Conceptualizing Students’ Language Awareness across Educational Levels in the Context of Plurilingual Education: Within- and Cross-Case Findings from Grades 1, 7 and 11

Abstract

Within linguistics and educational research, language awareness (LA) has been studied for decades. Despite the extensive use of the concept and several conceptualizations, systematic empirical research examining students’ LA across educational levels in the context of plurilingual education is still lacking. The article seeks to fill this gap by introducing a theoretically and empirically based conceptualization of LA across educational levels in the context of plurilingual education and, based on the conceptualization, presents findings from a within- and cross-case analysis exploring students’ expressions of LA in primary, lower, and upper secondary education. As part of an exploratory embedded multiple-case study, interview data are coded and analysed through a qualitative content analysis. The case study found that students across educational levels expressed metalinguistic awareness (MLA) and critical language awareness (CLA) revealing similarities and differences in respect to the learners’ age and language resources as well as signs of complexification, e.g. through more nuanced MLA expressions and concretisations reflecting that the students drew on a broader range of experiences. The students’ MLA and CLA are framed by the students’ plurilingualism representing a diversity of language resources, while also showing a preoccupation with languages that are not represented in the educational system.

SAMMENDRAG (IN DANISH)

Inden for lingvistisk og sprogdidaktisk forskning har sproglig opmærksomhed (SO, language awareness) være undersøgt i årtier. Til trods for den store brug af begrebet og flere konceptualiseringer, findes der ingen systematisk empirisk forskning der undersøger elevers SO på tværs af uddannelsesniveauer i rammen af en flersprogethedsdidaktik. Artiklen søger at bidrage med ny viden til feltet ved at introducere en teori- og empiribaseret konceptualisering af SO på tværs af uddannelsesniveauer i rammen af en flersprogethedsdidaktik og med afsæt heri præsentere empiriske fund fra interviews, der afdækker, hvordan grundskole- og gymnasieelever giver udtryk for SO. Interviewdataene, som er en del af et eksplorativt og fokuseret multicasestudie, er kodet og analyseret via en kvalitativ indholdsanalyse baseret på en fælles kodningsmanual med kategorier udsprunget af konceptualiseringen. Casestudiet viser at elever på tværs af uddannelsesniveauer giver udtryk for metasproglig opmærksomhed (MSO) og kritisk sproglig opmærksomhed (KSO), som viser ligheder og forskelle i forhold til elevernes aldre og sproglige ressourcer samt tegn på en kompleksificering, fx via mere nuancerede udtryksmåder og konkretiseringer, der afspejler, at eleverne trækker på en bredere vifte af erfaringer. Elevernes flersprogethed, der repræsenterer en mangfoldighed af sproglige ressourcer, udgør en referenceramme for deres MSO og KSO, men samtidig viser eleverne også en optagethed af sprog i verden, som ikke er repræsenteret i uddannelsessystemet.

PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY

The article examines language awareness in the context of a plurilingual education which (1) builds bridges between languages students already know, including languages learnt in school, (2) integrates languages that are related to languages students already know and (3) opens towards language diversity in general, covering all kind of languages, e.g. students’ first languages. The article is interested in how students in Grade 1 (age 7/8), Grade 7 (age13/14) and Grade 11 (age 17/18) in interviews express language awareness, when their teaching was based on plurilingual education.

To investigate the students’ language awareness, the article introduces a model that has been developed on the basis of research literature and the analysis of student data in the project Plurilingual Education – Minority and Majority Students’ Language Awareness across Educational Levels.

The study shows that students in all three grades express language awareness revealing similarities and differences in respect to the students’ age and language resources. The analysis across the educational levels indicates a complexification, e.g. through more nuanced expressions and concretisations reflecting that the students draw on a broader range of experiences. Furthermore, the study shows that the students make use of their own plurilingualism, including the students’ first languages and languages learnt in school, when they express language awareness, and that they are very preoccupied with languages not usually taught in the education system.

Keywords:

• Students’ language awareness
• plurilingual education
• conceptualization
• across educational levels
• multiple-case study
• student interviews

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Independent Research Fund Denmark [Grant number 0132-00208B]

Notes on contributors

Petra Daryai-Hansen

Petra Daryai-Hansen is associate professor at the Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Copenhagen. She coordinates and contributes to Danish and international research projects within the fields of plurilingual education and LA. She is part of the FREPA team of the ECML, Council of Europe, she coordinated the project Developing the LA approach in the Nordic/Baltic countries and is recently the PI of the PE-LAL project.

Natascha Drachmann

Natascha Drachmann is PhD fellow at the Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Copenhagen and at University College Absalon. Her main fields of interest are plurilingual education, LA, and grammar teaching in the intersection between first, second and foreign language didactics and pedagogy. She is responsible for the Year 1, 5, and 7 work packages in the PE-LAL project.

Line Krogager Andersen

Line Krogager Andersen is post doc at the University of Southern Denmark. Her research focuses on plurilingual approaches to language teaching, SLA, and LA. She is engaged in several research projects on plurilingual language teaching in different societal contexts, has a strong interest in transdisciplinary and complexity-oriented approaches, and is responsible for the Year 9 and Year 11 work packages in the PE-LAL project.