Relationships Among Language Ability, Foreign Language Learning Experience, and Metalinguistic Ability in Korean Preschool Children

유아의 모국어 능력, 외국어 경험 정도와 상위언어 능력간의 관계

The 121 five-year-old Korean subjects of this study were divided in 3 groups based on their experience in learning a foreign language (English). A battery of tests was administered to measure spoken and written language ability and the 3 metalinguistic domains of phonological, semantic, and syntactic awareness. Spoken language ability was positively correlated with semantic and syntactic awareness. The relative importance of each metalinguistic domain varied with level of written language development. Phonological awareness was the only predictor of decoding. Syntactic awareness and phonological awareness were significant variables in sentence comprehension. Metalinguistic ability was a better predictor of written language development than spoken language ability. Foreign language learning experience had an effect on syntactic awareness: low experience was superior to no experience, but high experience was not superior to low experience.