Metatalk: Enabling metalinguistic discussion about writing

Myhill, Debra; Newman, Ruth

doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2016.07.007

Cited by 60 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…However, most educators would include strategies that help pupils to monitor, plan, evaluate and regulate their performance whilst completing a particular task, as well as strategies that consciously help pupils solve novel problems. These could include, for example, writing frames (Myhill and Newman 2016), Mind Maps (Buzan and Buzan 2000), concept maps (Hay and Kinchin 2006) or any other taught strategies which seek to equip pupils with an increased understanding of how to learn, as opposed to an increased knowledge specific to a subject domain. The key thing is that pupils can use such strategies in a controlled, conscious way to solve novel problems.…”

Section: Definitions and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metacognition in schools: what does the literature suggest about the effectiveness of teaching metacognition in schools?

2018

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This paper focuses on a neglected area of school policy and practice: metacognition. As education becomes increasingly evidence-informed policy makers, school leaders and teachers are becoming increasingly research literate and have ready access to an evergrowing range of evidence about 'what works' in schools. Influential sources of evidence, such as the Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit, often indicate that teaching metacognition in schools can have a very positive effect on pupils' outcomes. In this paper, we examine over fifty studies to ascertain the effect of teaching metacognition in schools on pupils' outcomes and their wellbeing. Following our review it is clear that there is strong evidence indicating the when metacognition is effectively taught in schools then there is a very positive effect on pupil outcomes; there is less evidence about the relationship between teaching metacognition and pupil wellbeing, but the evidence which does exist is also very positive. Having identified that teaching metacognition can help improve pupil outcomes in schools, we then pose questions about the English government's attitudes towards evidence-based practice. We ask why the government adopts some policies and strategies which have an international evidence base, while not adopting other policies or strategies which have at least an equally strong evidence base. This paper concludes by suggesting how policies and practices can be improved at in schools, Initial Teacher Education establishments and at the level of national policy.

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Section: Definitions and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metacognition in schools: what does the literature suggest about the effectiveness of teaching metacognition in schools?

2018

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“…Our view has been that explicit teaching of grammar can help writers to notice how texts are working without necessarily being able to name the grammatical structure. Indeed, our data indicates that students can appropriate a structure in their own writing, but vary in how they use grammatical metalanguage to describe their choices (Myhill and Newman, 2016). Sometimes the grammatical metalanguage is not used at all, but their metalinguistic understanding is, nonetheless, explicitly articulated using everyday language.…”

Section: Students' Conceptual Understanding Of Grammatical Termsmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Significantly, our analyses reveal that these variations in managing talk are rarely a simple case of some teachers being dialogic and some monologic: rather most teachers in our study exhibited both patterns, to varying extents. More recently, we have conceptualised the talk that accompanies the teaching of the meaning-making affordances of grammar in composing text as 'metatalk' (Myhill and Newman, 2016), drawing on second language learning research which sees metatalk as a tool for surfacing the way language works. Whilst in second language learning contexts such metatalk tends to be supporting metalinguistic understanding of the grammatical structures of the target language, we have theorised metatalk as talk about language choices which focus not so much on form, but on function, to make visible and verbalise how meanings are shaped and created in written text.…”

Section: The Role Of Talk In Developing Students' Metalinguistic Knowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grammar as a meaning-making resource for language development

Myhill¹

2018

L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature

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This article will begin by briefly outlining the long-standing, and contested, debate in Anglophone countries regarding the place of grammar in the L1 curriculum, and will underline how Anglophone countries in general have not valued grammar in the teaching of L1 (or in L2). It will illustrate how current national policies have re-positioned grammar, with particular reference to England and Australia, and it will review recent research which demonstrates that explicit grammar teaching can support learner outcomes in reading and writing. Drawing on a Hallidayan theoretical framework for grammar, which emphasises grammar as a semiotic resource for meaning-making, the article will offer a theorized rationale for the inclusion of grammar in the L1 curriculum. This argument will be evidenced with data from a series of related studies and will address a) linking grammar and the learning focus for reading or writing in a meaningful way; b) the role of talk in supporting the development of students' metalinguistic knowledge; c) students' conceptual understanding of grammatical terms; and d) the place of teachers' grammatical subject knowledge in supporting a meaning-rich approach to the teaching of grammar. The article will conclude by signaling key lines of enquiry for future research.

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“…The outcomes of this research have indicated a positive impact on student attainment in writing in classrooms adopting this approach (see especially Myhill et al 2012). However, the research has also foregrounded the differential ways in which teachers implement the pedagogical approach, particularly relating to the limitations of some teachers' grammatical knowledge (Myhill et al 2013) and teacher confidence in managing dialogic talk about writing (Myhill & Newman 2016).…”

Section: The Context Of the Researchmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…At the same time, metalinguistic understanding about language choices enables students to participate in the socially determined communities of practice within which writing is situated. We have argued that the nature of the teacher's orchestration of classroom talk about metalinguistic choices in writing is a way of scaffolding their capacity to think metalinguistically about their own writing (Myhill & Newman 2016). We would argue further that the educational saliency of texts as models is located in their potency in stimulating metalinguistic thinking about the relationship between linguistic choices and the meanings they create.…”

Section: Scaffolding Writing Through Texts As Metalinguistic Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Texts that teach: Examining the efficacy of using texts as models

Myhill¹,

Jones²,

Lines³

2018

L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature

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The classical rhetorical tradition advocated imitation as a tool for learning to be an effective orator, and thus foregrounded the pedagogical importance of using texts as models. More recent contemporary research has also flagged the value of using texts as models, enabling explicit attention to how texts work, and scaffolding students' learning about writing. Despite some empirical evidence which points to the efficacy of this approach there is little detailed evidence of how the use of texts as models plays out in classrooms or what pedagogical practices are most supportive of student learning. Drawing on a funded four-year study, including a qualitative longitudinal project following four cohorts of students over three school years, this paper attempts to redress this gap. Through a detailed analysis of episodes of teachers using texts as models, it argues that it is critical to understand the pedagogical actions of teachers using texts as models to avoid text models being a straitjacket, constraining learning about writing, rather than possibilities for creative emulation. We highlight the fundamental importance of establishing a link between linguistic choice and rhetorical purpose so that young writers are inducted into the craft of writing, and empowered to make their own authorial choices.

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Metatalk: Enabling metalinguistic discussion about writing

Cited by 60 publications

References 18 publications

Metacognition in schools: what does the literature suggest about the effectiveness of teaching metacognition in schools?

Metacognition in schools: what does the literature suggest about the effectiveness of teaching metacognition in schools?

Grammar as a meaning-making resource for language development

Texts that teach: Examining the efficacy of using texts as models

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