The Development Of Metalinguistic Awareness Of Hmong Learners In Third Language Acquisition

As a result of the increasing spread of English in the word, the increasing mobility of the world population and the recognition of minority languages, the study of Third Language Acquisition started in late 19th century. One of the most important findings of current research is that the process of third language acquisition can foster the development of metalinguistic awareness. Metalinguistic awareness refers to learners' ability to think of language and perceive language, and is likely to be among the most important factors that contribute to increasing mulitilinguals'ability to learn a language, including phonological awareness, word awareness, syntactic awareness and pragmatic awareness. Based on a review of studies of bilingual education theories, third language acquisition at home and abroad and the development of metalinguitic awareness, we find that there are differences in metalinguistic awareness between monolinguals and bilinguals, the acquisition of languages beyond the second language may further enhance cognitive development and progressively facilitate the language acquisition process. However, most of the studies are on languages of the Indo-European family. The study of non-Indo-European languages is rare. Inadequate research on the foreign language education of ethnic minorities, especially on the learning process that ethnic minority learners'experience in learning English as a third language, or even research on whether there are cognitive advantages from the third language learning process, has not been undertaken. By exploring the development of metalinguistic awareness of Hmong learners, this paper attempts to establish a trilingual teaching system for learners of multicultural backgrounds so as to guide the development of foreign language education for ethnic minorities, and to improve ethnic minority learners'efficiency in learning a foreign language.This research is grounded on grown-up theories in education, psychology and linguistics. To be more exact, they are Bialystok's theory of control and analysis, and Cummins'threshold hypothesis. Starting with third language acquisition and the development of metalinguistic awareness, the study focuses on the differences in metalingtuistic awareness among Hmong monolingual learners, bilingual learners, and trilingual learners.Using a self-made background questionnaire and learners'Language Ability questionnaire, the research conducted a questionnaire survey of 179 students in Grades Three and Four in four primary schools in Hmong regions. Based on five research hypotheses, the Pinto test for Metalinguistic Awareness was used to investigate metalingtuistic awareness differences among Hmong monolingual, bilingual and trilingual learners, with supplementary qualitative Study, such as interview and observation. Using lateral and longitudinal comparison studies, this research investigated the development of metalinguistic awareness of Homg monolingual, bilingual and trilingual learners from the first language, to second language and third language learning process in phonological awareness, word awareness and syntactic awareness. This study has arrived at the following major findings:Firstly, the development of Hmong learners'phonological awareness from the first language to second language, to third language learning process showed a clear trend. This trend was influenced by the language experiences and proficiency of the first language and second language, but no significant relation was found with linguistic distance. From the first to second language learning process, learners'phonological awareness ability increased, but there were differences among learners due to their language proficiency. In Grade 3, balanced bilinguals with good proficiency of Hmong language and Chinese outperformed Hmong monolinguals and unbalanced bilinguals with Hmong language and limited Chinese, but no difference was found between monolinguals and unbalanced bilinguals. The development of phonological awareness showed a rapid progress from monolinguals to balanced bilinguals. From the second language to third language learning, the development of phonological awareness differed among learners due to their language proficiency. Trilingual from balanced bilinguals improved, while trilinguals from unbalanced bilinguals did not improve in phonological ability.Secondly, the development of Hmong learners'word awareness from the first language to second language, and to the third language learning process was influenced by the proficiency of the first language and second language, and closely related to linguistic distance. From monolinguals to bilinguals, balanced bilinguals outperformed unbalanced bilinguals and monolinguals in ambiguity and word formation tasks, but no difference was found in the grammatical category distinction tasks. After learning English as a third language, trilinguals from balanced bilinguals improved in all tasks, while trilinguals from unbalanced bilinguals just improved in word formation and grammatical category distinction tasks, but no difference was found in task with high cognitive tasks-ambiguity test.Thirdly, from the first language to second language, to the third language learning process, trilinguals from balanced bilinguals were the best, monolinguals were the worst. From the first to second language learning process, Hmong learners improved in syntactic awareness tasks, but the improvement was influenced by their language proficiency. Balanced bilinguals outperformed monolinguals and unbalanced bilinguals in comprehension, synonymy, acceptability and the grammatical function tasks, but no difference was found between monolinguals and unbalanced bilinguals. From the process of the second language to third language learning, trilinguals from unbalanced bilinguals improved in the grammatical function tests, but no difference was found in comprehension, synonymy, and the acceptability tests. While trilinguals from balanced bilinguals did not differ in comprehension, and synonymy tests, but improved in grammatical function and acceptability tests.The results are mostly consistent with five research hypotheses, and partially support Bialystok's theory of control and analysis and Cummins'threshold hypothesis. Balanced bilinguals outperformed monolinguals and unbalanced bilinguals, while monolinguals and unbalanced bilinguals did not differ in metalinguistic awareness; Trilinguals from unbalanced bilinguals did not improve except in word formation, grammatical category distinction and grammatical function tasks, while trilinguals from balanced bilinguals improved in all tasks except in comprehension and Synonymy tasks. The development of Hmong learners'metalinguistic awareness from the first language to second language, and to the third language learning process shows an increasing trend. This development is influenced by language experience and the proficiency of the first and second language, linguistic distance and age. The results of the study could be useful to:Based on the state of Hmong multi-lingual's metalinguistic awareness and the factors affecting the development of metalinguistic ability, authorities could formulate a corresponding policy of foreign language education for ethnic minority learners as a guide for foreign language course offerings, and permit greater variety of choice for foreign language courses in ethnic minority regions. Our findings on metalinguitic awareness advantages from a multilingual learning process could be used in compiling foreign language textbooks for ethnic minority learners. Special consideration should be given to the law, and to those factors affecting the development of metalinguistic awareness when choosing and compiling textbook contents. In addition, teacher training programs should be conducted to increase understanding of ethnic minority students'cognitive state.This study summarizes the results of metalinguitic awareness among monolinguals, bilinguals and trilingual ethnic minority learners. This is the first study of metalinguitic awareness of monolinguals, bilinguals and trilinguals of ethnic minority learners based on cross-linguistic families. This is also the first study in which the international metalinguistic awareness has been used to measure multilingual learners'metalinguistic awareness. The measurement test has been revised and modified based on the characteristics of the Chinese language, and so it can be used as a reference for future studies. The investigation of multilingual learners'metalinguistic awareness is a very broad field. This study only touches upon a small part of the problems, therefore, the research fields could be expanded, and the design of the research could be improved in future studies.