Essential and secondary conditions for production of metalinguistic tests in L2

Abstract

Several researchers have used metalinguistic tests as an effective way to provide data on the nature of language. Bley-Vroman et al. (1988), Hawkins e Chan (1997), Johnson e Newport (1989), Schachter (1989), Schütze (1996), White (2003), among others, have used those tests to support their hypothesis on the acquisition and the development of a second language (L2). In this article, we analyzed three researches with the aim of creating relevant conditions for producing metalinguistic tests (MT) to validate inquiries. Beyond that, we evaluate some tests, used in Second Language Acquisition, aiming to find out if the conditions presented in this research were satisfied. We point out, however, the tests used by some authors could have been built more carefully, so that they would be more trustful and achieve better validation of their results.