Submitted by Irene Nascimento (irene.kessia@ufpe.br) on 2016-06-29T16:53:02Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tese Final - Ilka.pdf: 1372344 bytes, checksum: 39673ba3ef3d0f8d6e44ff59bc66eaff (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-29T16:53:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tese Final - Ilka.pdf: 1372344 bytes, checksum: 39673ba3ef3d0f8d6e44ff59bc66eaff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-11 / CNPQ / A compreensão de textos e a consciência metatextual são atividades de natureza linguístico-cognitiva que têm despertado o interesse de estudiosos das áreas da Psicologia, Linguística e Educação.Sabe-se que as pesquisas sobre a compreensão de textos têm se mostrado mais abundantes, ao passo que a consciência metatextual mostra-se uma habilidade menos investigada pelo fato de ter sido sistematizada e definida recentemente. Consequentemente, os estudos que se propõem a investigação da relação entre a consciência metatextual e a compreensão de textos têm sido poucos e um tanto inconclusivos na afirmação quanto ao tipo de relação existente e ao modo como se dá esta relação. E é nesse sentido que a literatura que trata da consciência metatextual indica haver uma controvérsia que versa sobre a existência ou não de relação com a compreensão de textos. Assim, o presente estudo tem por objetivos investigaras relações entre a compreensão de textos e a consciência metatextual, a partir da consideração destas como habilidades multifacetadas examinadas através de diferentes tarefas; examinar o desempenho dos participantes nas tarefas de compreensão de textos e de consciência metatextual, considerando aspectos distintos das duas habilidades e analisar as propriedades psicométricas dos instrumentos utilizados na mensuração da compreensão de textos e da consciência metatextual.Foram investigadas 200 crianças de escolas públicas e particulares, com idades variando entre 7 e 8 anos (do 2º e 3º anos do Ensino Fundamental). Na presente investigação, foi feita a aplicação de quatro tarefas: três tarefas de compreensão de textos, com foco na identificação do tema/assunto principal, na reprodução oral e nas perguntas inferenciais e uma tarefa de consciência metatextual subdividida em itens de natureza epilinguística e metalinguística.Na primeira sessão foram realizadas as três tarefas de compreensão de textos (Tarefa 1 –Identificação do Tema/Assunto Principal, Tarefa 2 -Reprodução Oral de História e Tarefa 3 -Perguntas Inferenciais sobre uma História). A segunda sessão contemplou uma tarefa de consciência metatextual com os itens de natureza epilinguística (itens referentes à identificação do gênero textual, à identificação da incompletude do texto, à identificação de textos com estrutura híbrida e à identificação da ordem de textos) e de natureza metalinguística (itens referentes à identificação de partes presentes de textos incompletos, à identificação das partes ausentes de textos incompletos e à identificação do tipo de estrutura híbrida presente nos textos). Resultados revelaram que a compreensão de textos não se correlaciona com a consciência metatextual, donde depreende-se que o conhecimento requerido no ato da compreensão de textos está apoiado em uma representação mental global do texto, o que não ocorre com a consciência metatextual que requer um conhecimento linguístico mais específico referente à estrutura do texto, resultado que reforça a ideia da inexistência de correlação entre as duas habilidades. Quanto aos instrumentos, estes revelaram boa configuração fatorial e índices satisfatórios de fidedignidade, o que condiz com a robustez dos instrumentos na mensuração das habilidades investigadas. No que tange à comparação entre grupos, somente houve diferença significativa na comparação das tarefas com o tipo de escola, sendo o desempenho dos alunos de escola pública superior ao dos alunos de escola particular nas tarefas de compreensão de textos e de consciência metatextual, o que revela um padrão diferente do que se tem como norma e salienta como necessário o entendimento de como se configura a proposta de Ensino destas escolas, aspecto este relevante, mas que se distancia do que propõe a presente investigação. / Text comprehension and metatextual awareness are linguistic-cognitive nature activities that have aroused the interest of scholars from the fields of Psychology, Linguistics and Education. It is known that research on text comprehension has been more abundant, on the other hand, metatextual awareness appears to be a less investigated ability, mainly because only recently it has been systematized and defined. Consequently, studies that purport to research the relationship between metatextual awareness and text comprehension have been few and somewhat inconclusive in determining the type of relationship and how this relationship occurs. It is in this sense that the literature about metatextual awareness indicates that there is a controversy regarding the existence of a relationship with text comprehension. