Metacognitive and Metalinguistic Verb Use in Narrative Retelling and Critical Thinking Tasks: A Study of Palestinian Arabic-Speaking Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to analyze the frequency and diversity of metacognitive and metalinguistic verbs (MCVs, MLVs) in the spoken language of Palestinian Arabic-speaking adolescents through narrative retelling and critical thinking tasks. An additional goal was to examine associations between the use of these verbs and syntactic complexity, macrostructure, and critical thinking. Forty-two seventh-grade students retold two fables and responded to critical thinking questions during individual interviews with an adult examiner. Transcripts were analyzed for the frequency and diversity of MCVs (e.g. think, know, believe ) and MLVs (e.g. say, tell, explain ), as well as for syntactic complexity, macrostructure, and critical thinking. Analyses included both frequentist and Bayesian approaches, allowing evaluation of evidence for both the presence and absence of associations. The critical thinking task elicited a higher frequency and greater diversity of MCVs than narrative retelling, whereas narrative retelling elicited a higher frequency and greater diversity of MLVs. Bayesian analyses provided decisive evidence for these task effects. Correlational findings were more selective: clausal density showed an uncorrected association with narrative MCV frequency proportion, whereas Bayesian evidence suggested moderate support for null associations with macrostructure and mean length of communication unit. Overall, adolescents’ use of MCVs and MLVs appears to be selectively recruited by task demands, with weaker and more context-dependent links to broader discourse and critical thinking measures.