Multiple Linguistic Thresholds in the Cross-linguistic Transfer of Metalinguistic Awareness Skills: A Change-point Analysis to the Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis

This study examines the transfer of metalinguistic awareness guided by the Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis (Cummins, 1979), which argues that learners need to reach certain levels of second language (L2) linguistic knowledge to leverage the skills established in their first language (L1). A total of 204 Chinese-speaking adult English learners took tasks that measured their phonological awareness (PA), orthographic awareness (OA), and morphological awareness (MA) in Chinese and English, English linguistic knowledge, and cognitive ability. Using linear regression and nonlinear change-point models, we found that (1) while PA and MA transferred cross-linguistically, the transfer of OA had mixed patterns; (2) there existed L2 linguistic knowledge levels above which there was a non-constant increase in the transfer of L1 OA efficiency and MA accuracy. We discussed different transfer patterns of metalinguistic awareness skills and their nonlinear relationships with the L2 linguistic knowledge, which is arguably better modeled by the nonlinear statistical methods.