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the relationships between text comprehension and metatextual awareness, from the consideration of these as multifaceted abilities examined through different tasks; examine the performance of participants in text comprehension and metatextual awareness tasks, considering different aspects of both abilities and analyze the psychometric properties of the instruments used to measure text comprehension and metatextual awareness. Two hundred children, from public and private schools, with ages ranging between 7 and 8 years (2nd and 3rd years of elementary school), were investigated. In the present investigation four tasks were applied: three text comprehension tasks, focusing on the identification of the main theme/subject,oral reproduction and inferential questions, and a metatextual awareness task subdivided into epilinguistic and metalinguistic nature items. In the first session were performed the three text comprehension tasks (Task 1 –Identification of the Main Theme/Subject, Task 2 –Oral Reproduction of a Story and Task 3 –Inferential Questions About a Story). The second session covered a task of metatextual awareness with epilinguistic nature items (identification of the textual genre, identification of the incompleteness of the text, identification of texts with hybrid structure and identification of the order of texts) and metalinguistic (items related to the identification of parts present in incomplete texts, identification of the missing parts in incomplete texts and identification of the type of hybrid structure present in the texts). Results revealed that text comprehension does not correlate with metatextual awareness, surmising that the knowledge required in the act of text comprehension is based on a globalmental representation of text, which does not occur with metatextual awareness that requires a more specific linguistic knowledge concerning the structure of the text, a result that reinforces the idea that there is no correlation between the two abilities. As for the instruments, these showedfactorial configuration and satisfactory levels of reliability, which is consistent with the robustness of the instruments in the measurement of the abilities that have been investigated. With regard to the comparison between groups, there are significant differences when comparing the tasks with the type of school, the performance of public school students is higher when compared to the performance of the private school students in the tasks of text comprehension andmetatextual awareness, which shows a different pattern from what is perceived as standard and highlights the importance of understanding the education proposal from these schools. Although relevant, this aspect distances itself from the present investigation purposes.

A produção do texto escrito depende, além do domínio básico do código alfabético, de conhecimentos a respeito das normas ortográficas, bem como de conhecimentos relacionados à estrutura de diferentes gêneros textuais. Considerando a complexidade da aprendizagem da escrita, que envolve o desenvolvimento de habilidades metalinguísticas, e a permanência de dificuldades apresentadas por muitas crianças ao longo da escolaridade, esta pesquisa teve como objetivos principais investigar as relações entre conhecimento ortográfico e produção escrita de textos, além de analisar em que medida diferentes condições de produção afetam a qualidade dos textos escritos. Participaram do estudo 72 alunos do 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola pública. A coleta de dados foi feita através da aplicação coletiva de um ditado de palavras para avaliação da competência ortográfica e três produções de texto: livre, a partir de sequência de figuras e reconto. Os dados foram analisados em função da natureza e frequência dos erros ortográficos, e da classificação das produções de texto em diferentes categorias. Análises estatísticas descritivas permitiram verificar que os alunos possuíam um domínio precário da ortografia, sendo os erros ortográficos mais frequentes aqueles envolvendo regularidades contextuais ou morfossintática, além de casos irregulares. As produções mais elaboradas estruturalmente foram aquelas realizadas a partir de suportes visuais (figuras) e orais (reconto). Análises inferenciais mostraram que há correlação positiva moderada entre escrever ortograficamente correto e produzir textos mais elaborados. Discute-se a importância de um ensino explícito das regras ortográficas, que envolva o desenvolvimento de habilidades metafonológicas e metamorfossintáticas, favorecendo o domínio da ortografia e colaborando para a liberação de recursos cognitivos a serem utilizados na produção de textos mais elaborados. Estes, por sua vez, podem beneficiar-se de intervenções educativas voltadas para o desenvolvimento de habilidades metatextuais, bem como da produção de textos apoiados em suportes que sugiram uma estrutura (narrativa) mais elaborada. / The production of written texts depends, beyond the basic understanding of alphabetic code, also of knowledge about the orthographic rules as well as knowledge about the structure of different textual genres. Considering the complexity of learning of writing, which involves the development of metalinguistic abilities such as phonological, morphosyntactic and metatextual awareness, and the permanence of writing difficulties experienced by many children throughout schooling, this research aimed to investigate the relationship between the orthographic knowledge and text productions skills and analyze how different conditions affect the quality of the written texts. Participants were 72 students in the 5th grade of an elementary public school. Data collection was done through a request to write words for assessing the competence of spelling and a request for write narrative texts in three situations: free theme, from a sequence of figures from a story previously read (retelling). Data were analyzed according to the nature and frequency of spelling errors and by the classification of written productions in different categories. Descriptive statistical analyzes showed that the students presented poor spelling achievement and that the most frequent misspellings involved contextual or morphosyntactic regularities and irregular spellings. The more elaborate written texts productions were those made from visual (figures) and oral (retelling) supports. Inferential analyzes showed that there was a positive and moderate correlation between spelling correctly and writing more elaborated texts. We discuss the importance of explicit teaching of spelling rules, which involves the development of metaphonologic and metamorphosyntactic abilities, favoring the performance of spelling and collaborating to release cognitive resources to be used in the production of more elaborated texts. These, in turn, can benefit from educational interventions aimed at development of metatextual abilities, as well by the request of written texts supported by models suggesting a (narrative) structure more elaborated.

A metacognição diz respeito ao conhecimento que se adquire sobre o próprio pensamento e à possibilidade de utilizar esse conhecimento, monitorando, o próprio indivíduo, o seu desempenho, favorecendo, dessa forma, o alcance de melhores resultados na realização de diversas tarefas. As habilidades metalinguísticas podem ser entendidas como um aspecto da metacognição; nesse caso, o aprendiz desenvolve conhecimentos que lhe permitem realizar um controle consciente e intencional sobre diferentes aspectos da linguagem, contribuindo para a aprendizagem da leitura e escrita. Dentre essas habilidades, destaca-se a consciência textual, também denominada habilidade (s) metatextual (is), na qual a unidade de análise e reflexão é o texto, o foco está em sua estrutura, partes constituintes, convenções e marcadores, sendo o objeto da presente pesquisa. Dessa forma, o objetivo geral deste estudo foi verificar a eficácia de sessões de intervenção visando ao desenvolvimento da habilidade metatextual sobre a escrita de histórias em duas situações de produção textual: livre e reprodução escrita. Objetivou-se também analisar os efeitos da intervenção sobre as habilidades metatextuais referentes ao conhecimento explícito da estrutura do texto narrativo, bem como verificar a estabilidade dos possíveis efeitos dessa intervenção ao longo do tempo. Participaram do estudo 97 alunos cursando o 4º e 5º ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola pública na cidade de Ribeirão Preto SP. Após todos os alunos realizarem o pré-teste, constituído por uma produção de texto sobre tema livre, uma produção de texto baseada na reprodução escrita de uma história ouvida (reescrita) e a aplicação de um questionário para avaliar o nível da habilidade metatextual, os mesmos foram divididos aleatoriamente em grupo controle (GC) e grupo experimental (GE). Enquanto o GE passou por quatro sessões com o intuito de desenvolver conhecimentos explícitos sobre a estrutura narrativa de histórias, o GC continuou em sala de aula, realizando suas atividades curriculares normais. Após a intervenção, foram aplicadas tarefas equivalentes ao pré-teste (pós-teste 1) nos dois grupos e, posteriormente o GC passou pela mesma intervenção do GE, realizando-se o segundo pós-teste. Nas análises das produções textuais, foram adotados níveis de pontuações, para avaliação da elaboração da estrutura narrativa. Os questionários foram pontuados em função do conhecimento explícito da estrutura narrativa de histórias. Os dados foram analisados quantitativamente, por meio da aplicação de testes estatísticos, análises descritivas e inferenciais. Os resultados indicaram um efeito favorável à intervenção referente às habilidades metatextuais, avaliadas pelo questionário, porém essa melhora não se refletiu de modo significativo nas produções de texto, sobretudo nas reescritas. Referente às