Metatalk and metalinguistic knowledge: the interplay of procedural and declarative knowledge in the classroom discourse of first-language grammar teaching

'High-quality talk' is a fundamental principle of many approaches to teaching grammar. However, relatively few studies have attempted to characterize this talk with attention to the ways in which classroom dialogue might engender metalinguistic thinking. This paper explores how the concept...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Language awareness Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 257 - 275
Main Authors:	Watson, Annabel M., Newman, Ruth M. C., Morgan, Sharon D.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Abingdon Routledge 05-10-2021 Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:	Attention Classroom Communication Classrooms Collaboration Collaborative Writing Comparative Analysis Dialogue Elementary School Students Foreign Countries Grammar Grammar instruction Intervention Language Acquisition Language teaching methods Metalinguistic awareness metalinguistic knowledge Metalinguistics Native Language Native language instruction pedagogy Teacher Student Relationship Teaching Teaching Methods Transfer of Training writing Writing Instruction United Kingdom (England) United Kingdom (London) United Kingdom > UK England
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Summary:	'High-quality talk' is a fundamental principle of many approaches to teaching grammar. However, relatively few studies have attempted to characterize this talk with attention to the ways in which classroom dialogue might engender metalinguistic thinking. This paper explores how the concepts of procedural and declarative metalinguistic knowledge may be applied to classroom discourse in order to identify the problems and potentials of grammatical 'Metatalk'. The data is drawn from observations of functionally-oriented grammar lessons in 17 classrooms across England. This opportunity sample was drawn from the intervention group of a randomized control trial, all of whom were working within a pedagogical model which embeds attention to grammar as a resource for meaning-making within the teaching of writing. Given the impact of effective teacher-student dialogue on student learning, studies such as this are valuable for illuminating how classroom talk operates within the teaching of grammar for writing. The findings particularly reveal the role of teacher-guided talk during collaborative writing activities in facilitating bi-directional transfer between declarative and procedural metalinguistic knowledge.
ISSN:	0965-8416 1747-7565
DOI:	10.1080/09658416.2021.1905655