ABSTRACT
The assumption that all native speakers of a language have an intuitive knowledge has been the touchstone of linguistic methodology for several decades. Developmental psycholinguists, too, have shown interest in grammatical acceptability judgements of children as a means of determining the young child's competence. Although it has been known that language as a skill may be handled differently by the literate and illiterate sub-populations and that the effects of literacy are reflected both in one's linguistic skills and one's rational and analytical thinking, these effects have not been clearly understood. Research into reading and metalinguistic awareness has looked more directly at the role of different language awareness skills in reading acquisition. The results of an analysis of variance on the significance of literacy and age on grammaticality judgement showed that both main effects were highly significant, as well as the interaction. For school-going children there was an overall developmental trend with a spurt at 8 years of age.
