Linguistic Mystery: A Challenge to Language and Literacy Education

Native speakers tend to take language for granted as they can speak and use their language naturally. However, when they are asked to explain about some aspects of their language, it turns out to be a difficult or impossible task to do. This phenomenon demonstrates that native speakers have some implicit knowledge and metalinguistic awareness of their mother tongue. However there are many fascinating linguistic aspects of their mother tongue which are still a mystery for them. This chapter introduces some insights gained from linguistics which are useful to literacy teachers theoretically and practically. The chapter also discusses some misconceptions about language structure, language in use and language in education.