ABSTRACT
In this chapter we report findings from an ongoing research project in which the metalinguistic awareness of a small group of Finnish schoolchildren has been studied since 1998 (for background information, see Sajavaara et al., 1999), with a particular focus on the relationship of metalinguistic awareness and foreign language learning.1 The longitudinal study covers the children’s first 6 years at school, from the ages of 7 to 12. Our theorizing builds on dialogical (Dufva, 2003) and Vygotskian (see Alanen, 2003) frameworks. Here we discuss the ways in which “mother tongue,” “foreign language,” and “language” are spoken of at school and how these ways of speaking affect the children’s metalinguistic awareness. We will argue that children’s metalinguistic awareness is multi-voiced and bears traces of many contexts. During early school years, however, the institutional discourse of the school has a particularly powerful influence on children’s notions. We argue that the discourses to which the children are exposed mediate a view of language and foreign language learning that not only is strongly literate but also reifies language, that is, sees language in terms of objects. These views are related to formalism in linguistics. In contrast, the dialogical theory would suggest a radically different perspective to language, to foreign language learning, and to second and foreign language education. Some implications are discussed.
