The language awareness of the L2 teacher: its impact upon pedagogical practice

Abstract

The paper sets out to examine the ways in which a teacher's language awareness affects their pedagogical practice. It begins by considering the relationship between teacher language awareness and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), arguing that there is something unique about the PCK of the L2 teacher, because the content and medium of L2 instruction are so closely interrelated. A model is proposed, in which the L2 teacher's language awareness (TLA) is seen as a sub-component of PCK, forming a bridge between knowledge of subject matter and communicative language ability. The paper then considers the role in the instructed learning setting of the L2 teacher's TLA, with specific reference to grammar. Following Andrews 1999a, the impact of TLA is examined through its interaction with the three main sources of language input for learners: materials, other learners, and the teacher. The paper then offers an overview of the effects of TLA on pedagogical practice, and identifies various potential influences on the operation of any teacher's metalinguistic awareness. The paper concludes with discussion and illustration of one of these potentially influential factors, the teacher's engagement with content-related issues, drawing on data from an in-depth study of 17 L2 teachers (Andrews, 1999b).