Metalinguistic Abilities Across Different Typologies of Minority Language Speakers. recent Advances in Italian Research.

The article presents research conducted by the author on metalinguistic abilities in disadvantaged bilingual Italian children . An additive and a substractive case were analysed, both assessed by means of the same test, targeted for 9-14 year-old children. In the additive situation, bilinguals outperformed their monolingual homologues, whereas in the substractive case, the contrary was true. The results are discussed in the light of the educational variables which characterize the two contexts.