第一语言对第二语言阅读能力发展的促进作用

L1-Induced Facilitation in L2 Reading Development

元语言意识指的是对抽象语言的具体表征,能帮助学习者分析词语的语音及语素成分。元语言意识反映了学习者对语言结构的敏感度,对不同类型语言的阅读发展均有重要意义,且元语言意识能够在不同语言内相互迁移。基于第二语言(二语)阅读的研究表明,二语阅读者只要在一门语言中建立了元语言意识,就能有助于另一门语言的阅读发展。本文首先简要回顾语言共性与特性对阅读能力发展的影响及其与元语言意识发展之间的关系,然后描述第一语言(一语)元语言意识对二语阅读能力发展的促进作用,最后探讨二语语言知识如何改变一语的作用。

Metalinguistic awareness refers to an explicit representation of the abstract structure of language. By enabling children to analyze words into their phonological and morphological constituents, it plays a vital role in reading acquisition in typologically diverse languages. Such structural sensitivity can be easily shared across languages. Studies involving L2 readers have consistently demonstrated that metalinguistic awareness, developed in one language, makes unique contributions to reading development in another language. In this article, we will provide a brief overview of the universal and language-specific constraints on reading acquisition and the role of metalinguistic awareness in relation to those constraints. We will then describe to what extent L1 metalinguistic awareness facilitates L2 reading development, and how L2 linguistic knowledge alters such L1-induced facilitation.