produções livres, observou-se melhoras significativas apenas nos alunos do GC, após a intervenção postergada. Discutem-se possíveis razões que podem ter contribuído para minimizar os efeitos esperados com a intervenção, entre elas o pequeno número de sessões de intervenção e a diferença entre conhecimento e controle metacognitivo, no que se refere às habilidades metatextuais. / Metacognition refers to the knowledge acquired about one\'s own thinking and the possibility of using this knowledge, monitoring the individual yours own performance, thus favoring the achievement of better results in performing various tasks. Metalinguistic skills can be understood as an aspect of metacognition; in this case, the learner develops knowledge that allows him to perform a conscious and intentional control over different aspects of the language, contributing to the learning of reading and writing. These skills include textual awareness, also called metatextual ability (ies), in which the unit of analysis and reflection is the text, the focus is on its structure, constituent parts, conventions and markers, the object of this research. Thus, the general objective of this study was to verify the effectiveness of intervention sessions aiming at the development of metatextual ability on the writing of stories in two situations of textual production: free theme and written reproduction. Another objective of this study was to analyze the effects of the intervention on the metatextual abilities related to the explicit knowledge of the structure of the narrative text, as well as to verify the stability of the possible effects of this intervention over time. The sample was composed by 97 students enrolled in the 4th and 5th degree of an elementary public school in a public school in the city of Ribeirão Preto - SP. After all the students perform the pretest, consisting of a text production on a free theme, a text production based on the written reproduction of a heard story (rewritten) and the application of a questionnaire to evaluate the level of metatextual ability, the same ones were randomly separated into control (CG) and experimental (GE) groups. While the GE took part in four sessions with the purpose of developing explicit knowledge about the narrative structure of stories, the GC continued in the classroom, performing its normal curricular activities. After the intervention, tasks equivalent to the pretest (post-test 1) were applied in both groups and, afterwards, the GC underwent the same intervention of the GE, and the second post-test was performed. The analyzes of the textual productions was made adopting, levels of scores to evaluate the elaboration of the narrative structure of the texts. The questionnaires were punctuated by the explicit knowledge of the narrative structure of stories. The data were analyzed quantitatively, through the application of statistical tests, descriptive and inferential analyzes. The results indicated a favorable effect to the intervention regarding the metatextual abilities, evaluated by the questionnaire, but this improvement was not reflected in a significant way in the text productions, especially in the rewriting. Regarding the free texts, significant improvements were observed only in the GC students, after the delayed intervention. Possible reasons are discussed that may have contributed to minimize the expected effects with the intervention, among them the small number of intervention sessions and the difference between knowledge and metacognitive control, as far as metatextual skills are concerned.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo principal investigar o desenvolvimento da consciência morfológica e o seu papel na ampliação do vocabulário, das habilidades de leitura e de escrita. Para contemplar este objetivo, foi realizado um programa de intervenção em consciência morfológica baseado na sensibilização em morfemas e em estratégias de formação de palavras. Participaram da pesquisa 44 alunos do 3º ano escolar de uma escola pública da cidade de São Paulo. Era esperado que a intervenção produzisse um efeito na habilidade dos alunos do grupo experimental na resolução das tarefas de consciência morfológica (tarefa de Produção de Neologismo, Analogia de Palavras, Derivação em Contexto), vocabulário (Tarefa de Definição), compreensão na leitura de texto (teste de Cloze), fluência de leitura (tarefa de LUMP) e escrita de palavras (tarefa de Ditado). Além disso, era esperado observar um fortalecimento da relação entre a consciência morfológica e as outras variáveis psicolinguísticas incluídas na pesquisa. Em termos de resultados, verificou-se a ampliação da consciência morfológica derivacional, no trato tanto de prefixos, quanto sufixos ao longo do tempo. Este desenvolvimento foi ainda mais expressivo nas crianças do grupo experimental, comparado ao controle. O impacto positivo e significativo do programa de intervenção em consciência morfológica ocorreu principalmente sobre as variáveis que