DOES METALINGUISTIC INTUITION LIVE UP TO ITS NAME AS A SEMINAL ENTERPRISE IN FLA‎?‎

This paper reports on a preliminary study designed to investigate the metalinguistic abilities of first-year and second-year undergraduate learners of English. In particular, it delved into the relationship between the learners’ metalinguistic knowledge, the degree of transfer from their first language (L1), and their level of language proficiency with respect to the biological factor of gender. A metalinguistic assessment task devised by the researchers and an actual paper-based TOEFL test were the major instruments utilized. The participants comprised 116 freshmen and sophomores majoring in English Translation at Roudehen University. The results indicated a moderate correlation between the participants’ general language proficiency and their metalinguistic knowledge. Furthermore, the findings did not confirm the idea of the transfer of metalinguistic knowledge across the two languages of Persian and English. Ultimately, it became evident that the factors of educational status and gender did not have any significant effect on the learners’ performance in dealing with the metalinguistic task