Language Education and Teacher Awareness

Abstract

This chapter presents teacher language awareness as a key aspect of the knowledge and disposition that are foundational to language teachers’ effective pedagogical practice. It will first document the historical development of language awareness as a critical concept underpinning significant shifts in education and will introduce teacher language awareness as a crucial construct associated with effective language-related pedagogical practices among language and subject content teachers. It will then elaborate how relevant research has contributed to our evolving understanding of teacher language awareness, particularly in terms of: (1) teachers’ explicit knowledge of language as a system, (2) their (critical) knowledge and understanding of language use in context, and (3) learners’ language learning and development. Against the background of the rise of content-integrated language education and the use of English as the medium of instruction, the chapter draws on a recently completed study on the importance of subject teachers’ language awareness in promoting the effective learning of subject content through English as the medium of instruction. Relevant findings highlight how subject teachers concentrate on form-focused processing and the facilitation of language learning strategies in their language-related pedagogical practices. An identified lack of language-related pedagogical practices among the subject content teachers was also found to be associated with their awareness of the roles of language in teaching, their understanding of the demands of the language used for learning, and their knowledge of EFL/ESL pedagogy. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how teacher education programs can support language and subject content teachers to develop this critical knowledge and disposition for effective pedagogical practice.KeywordsLanguage awarenessTeacher language awarenessLanguage teachersSubject content teachersMedium of instructionProfessional development