mediam este conhecimento. Além disso foi investigado o papel da consciência morfológica para a ampliação das habilidades em vocabulário, leitura e escrita sendo atestado apenas para a primeira. Com isso, destaca-se especialmente o valor da intervenção em potencializar o desenvolvimento da consciência morfológica na reflexão e produção de palavras por crianças ao final do ciclo de alfabetização / This research aims to investigate the development of morphological awareness and its role in expanding vocabulary, reading and writing skills. In order to contemplate this objective, a morphological awareness intervention program based on sensitization in morphemes and word formation strategies was carried out. The study included 44 students from the 3rd year of a public school in the city of São Paulo. It was expected that the intervention would have an effect on the ability of students in the experimental group to solve tasks of morphological awareness (task of Neologism Production, Analogy of Words, Derivation in Context), vocabulary (Definition Task), reading comprehension (Cloze test), reading fluency (LUMP task) and word writing (dictation task). In addition, it was expected to observe a strengthening of the relationship between the morphological awareness and the other psycholinguistic variables included in the research. In terms of results, there was an increase in derivational morphological awareness, in the treatment of both prefixes and suffixes over time. This development was even more significant in the children of the experimental group compared to control. The positive and significant impact of the intervention program on morphological awareness occurred mainly on the variables that measure this knowledge. In addition, the role of morphological awareness for the expansion of vocabulary, reading and writing abilities was attested only to the former. Thus, the value of intervention in enhancing the development of morphological awareness in the reflection and production of words by children at the end of the literacy cycle is particularly noteworthy

Depuis le début des années 2000, de nombreux travaux se sont consacrés à l’analyse et l’évaluation de l'impact des curricula d'Éveil aux langues sur les acquisitions des élèves. Malgré un impact positif, ces recherches font état de la difficulté persistante rencontrée par les élèves pour transférer des compétences métalinguistiques acquises dans le cadre de l'Éveil vers des compétences en langue de l'école (ici le français). L'origine de la faiblesse de ces transferts et, en particulier, ceux relevant des domaines de la grammaire chez des élèves du primaire est encore méconnue. Notre thèse consiste à interroger la multiplicité des obstacles à ce type de "transfert". L'une des premières hypothèses se situe dans la différence d’approche didactique entre l’Éveil aux langues et le français, entre d’une part une didactique/pédagogie socio-constructiviste, inductive, favorisant une attitude de curiosité et des conflits sociocognitifs lors de situations-problèmes, et d’autre part une didactique traditionnelle magistro-centrée, déductive où l’application des règles et l’exercisation engendrent soumission et passivité tout en ne permettant pas l’émergence d’une posture métalinguistique. Notre deuxième hypothèse se situe dans les ressorts de l’agir professoral, des représentations de la discipline « français », liée à la différence de valeur symbolique ainsi qu’à sa socio-histoire. A terme, le poids des représentations enseignantes associées au français pourrait constituer l’hypothèse centrale dès lors qu'elles influencent en amont et /ou font écho aux « représentations culturelles obstacles » des élèves. / Since early 2000, many researches were dedicated to the influence of « awakening to languages » for language acquisition. On the basis of these works it is suggested that transfer of metalinguistic competences acquired by young french pupils during « awakening to languages » activities is not transfered in explicit french grammar. Thus the aim of this thesis is centered on the various problems encountered in this type of transfert phenomena.Our first hypothesis is that different approaches to teaching can explain these bad results and lack of awareness. On one hand, « awakening to languages » has a student-centered approach, including participation, based on inductive reasoning process with problem-solving techniques, and leading to increased curiosity. On the other hand, french grammar activities has a didactic approach (teacher-centered), based on deductive reasoning process, leading to dependent, anxious learners. Our second hypothesis suggests that social representations of the french curriculum, in particular grammar (including spelling), due to his symbolic value and history, influences approaches to teaching and therefore the pupil cultural and cognitive representations. It seems than that these social representations of teachers could be an important variable of transfer phenomena.

