Metalinguistic awareness is generally considered a driver for other language skills, such as reading and writing (see Sun & Curdt-Christiansen, 2018; Tunmer & Bowey, 1984). The construct metalinguistic awareness focuses on cognitive and formal-functional aspects of language such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics (Gombert, 1992; Karmiloff-Smith et al., 1996). In this context, metalinguistic awareness is definitely understood as a specific feature of language awareness, in which linguistic features are processed in the course of metacognitive processes through language reflection and analysis (Jessner & Allgäuer-Hackl, 2019). According to this view, at least two forms of knowledge about language underlie metalinguistic awareness: 1. the ability to focus attention on formal aspects of language, and 2. the ability to analyze, reflect on, and explain functions of language using metalanguage (Bien-Miller & Wildemann, 2023).

In Germany, metalinguistic awareness has long been studied exclusively in relation to the German language. However, against the background of linguistically heterogeneous classrooms, it is necessary to systematically embed metalinguistic awareness in a multilingual teaching and learning context. In a language-integrative German classroom, teachers draw on students' contact with languages systematically and purposefully for the formation of language competencies. To date, no studies have focused on the effectiveness of such language-integrative (German) instruction on the reflective and analytical skills of monolingual and multilingual students. A connection between linguistic integration, comparative work, and the development of metalinguistic awareness and students’ multilingualism has repeatedly been suggested, but it has not been empirically proven. The studies presented here focus on the question of whether language-integrative German instruction, in which other languages are systematically examined in comparison to the target language German, has a positive effect on language-related reflection and analysis skills, i.e., on the metalinguistic awareness of monolingual and multilingual students.

Both explorative studies, besides metalinguistic awareness, it could be observed how multilingual speakers position themselves as multilingual.  This happens in two ways: 1. by positioning themselves as language proficient or language nonproficient within the language community (I only know Russian and German) and 2. by concealing the languages they speak (I only speak German). The findings on students' self-reflexive and self-referential utterances will be presented and discussed for the first time in the presentation. The question will be asked what function language-integrative (German) instruction and metalinguistic awareness can have for the formation of a multiliterate identity.  This follows Creese & Blackledge's (2015) notion of identity, whereby identity is modeled as equally complex and hybrid in a world where languages are mobile and complex.

An integration of languages in the classroom should guide children to develop both operational and descriptive knowledge of the linguistic practices of their world and critical awareness of how these practices shape their multiliterate indentity. In this way, children are empowered to critically question social and power structures, as well as their consequences (Fairclough 1992). Language reflection and language comparison can be the first step in becoming aware of linguistic structures and functions. This cognitively shaped examination of languages alone enables monolinguals and multilinguals to gain critical insight into the relationship between language and power (I always thought German was the main thing).

The lecture will involve showcasing elicited meta-linguistic utterances of children, which indicate metalinguistic awareness and, moreover, demonstrate how multilingual learners position themselves in a monolingual power structure.

The studies examined relationships between metalinguistic awareness and language skills (Study 1) and the effects of language-integrative German instruction (Study 2). In an exploratory design, meta-linguistic utterances of elementary school students (Study 1: n = 400, Study 2 N= 400) were elicited (Wildemann et al., 2016, Wildemann & Bien-Miller 2022). To this end, students in tandems watched, read, and listened to a story in five languages on a computer and were prompted to reflect on languages through targeted stimuli. The stimuli reflected different linguistic dimensions of metalinguistic awareness and asked students to verbalize their multilingual knowledge. In a subsequent intervention study, we tested whether language-integrative German instruction, for which teachers were trained over the course of six months (Andronie et al., 2019; Wildemann et al., 2020), has an effect on the development of metalinguistic awareness. Again, elementary school students from language heterogeneous classes (n = 409) were encouraged to make metalinguistic utterances by means of elicitation in an experimental control group design. The central questions were: 1.Is there a connection between language skills and language awareness? 2.What meta-linguistic performance do monolingual and multilingual learners achieve? 3.What is the impact of language-integrative German instruction on language awareness of monolingual and multilingual students at the end of primary school? The children's general language competencies (Bien-Miller et al., 2017), cognitive performance using CFT 20-R (Weiß, 2005), and demographic data were collected. The M-SPRA procedure (Wildemann et al., 2016) used to elicit metalinguistic interactions was developed as part of the first study based on the method of concurrent probing (Woolley, Bowen & Bowen, 2004). In this framework, elicitation of verbal data is performed by asking subjects to verbalize their thought processes while solving a task. In both studies, children were asked to make metalinguistic statements. They also made self-referential statements (I only speak... I do not speak...). These self-referential utterances were evaluated by content analysis. The focus was on the question: 4.Which linguistic positionings are revealed in the students' self-referential utterances?

There are three main findings (see Research Questions 1-3) regarding metalinguistic awareness: 1. multilingual students achieve a significantly higher total number of metalinguistic utterances than monolingual students when controlling for German language proficiency, basic intelligence, and age. 2. multilingual students are more likely than monolingual students to realize higher-level language reflections, i.e., language analyses, and 3. both multilingual and monolingual students benefit from language-integrative German instruction. These results are highly relevant when it comes to questions of school-based language education. They show that both multilingual and monolingual students benefit from language-integrative German instruction. In addition to being positioned as language proficient or language nonproficient, there are also children who are reticent about their languages (see Research Question 4). The positioning of multilingual students as language proficient and language nonproficient and the concealment of multilingualism also provides information about their multiliterate identity. What do these results tell us with regard to an education that is oriented towards the potentials of the students?

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