The Effect of Teachers’ Metalanguage on Learners’ Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners across Proficiency Levels
Garmsar Azad University , Iran
ABSTRACT
Metalanguage did not receive a lot of attention in communicative language teaching (CLT), which greatly focused on fluency and communicative competence. Metalanguage has remained an untouched area in second language studies. This research examined the effect of teachers’ metalanguage on learners’ of grammatical points. This research was conducted on Iranian EFL learners in a language Institute in Tehran at two proficiency levels of elementary and intermediate. In each level of elementary and intermediate, two groups were chosen, an experimental and a control group. In the experimental group, the teachers used metalanguage to teach grammar points. However, in control group the teachers used examples to teach grammar points. A questionnaire was administered to the two groups to collect data. The result indicated that the metalanguage had impacted the learners’ comprehension of grammatical points.
KEYWORDS
Metalanguage, Teacher talk, Grammar