This dissertation probes children's metalinguistic awareness of syntactic ambiguity (as in the sentence The man is poking the monkey with a banana, where the PP with a banana can be understood in two ways, associated with either the monkey or the poking). Several studies suggest that children do not spontaneously detect syntactic ambiguity until the second grade (e.g., Wankoff, 1983; Cairns et al., 2004). However, syntactic ambiguity detection contributes to reading comprehension skills in second and third graders (e.g., Cairns et al., 2004; Yuill, 2009). This research suggests the hypothesis that syntactic ambiguity awareness should contribute to reading development. Specifically, the theoretical model known as the Simple View of Reading posits that the main components of reading are decoding and linguistic comprehension. Syntactic ambiguity detection could contribute to linguistic comprehension because it helps a listener to overcome comprehension difficulties caused by misinterpreting an ambiguous sentence. Thus, it is important to better understand the early development of syntactic ambiguity awareness. If its connection to reading begins younger than second grade, it might be incorporated into early reading curricula and intervention strategies, which are more effective when applied earlier. This dissertation includes three manuscripts that are or will be submitted for publication. The first manuscript reports on a study that laid the foundation for the following two by testing whether 3- to 5-year-olds access both interpretations of a syntactic ambiguity using a truth value judgment task. The results showed that children do entertain both interpretations, indicating that comprehension should not be an impediment to syntactic ambiguity detection. This study is currently in revisions at First Language (Zimmer, 2016a). The second manuscript reports on a study that tested whether 4- to 7-year-olds can detect ambiguous sentences using a task that differs from those used in previous studies. My study used a picture selection task that tested for conscious awareness by having children teach a puppet why multiple pictures could match one sentence. I developed a scoring system for children's explanations that allowed for more gradient measures of early ambiguity awareness than previous research. The results showed that a small proportion of 4- to 7-year-olds are aware of syntactic ambiguity, and many others are beginning to show indications of such awareness (e.g., they select both pictures but their explanations are not yet adult-like). This manuscript is submitted to The Journal of Psycholinguistic Research (Zimmer, 2016b).The third manuscript reports on a study that tested whether 6- to 7-year-olds can learn syntactic ambiguity detection and whether the learning correlates with improvement at reading readiness measures. Participants were divided into two groups: an ambiguity group that did four weeks of games to teach syntactic ambiguity detection, and a control group that did four weeks of math games. I found that children in the ambiguity group improved more at ambiguity detection and at reading readiness tests than those in the control group. This showed that syntactic ambiguity detection is a learnable skill for children as young as 6 and suggests that its connection to reading is in place that young as well. Thus, this skill could be a valuable addition to early reading curricula and intervention strategies. This manuscript will be submitted to Applied Psycholinguistics (Zimmer, 2016c).

No description available.

Scientific literacy has been at the forefront of science education reform for the past 20 years, particularly for students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds (Lee et. al., 2005; Pearson, Moje & Greenleaf, 2010). The ability to extract meaning from text is an important skill. Yet many students struggle with effectively comprehending what they read, particularly in content areas of science, math and history. According to the National Assessment Educational Progress (NAEP, 2013) report, adolescents are not acquiring advanced literacy skills needed to succeed in the workplace and academic setting. Literacy experts have called for the use of disciplinary literacy approaches to engage learners with the content in ways that mirror what scientists, historians and mathematicians do to gain understanding in their disciplines (Moje, 2006; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). Although disciplinary literacy instruction is promising, there is limited empirical research on the effectiveness of discipline-specific literacy approaches. The present study examined the effects of a metalinguistic approach on the comprehension of science text among African American 5 and 6th grade students. The focus of the instructional protocol was to explicitly teach adverbial clauses and assist students to unpack adverbial clauses through the use of a graphic organizer. The process of unpacking complex sentences aimed to facilitate comprehension of science text by engaging the participants in analysis and discussion of the meaning obtained from the adverbial clauses. This study employed an experimental single-case multiple-probe across participants design. Visual Analysis (VA) and the Improvement Rate Difference (IRD) were used to analyze the data. The results of VA and IRD indicated that all participants demonstrated progress between baseline and treatment phases. Overall, the results of the investigation suggest that it is possible for 5th and 6th grade African American students to benefit from instruction that closely analyzes language. