Browsing by Subject "language awareness"

In recent years, language awareness (LA) has gained prominence as a fundamental concept in education, often intertwined with the complexities of multilingualism in contemporary educational settings. This research presents a systematic literature review aimed at investigating the concept of LA within the context of early foreign language learning. Drawing upon the theoretical framework proposed by James and Garrett (1995), encompassing the performance, cognitive, social, affective, and power domains, the study seeks to assess the current state of LA research within the context of foreign language learning in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Employing a deductive content analysis approach as a structured framework, this research focuses on two primary objectives. Firstly, it conducts an in-depth exploration of the scope and depth of LA research within early foreign language learning. Secondly, it comprehensively explores the pedagogical strategies employed to foster LA in ECEC. The analysis relied on a corpus of seven relevant articles obtained from searches in ERIC and JECER databases. The study's findings reveal the prevalence of affective and social LA domains in ECEC settings, with a strong association to the beliefs and attitudes of ECEC teachers concerning linguistic diversity. Furthermore, the results shed light on the potential for teachers to develop LA pedagogies that cultivate dynamic multilingual learning environments. This potential is intrinsically tied to the pivotal role of fostering collaboration between home and ECEC, acting as a catalyst for the promotion of multilingualism within ECEC settings.