Metalinguistic Knowledge and Language Proficiency: a Study of Mt English Learners of Japanese

This book describes an ex-post-facto study of levels of formal and informal metalinguistic knowledge among MT (mother tongue) English learners of Japanese. It makes the case for ex-post-facto studies over experimental studies and then presents an investigation based on the use of a metalinguistic assessment test to establish whether or not there is any correlation between explicit knowledge about language and language proficiency. Issues discussed also include how such a test should be designed and administered and how it should be determined what items of metalinguistic knowledge should be looked for. As such, the book should prove useful not only for teachers and learners of Japanese, but also for others researchers looking for ideas on how to investigate the correlation between metalinguistic knowledge and language proficiency across many languages and in relation to students of many linguistic backgrounds.