Unfolding language awareness in a plurilingual context: A study of metalinguistic, practical, and critical language awareness

Abstract

As part of a larger project investigating language awareness in plurilingual settings across educational levels through a multiple case study, this article zooms in on students’ language awareness as it unfolds in a classroom in a Danish upper secondary school, in the context of a compulsory, plurilingual general language awareness course. Considering language awareness as a sociocognitive phenomenon that may meaningfully be observed through students’ engagement with language in the classroom, qualitative data were collected through observation, interviews, and collections of student work, and analyzed using an abductive form of qualitative content analysis. The initial deductive analysis is based on a theoretical model of language awareness; additional, inductive analyses lead to more nuanced descriptions of students’ metalinguistic, practical, and critical language awareness. Finally, a contextualized analysis of one example is given to illustrate the collaborative unfolding of language awareness in this context, leading to the conclusion that the different forms of language awareness studied are often interlinked and that they should be viewed as such both in research and teaching practice.