Volume: 17  Number: 1  Page: 3–24  doi:10.2167/la424.0

Research article

Training 8-Year-Old French Immersion Students in Metalinguistic Analysis: An Innovation in Form-focused Pedagogy

Laura Annie Bouffarda and Mela Sarkarb aEnglish Montreal School Board, Montreal, Quebec, Canada and bDepartment of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Most research on language awareness in a second language (L2) has been carried out with adult learners. This research presents data showing that pedagogical techniques can be devised enabling children as young as 8 to develop metalinguistic awareness of their emerging L2 system. Building on existing work by Canadian researchers, this classroom-based study investigated tasks designed to encourage young learners to develop language awareness through repair and analysis of their errors. Forty-three 8- to 9-year-old children in a Montreal French immersion class were prompted by the teacher-researcher to correct their non-target-like utterances. Corrective feedback was provided on lexical, phonological and grammatical errors, and on uses of L1. While watching their videotaped oral presentations, participants were guided to notice and repair errors through group discussion. Results indicated that through group interaction, young children were able to notice and repair errors, to identify language features involved, to negotiate form and to do grammatical analysis of the errors.

Keywords: French immersion, metalinguistic analysis, form-focused pedagogy, repair, negotiation of form, noticing, co-construction of L2

Copyright © 2008 L.A. Bouffard & M. Sarkar

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