior college where participants were enrolled in a two-year program prior to university.

3. Sachs and Suh (2007) based their coding procedures on Leow's (1997) and operationalized the three levels accordingly (Sachs & Suh, 2007, pp. 210–211).

4. Given that the focus of the present contribution is on the TAPs, the coding and administration procedures of the THAM are not described in more detail.

5. For example, the total number of instances based on positive transfer of a participant who gave seven correct answers based on prior knowledge (and not on transfer), would be calculated out of a total of 21 instead of 28.

6. The selected examples were translated into English for the purpose of the present paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nina Woll

Nina Woll is an assistant professor at the Department of Modern Languages of the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières (Canada). Her research interests include psycholinguistic processes in the acquisition of additional languages, specifically with regards to the development of crosslinguistic awareness in instructed settings.