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Recent data indicate that less than 50% of American secondary students are able to demonstrate grade-level proficiency in reading, writing, and science (National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 2007, 2011, 2012a, 2012b). Secondary students* are expected to develop advanced literacy skills, especially in writing, in order to be ready for college and careers. Students are expected to develop these advanced literacy skills, within all academic subjects. In other words, they are expected to develop disciplinary literacy skills. The statistics are alarming overall, but they are particularly alarming in the area of science. Students need strong literacy skills, including written expression, to be prepared for employment opportunities in science fields, which currently are being filled by graduates of other industrialized nations, who have a more advanced skill set. This loss of occupational opportunity poses a threat for the U.S. to remain globally competitive in science innovation and advancement, which ultimately secures economic prosperity. Despite these staggering concerns, there is little research conducted to evaluate effective instructional methods to develop complex writing skills in academic disciplines such as science. To address this critical issue, the present study examined the effects of a metalinguistic approach to the writing intervention of sentence combining with eighth-grade students who struggle with literacy. The researcher conducted the study in a typical science classroom in an urban American school setting. The focus of the intervention was to increase students* metalinguistic awareness of science text, to improve written sentence complexity in science, as well as the written expression and determination of comparison and contrast of science content. The study employed a quasi-experimental design. The participants consisted of an experimental group (two classes) who received the treatment during typical science instruction and a comparison group (three classes) who did not receive treatment, but participated in their typical science instruction. There were four participating teachers and 84 participating students. The researcher conducted the study over a period of seven weeks within regularly scheduled science classes. Twenty intervention sessions were conducted for a length of 20 minutes each, totaling 400 minutes or 6.6 hours. Hierarchical repeated measures ANOVA and hierarchical repeated measures MANOVA analyses revealed that the experimental group performed significantly better than the comparison group on their ability to determine similarities and differences (compare and contrast) related to science content, with a medium effect. The experimental group achieved a slightly higher marginal mean over the comparison group on their ability to combine sentences, with a small effect. Multiple statistical analyses revealed a trend of higher marginal means in favor of the experimental group over the comparison group on several measures of written sentence complexity on both the science compare and contrast writing prompt (small-medium effect) and the science expository essay (medium to large effect). One experimental class also demonstrated higher scores in their overall sentence correctness on science expository essay as compared to all the other classes. These findings suggest that sentence combining, utilizing a metalinguistic approach, may hold promise as an effective writing intervention in a content area classroom, for secondary students who struggle with literacy. Furthermore, the findings suggest that a metalinguistic approach to sentence combining can be successfully embedded within a content area class, which may result in increased concept knowledge and writing skills in that academic discipline. Implications for practice and future research directions are discussed.

Students are human beings; they, like all of us, make mistakes. In the language classroom, these mistakes may be written, spoken, and even thought. How, if, when, under what conditions and to what degree these errors are treated is of current concern in research regarding language acquisition. In their meta-analysis of interactional feedback, Mackey and Goo (2007) report that the utilization of feedback is beneficial and find evidence that feedback within the context of a focus on form environment is also facilitative of acquisition, echoing Norris and Ortega's (2000) positive findings regarding focus on form research. Thus, the role of feedback has found a somewhat limited, very informative and equally persuasive niche in current theory building and research. There is lack of research specifically addressing the role and effects of forms of feedback, other than recasts, namely prompts, in the second language classroom where the focus in on language use as a means of communication rather than the objectification of it. This context employs focus on form, a brief pedagogical intervention that momentarily shifts the focus of the class from meaning to linguistic form (See Long, 1991). Because prompts withhold correct forms (Lyster, 2004; Lyster & Saito, 2010), encourage students to simultaneously notice and self-correct (Lyster & Ranta, 1997), and push modified, student-generated output (de Bot, 1996; Lyster & Izquierdo, 2009; Lyster & Saito, 2010; Swain & Lapkin, 1995), they may be theoretically more appropriate for a focus on form context. This study examines this role in its function and efficacy comparing an implicit prompt, the clarification request, with an explicit prompt, metalinguistic feedback on students' spoken errors in the use of a very complex target structure, the subjunctive in nominal clauses in Spanish. Efficacy of the feedback is measured through successful student uptake, that is, whether or not students are able to self-repair as a result of the intervention and then through development operationalized as mean gains in a pre-test/post-test design. Statistical significance is shown for uptake with metalinguistic feedback only, however no development is shown as a result of any feedback due to the target structure's acquisition complexity.