Developing International Student-teachers' Metalinguistic Understanding for Teaching EAL Writers

Zacharias, S. (2023) Developing International Student-teachers' Metalinguistic Understanding for Teaching EAL Writers. UKLA International Conference 2023, University of Exeter, UK, 23 – 25 June 2023.

Abstract

In this talk I will show how I have used aspects of Cognitive Linguistics to develop the metalinguistic understanding of a group of student-teachers during a session on writing for English as and Additional Language (EAL) learners in a Higher Education setting. Cognitive Linguistics is an approach to understanding language use that explores how language reflects more general cognitive principles and how different meanings of words are motivated and corelate to our embodied understanding of the world around us. Developing young writers’ metalinguistic understanding of the choices writers of any genre make is an important part of the writing process (Myhill, Newman & Watson, 2020). I will outline how I adapted this principle for English as an Additional Language Learners with a group of international student-teachers using an embodied, multimodal approach, supported with digital technology, to help develop the student-teachers' own metalinguistic understanding, a prerequisite for developing the metalinguistic competence in their young learners. Furthermore, as part of a research project that aimed to explore how this approach can be employed to enhance student-teachers’ metalinguistic understanding I will present the perspectives of the student-teachers as they co-developed these resources. The findings from a survey and group interview show that although the student-teachers responded positively to the approach and reported they would apply the approach to their own teaching, challenges with regards to its applicability and compatibility with the student-teachers' own language belief systems remain.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Zacharias, Dr Sally
• Authors: Zacharias, S.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education > Culture, Literacies, Inclusion & Pedagogy

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