Expanding the boundaries of linguistic reasoning in L1 education

Linguistic understanding is increasingly recognized as valuable in L1 education in its own right, not merely as a means to improve literacy. Research on linguistic reasoning, which combines general reasoning skills with subject-specific ways of thinking about language, has begun to clarify how students achieve such understanding. Yet key questions remain about how learners mobilize linguistic (meta)concepts, how reasoning processes unfold, and how findings generalize beyond syntax and pre-university secondary education. This introduction to the special issue situates the contributions against this backdrop. The articles span primary to university settings, six educational jurisdictions and seven languages, and draw on diverse quantitative and qualitative methods. Four themes emerge: the nature and scope of linguistic reasoning, which extends beyond syntax and need not depend on explicit metalanguage; the knowledge and epistemic resources, including prescriptive beliefs, that learners and teachers draw upon; the role of metaconcepts, prior knowledge and scaffolding; and connections to broader educational purposes, including writing, powerful knowledge and general reasoning. Together, the contributions support a broad conception of linguistic reasoning as both what learners know about language and how they use that knowledge, and point to promising directions for interdisciplinary research.