What is “Metalinguistic Awareness”?

Metalinguistic awareness has been defined as “the ability to reflect on and manipulate the structural features of language”. It is generally agreed that metalinguistic awareness plays a critical role in language acquisition and development.

Bilingual/multilingual researchers have primarily examined three major facets of metalinguistic awareness: 1. Phonological awareness; the ability to identify, analyze, and manipulate phonetic units of words. 2. Orthographic awareness; the ability to form, store, and represent orthography of words. 3. Morphological awareness; the ability to identify, analyze and manipulate the morphemic structures of words.