An exploration of young Norwegian EFL learners’ metatalk through translation tasks

Abstract

Language awareness, or “explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use” (Association for Language Awareness, n.d), is found to be beneficial in the process of acquiring a new language (Angelsen & Hauge, 2020, p. 322). This study explores peer-peer interactions by young EFL learners in a Norwegian classroom. The goal of this thesis is to identify how young students verbalize their language awareness, as language awareness is widely deemed to have positive effects on the process of acquiring a language. The study also seeks to mitigate the negative reputation currently associated with the use of translation and encourage a more nuanced discussion of translation as a pedagogical tool. A qualitative analysis was conducted to answer the research questions designed for this study. The participants in this study, 14 students in the 3 rd grade (8-9 years old), were given the task of translating two separate texts from English to Norwegian and from Norwegian to English. Their collaborative discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed before a qualitative analysis was conducted. The inquiry investigated what elements of language the students focused on and what patterns of interaction were found in their discussions. The findings in this study suggest that young learners verbalize their language awareness through metatalk and that collaboration is beneficial in the context of solving language tasks collaboratively. However, the findings also indicate that students must be taught how to effectively participate in group discussions to appropriately scaffold and facilitate language learning. Lastly, the study revealed that translation can be an efficient pedagogical tool that should be further integrated into EFL training