Language Awareness in EFL Teachers, Teacher Trainees and Advanced Learners

Abstract

The article focuses on the presentation of the results of a study conducted on three groups of Polish users of English: EFL teachers, English majors (who were at the same time teacher-trainees), and advanced EFL learners, students of Economics, who had no intention of becoming teachers. The main aim of the study was to investigate the levels of the participants’ metalinguistic knowledge (including the knowledge of grammar rules and metalinguistic terms) and their ability to provide explanations concerning English grammar. Moreover, the research aimed at pinpointing any significant differences among the three groups of participants. In line with previous assumptions, the findings showed that the teacher-trainees’ and teachers’ overall levels of language awareness were higher than those of the advanced learners. There were, however, considerable differences with regard to the participants’ performance on particular tasks in the tests. Although most of the differences in favor of the English majors or the teachers were statistically significant, their levels of metalinguistic knowledge may seem largely disappointing and bring up relevant questions about the role of metalinguistic awareness raising in teacher education.