Developing metalinguistic awareness through pedagogical translanguaging: an introspective study in the Basque Country

Abstract

This study explored how a pedagogical intervention based on Core Academic Language Skills (CALS) and pedagogical translanguaging influences metalinguistic awareness development in the first grade of secondary education. The research involved multilingual students from the Basque Country, enrolled in an immersion model where Basque was the main language of instruction, while Spanish and English were taught as language subjects. The intervention included six teaching units on mathematics and science, delivered in Basque, Spanish, and English. Students worked with expository texts and CALS in each language, fostering comparisons between them through pedagogical translanguaging. To assess metalinguistic awareness, Think-Aloud Protocols (TAP) were conducted. In this task, students translated words from Basque to Spanish and reflected aloud on their mental processes. The results indicated a statistically significant improvement in metalinguistic awareness after the intervention, where students reported higher levels of metalinguistic reflection, particularly in advanced metalinguistic awareness levels such as Meta-Awareness (MA) or Underlying Rule (UR).

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