Primary Language Education and Applied Linguistics:Exploring Primary School Pupils Metalinguistic Awareness

This paper presents the results of an ethnographic, long duration research work with P6 and P7 pupils in a Scottish school. “Metalinguistic awareness has been identified as one or even the key factor of multilingual learning” (Jessner, 2018:257). The research aimed to explore the manifestations of metalinguistic awareness of primary school pupils who were learning French under the auspices of the recently promulgated Scottish language policy, the “1+2 Language Approach”. 53 pupil participants took part and were engaged with questionnaires, diaries and focus group interviews during an academic year. The research showed that pupils consciously expressed detailed reflections on language analysis, learning strategies and could compare French with English, demonstrating multilingual behaviour. The paper concludes with some recommendations for teachers and educationalists towards the enhancement of the language teaching and learning experience, and the improvement of both teaching materials and teaching methods in the primary school language classroom. Cross-language approaches to language education are suggested as simple ways to foster cross-fertilisation through cooperation between languages, school subjects and, finally, education and applied linguistics