Twenty years on metalinguistic awareness and bilingualism with Renzo Titone: the history of a long partnership

This paper outlines the major milestones of a twenty-year-long collaboration between the author and an international figure in Educational Psycholinguistics and bilingual studies, namely, Renzo Titone. The stucture of Titone's glosso-dynamic model is first described. In this model, the deepest level, named "ego-dynamic", is viewed as the source of metalinguistic awareness (MLA, henceforth), to which bilingualism and language learning, in general, can bring an added value.Then, the main objectives and outcomes of an international project on MLA Titone has been coordinating during the 80s and the 90s, are described. Among these outcomes, particular focus is placed on the development of MLA assessment tools, their translation in various languages, and their extensive use in research in bilingual contexts. The overall picture emphasizes the increasing enlargement of the range of participants, countries and languages involved in this project, that have long survived Titone'life.