Bilingual Children's Metalinguistic Awareness

Although some studies claim that all bilingual children attain meta­linguistic awareness (MLA) earlier than monolinguals others suggest that such an advantage does not occur or is only found for balanced bilinguals or on certain types of tasks. Howeverthe majority of these studies investigated bilingual children who spoke typologically related languages and with tests administered in only one of the two languages.Therefore this book examines whether relative language typology or language of testing affects the bilingual advantage in MLA.The book critically reviewed and compared studies that investigated MLA in monolinguals and bilinguals. Then it empirically tested the MLA of young English monolinguals and Arabic-English bilinguals.The analysis should broaden our understanding of how bilingualism may affect young children's MLA in two dissimilar languagesThis book is useful for educators in bilingual education and researchers who want to replicate the findings with other subjects speaking typologically dissimilar languages.