Factors in the Growth of Linguistic Awareness

Bialystok, Ellen. Factors in the Growth of Linguistic Awareness. Child Development, 1986, 57, 498–510. Metalinguistic ability is defined in terms of the development of 2 language skill components—the analysis of linguistic knowledge and the control of linguistic processing. Two studies are presented that examine the role of these skill components in the structure of a metalinguistic task and children's success with this task as a function of age and bilingualism. Different versions of a grammaticality judgment and correction task, each involving a different level of analysis of knowledge and control of processing, were presented to children between 5 and 9 years old who were monolingual or bilingual. The results showed that higher demands for analysis or control increased problem difficulty, that age was primarily related to increasing ability to solve problems involving high levels of analysis, and that bilingualism was primarily related to increasing ability to solve problems involving high levels of control.