Abstract
What do children know about communication? In the increasingly globalized world we live in, nowadays children more often come into contact with multiple languages at different ages and in variable contexts. Consequently, children may at times be required to communicate in situations in which they lack sufficient understanding of the
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language used. These situations of communication are characterized by an uneven proficiency of the language used and can lead to breakdowns in communication if there is not a sufficient willingness to bring forth the exchange and make use of communication strategies. Knowing about communication, that is, being aware of the interaction, of the potential obstacles and of different strategies to overcome them, is essential to bring exolingual situations of communication to a successful end. Understanding how children perceive, control and handle exolingual situations of communication is essential in order to help teachers and children cope with these situations and more specifically, in order to help all bilingual children have access to the school's knowledge. This thesis was carried out to explore the extent to which the learning of an additional language at an age when the child can be conscious of this learning process may influence the course of exolingual interpersonal communication. Children’s perceptions and treatment of exolingual situations of communication are measured through the identification of the children’s willingness to communicate and of their strategy use. Reactions of children who learned a new language at an age and in a context in which they were able to be conscious about and reflect upon their learning (abbreviated LLE, i.e. Language Learning Experience) are compared to those of children who learned a new language in a less conscious way, from birth onwards (abbreviated, nLLE, i.e. without a Language Learning Experience). In each chapter a different approach is adopted to evaluate the child’s metacognitive awareness, assessing different outcome measures and using different exolingual situation test paradigms. The perspectives range from a focus on the perception that children have of this particular communicative scenario to an analysis of their capacity to consider the outcome of the exchange. LLE children outperformed the nLLE children on these various measures of metacognitive awareness, thus suggesting that children may benefit from a Language Learning Experience regardless of whether they are already bilingual or not. The learning of a new language at an age that children may be conscious of the learning process helps to improve their metacognitive awareness and may enhance their confidence in exolingual situations of communication
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