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This investigation of the development of metalinguistic consciousness examines bilingual children's perceptions of language contact in a situation of marked social imbalance between their first and second languages. Forty-five Spanish/Nahuatl bilinguals (Central Mexico) were assessed on a series of language awareness tests and sociolinguistic interviews. The exploratory investigation focused on how school-age bilinguals view written forms in Spanish and Nahuatl; the former associated with literacy learning, academic discourse generally, and interethnic communication outside of the community as well as within, the latter with oral domains, traditional, familial and intimate interpersonal contexts. The study addresses key issues in the discussion on the relationship between bilingualism and metalinguistic consciousness, reporting findings related to the factors of language proficiency, attitudes and perceptions, and awareness of language form. How these factors interact within the overall context of a kind of defacto additive bilingual situation, in turn, suggests a different approach to the broader debate on the general cognitive/linguistic consequences of bilingualism.
