Metalinguistic awareness in the multilingual EFL classroom: a study of grade 5–7 students in Norway

Figures & data

Table 1. Overview of participating students.

Grade	L1 Norwegian	Multilingual	English	Total students
5	30	10	4	44
6	24	6	3	33
7	28	10	5	43

Table 2. Overview of language groups represented in the Multilingual and English groups.

Language family	No. of students
Afroasiatic	5
Austronesian	1
Baltic	2
Finno-Ugric	3
Germanic	7
Indo-Aryan	1
Romance	4
Slavic	8

Table 3. Number of questions and possible points for each part by question type.

	Number of Linguistic questions (LQ)	Maximum possible LQ score	Number of Metalinguistic questions (MLQ)	Maximum possible MLQ score
Part 1 (Comprehension)	6	6	6	18
Part 2 (Synonymy)	5	5	5	15
Part 3 (Acceptability)	17	17	9	27
Part 4 (Grammatical function)	4	4	5	15
Total	32	32	25	75

Table 4. Mean score by grade.

Grade	Mean score	Std. deviation	N
5	46.636	12.487	44
6	50.500	10.058	33
7	54.000	11.997	43

Table 5. Results of post hoc tests of group mean differences by grade level.

					95% Confidence Interval
		Mean difference	Std. error	Sig.	Lower Bound	Upper Bound
Grade 5	Grade 6	−6.864	2.571	.025	−13.012	-.716
	Grade 7	−10.364	2.625	< .001	−16.626	−4.102
Grade 6	Grade 7	−3.500	2.532	.355	-.9558	2.558

Table 6. Mean total score by linguistic group.

(1) Linguistic Group	Mean score	Std. deviation	N
L1 Norwegian	48.268	12.587	82
Multilingual	50.846	10.994	26
English	52.375	14.392	12

Table 7. Mean LQ score by linguistic group.

(2) Linguistic Group	Mean score	Std. deviation	Minimum	Maximum	N
L1 Norwegian	23.585	5.799	3.5	32	82
Multilingual	25.173	4.572	13	31	26
English	24.750	6.070	9.5	31	12

Table 8. Mean MLQ score by linguistic group.

(3) Linguistic Group	Mean score	Std. deviation	Minimum	Maximum	N
L1 Norwegian	24.683	7.290	7	39.5	82
Multilingual	25.673	7.200	14.5	40.5	26
English	27.625	8.945	11	43	12

Table 9. Model summary of hierarchical regression analysis for variables predicting total score (LQ + MLQ).

Model	R	R^2	Adjusted R^2	Std. Error of the Estimate	Change Statistics
					ΔR^2	F Change	df1	df2	Sig. F Change
1	.560^a	.314	.300	10.2963	.314	22.438	2	98	<.001
2	.645^b	.416	.392	9.5988	.102	8.380	2	96	<.001

a. Predictors: (Constant), academic proficiency, grade.

b. Predictors: (Constant), academic proficiency, grade, English group, Multilingual group.

Table 10. Coefficients for variables predicting total score (LQ + MLQ).

Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	p-value
		B	Std. Error	Beta
1	(Constant)	−16.379	9.947		−1.647	.103
	Grade	6.191	1.225	.423	5.055	<.001
	Academic proficiency	.551	.131	.352	4.209	<.001
2	(Constant)	−22.965	9.423		−2.437	.017
	Grade	6.380	1.143	.436	5.582	<.001
	Academic proficiency	.610	.123	.391	4.965	<.001
	Multilingual group	7.826	2.663	.233	2.939	.004
	English group	10.571	3.240	.258	3.262	.002

a. Dependent Variable: Total score.