Assessment of Metalinguistic Awareness and Strategy Use of Young EFL Learners

摘要

This chapter focuses on the issues of language awareness and strategy use and their importance for effective and efficient foreign language learning. Language awareness, which has been defined as a person's conscious awareness of the nature of language and the sensitivity to the forms and functions of language (Carter, 2003; Malmberg, 2001), is a crucial aspect of language learning (van Lier, 1996) on a meta-cognitive level (Prtic-Soons,2008). Learning strategies have been conceived as devices, which a learner may use to acquire knowledge, and operations used by a learner that facilitate the acquisition, storage, retrieval or use of information (O'Malley, 1985; Oxford, 1990). Learning strategies act as catalysts when employed by EFL students in order to facilitate themselves in reading, writing, listening and speaking and ultimately affect mastering the target language. The study was designed and conducted with the purpose to assess the needs of primary school students concerning their language awareness and identify their language strategies in FL. The sample consisted of a total of 1107 students (562 boys and 545 girls, mean age 11.3) who attended the 5th grade (591 students) and the 6th grade (516 students) of public primary schools in Northern Greece. A self-report questionnaire was used as the basic instrument, which comprised three basic sections: a) language awareness components, b) learning strategies and skills, c) language learning aspects. The findings revealed statistically significant differences between the two school grades in a number of items related to language awareness and language strategies. Nevertheless, it was indicated that students would benefit from developing a greater degree of self-awareness in FL learning and metacognition in strategy use. For this reason, the raising of students' language awareness and the improvement of strategy use need to be reconsidered and reinforced through the introduction of specifically stated objectives in the FL primary education curriculum and the provision of systematic student training.