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This article explores metalinguistic awareness in 12th graders' argumentative essay reflections, suggesting implications for effective writing instruction.
This article explores how 12th grade students in Estonia demonstrate metalinguistic awareness when reflecting on their argumentative essay writing. Drawing on Gombert’s framework and genre pedagogy (Martin), the study investigates what kinds of metalinguistic reasoning surface when students talk about their own texts. Ten students wrote exam-style argumentative essays following a Sydney School inspired genre pedagogy approach and subsequently took part in semi-structured post-writing interviews. Interview transcripts were qualitatively coded for instances of metatextual, metapragmatic, metagrammatical and metasemantic awareness, alongside comments on writing processes and use of metalanguage. Metatextual awareness emerged most prominently, as students planned, monitored and revised structure using genre-specific metalanguage, positioning structure as a key meaning-making resource. Metapragmatic and metasemantic awareness appeared in reflections on register, ‘essay-worthy’ examples and stylistic choices, while metagrammatical awareness was largely driven by a correctness-oriented focus on standard language norms. The findings suggest that genre-based instruction and dialogic post-task reflection can open up productive spaces for metalinguistic articulation, but in an exam-driven context they also risk narrowing language awareness to mastering one tightly regulated genre. The article discusses implications for designing writing pedagogies that balance genre scaffolding with opportunities for more flexible, voice-sensitive metalinguistic reflection.
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Katarin Leppik (2026) studied this question.
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