Development of metacognitive knowledge and morphological awareness: a longitudinal study of ethnic minority multilingual young learners in China

Metacognitive knowledge is essential to vocabulary knowledge development and possibly morphological awareness, but related research comparing nonminority Han and minority Yao students is scant. We conducted a longitudinal study in China to fill this gap. Specifically, we compared 112 Yao students’ and 101 Han students’ growth trajectories in metacognitive knowledge and morphological awareness from Grade 3 to Grade 6 during their primary school education. Findings supported the covarying development of metacognitive knowledge and morphological awareness in both groups. Findings exhibited a cumulative trend from the third to the sixth grade. However, Yao students significantly lagged behind Han students in terms of both factors. Results further showed the effect of metacognitive knowledge on morphological awareness. Findings also highlighted the extent to which Yao students diverged from Han students in their metacognitive knowledge development and morphological awareness. We conclude our paper by highlighting instructional needs for enhancing minority Yao students’ metacognitive knowledge and morphological awareness in multilingual development.