Metalinguistic Awareness in the Acquisition of English and Romanian: Insights from Hungarian Secondary School Students

Series Philologica Issues Volume 17, No. 2, 2025 Metalinguistic Awareness in the Acquisition of English and Romanian: Insights from Hungarian Secondary School Students

Volume 17, No. 2, 2025

Erika-Mária TÓDOR, Enikő TANKÓ

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 17, 2 (2025) 20–36

DOI: 10.47745/ausp-2025-0014

Abstract. In this paper, we examine the relationship between language proficiency and metalinguistic awareness among Hungarian secondary school students in Harghita County, Romania, using empirical data from a fact-finding study conducted in the school year 2023–2024. After outlining the theoretical framework and describing the research methodology, the study presents findings based on a sample of 1,520 participants. As both languages under investigation have been learned/acquired after the mother tongue, the paper first reports the results of the English and Romanian proficiency tests, followed by an analysis of the factors that participants identified as influencing their performance. Finally, the study explores how students perceive the role of metalinguistic awareness and metalinguistic knowledge in their language learning outcomes. By comparing the acquisition processes of the two languages, the research demonstrates that the mode of learning plays a decisive role in shaping the function of metalinguistic awareness.

Keywords: multilingualism, language performance, metalinguistic awareness

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Volume 17, No. 2, 2025

Defining the Good Language Teacher: Perspectives of English Pre-service Teachers in Hungary, Katalin DORÓ, Ágnes T. BALLA Metalinguistic Awareness in the Acquisition of English and Romanian: Insights from Hungarian Secondary School Students, Erika-Mária TÓDOR, Enikő TANKÓ What Is There to Observe? An Analysis of Hungarian Teacher Trainees’ EFL Classroom Observation Reports, Erzsébet BALOGH, Ágnes T. BALLA Using Drama Techniques to Promote Inclusive Practices in the EFL Classroom with Learners with Special Educational Needs: In-service Teachers’ Attitudes and Experiences, Andrea PUSKÁS, Erika BERTÓK Developing Algorithmic Thinking in the Hungarian Language Course – ICT and Chatbots in Teacher Education, Orsolya DŐRYNÉ ZÁBRÁDI, Szilvia PETZNÉ TÓTH, Bernadett PÁPAI, József REIDER, Judit SIPOS Direct Object Marking in Modern Hebrew and Romanian: Implications for Beginner Language Learners, Gabriela MYERS Negotiating Multilingualism: Institutional and Student Perspectives on the Linguistic Landscape of Three Transylvanian Universities, Enikő BIRÓ Hungarian Educational Terminology in a Minority Context: A Terminological Analysis of Concepts Related to Teachers’ Professional Development in Slovakia, Veronika DANČO JAKAB Translation, Retranslation, Imagology: Representations of Englishness in A Bear Called Paddington and Its Hungarian Retranslation, Zsuzsanna AJTONY A New Challenge in Translator Training: Machine Translation Post-editing, Gabriella KOVÁCS “Silence Is What Causes Me Anxiety”: Nonverbal Cues in the Research of Language Anxiety in the Case of Interpreting Students, Andrea MAGUŠAR-MARTON Visual Linguistic Features of Small Stories in Technologically Mediated Communication on Facebook Messenger, Szilárd Emanuel MOLNÁR Social Media and Its Influence on Body Image Shaping – A Critical Discourse Analysis, Réka INCZE (KUTASI) Book Review – Erika-Mária TÓDOR–Imre TÓDOR– Enikő TANKÓ (2024): Romániai magyar középiskolások másodnyelvű szocializációja, Katalin LAJOS Front pages in PDF, Inside covers in PDF,

Metalinguistic Awareness in the Acquisition of English and Romanian: Insights from Hungarian Secondary School Students - Acta Universitatis Sapientiae