Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T10:09:50.321Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language Awareness in language learning and teaching: A research agenda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2012

Agneta M.-L. Svalberg
Agneta M.-L. Svalberg*
Affiliation:
University of Leicester, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Following on from my state-of-the-art article on Language Awareness and language learning (Svalberg 2007), in this paper I will discuss specific research tasks which are centrally concerned with different aspects of language awareness (LA): ‘explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use’. The overall argument is that research is needed into how LA is constructed by language learners and teachers through engagement with language (Svalberg 2007; 2009). I will sometimes refer specifically to awareness of grammar (form-meaning) but hope the paper will stimulate ideas for research into other LA aspects of language learning and teaching. The absence of other issues and areas (such as LA and multilingualism, intercultural LA, critical LA, LA and language policy) is a function of the personal nature of the paper and the limitations of space.

Type
Thinking Allowed
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , July 2012 , pp. 376 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, S. (1994). The grammatical knowledge/awareness of native-speaker EFL teachers – what the trainers say. In Bygate, M., Tonkyn, A. & Williams, E. (eds.), Grammar and the language teacher. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall, 69–89.Google Scholar
Andrews, S. (1997). Metalinguistic awareness and teacher explanation. Language Awareness 6.2–3, 147–161.Google Scholar
Andrews, S. (2001). The language awareness of the L2 teacher: Its impact upon pedagogical practice. Language Awareness 10.2–3, 75–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, S. (2003). Teacher language awareness and the professional knowledge base of the L2 teacher. Language Awareness 12.2, 81–95.Google Scholar
Andrews, S. (2006). The evolution of teachers’ language awareness. Language Awareness 15.1, 1–19.Google Scholar
Andrews, S. (2007). Teacher language awareness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Andrews, S. & McNeill, A. (2005). Knowledge about language and the ‘good language teacher’. In Bartels, N. (ed.), 159–178.Google Scholar
Ariza, E. N. (2002). Resurrecting ‘old’ language learning methods to reduce anxiety for new language learners: Community language learning to the rescue. Bilingual Research Journal 26.3, 717–728.Google Scholar
Barron, B. (2003). When smart groups fail. The Journal of the Learning Sciences 12.3, 307–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, N. (ed.) (2005). Applied linguistics and language teacher education. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolitho, R. & Tomlinson, B. (1995). Discover English (2nd edn). Oxford: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Borg, S. (1994). Language awareness as a methodology: Implications for teachers and teacher training. Language Awareness 3.2, 61–71.Google Scholar
Borg, S. (2003a). Teacher cognition in grammar teaching: A literature review. Language Awareness 12.2, 96–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borg, S. (2003b). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching 36.2, 81–109.Google Scholar
Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and practice. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Borg, S. & Burns, A. (2008). Integrating grammar in adult TESOL classrooms. Applied Linguistics 29.3, 456–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, L. (2008). Language and anxiety: An ethnographic study of international postgraduate students. Evaluation & Research in Education 21.2, 75–95.Google Scholar
Cajkler, W. & Hislam, J. (2002). Trainee teachers’ grammatical knowledge: The tension between public expectations and individual competence. Language Awareness 11.3, 161–177.Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Dörnyei, Z. & Ushioda, E. (eds.) (2009). Motivation, language identity and the L2 self. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Dweck, C. S. (2000). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Eckerth, J. (2008). Investigating consciousness raising tasks: Pedagogically targeted and non-targeted learning gains. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 18.2, 119–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elder, C., Erlam, R. & Philp, J. (2007). Explicit language knowledge and focus on form: Options and obstacles for TESOL teacher trainees. In Fotos, S. & Hossein, N. (eds.), Studies in honour of Rod Ellis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 225–241.Google Scholar
Ellis, R. (1997). SLA research and language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ewald, J. D. (2007). Foreign language learning anxiety in upper-level classes: Involving students as researchers. Foreign Language Annals 40.1, 122–142.Google Scholar
Fortune, A. (2005). Learners’ use of metalanguage in collaborative form-focused output tasks. Language Awareness 14.1, 21–38.Google Scholar
Hislam, J. & Cajkler, W. (2005). Teacher trainees’ explicit knowledge of grammar and primary curriculum requirements in England. In Bartels, N. (ed.), 295–312.Google Scholar
Horwitz, E. K. & Young, D. J. (eds.) (1991). Language anxiety: From theory to research to classroom implications. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Kramsch, C. J. (1985). Interaction processes in group work. TESOL Quarterly 19.4, 796–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramsch, C. & Steffensen, S. V. (2008). Ecological perspectives on second language acquisition and socialization. Definitions: What is language ecology/ecolinguistics? In Duff, P. A. & Hornberger, N. H. (eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education (2nd edn), vol. 8: Language socialization. New York: Springer Science, 17–28.Google Scholar
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006a). TESOL methods: Changing tracks, challenging trends. TESOL Quarterly 40.1, 59–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006b). Understanding language teaching: From method to postmethod. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Language Teaching Review Panel (2008). Replication studies in language learning and teaching: Questions and answers. Language Teaching 41.1, 1–14.Google Scholar
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1997). Chaos/complexity science and second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics 18.2, 141–162.Google Scholar
Larsen-Freeman, D. & Cameron, L. (2008). Complex systems and applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, S. (2007). Effects of textual enhancement and topic familiarity on Korean EFL students’ reading comprehension and learning of passive form. Language Learning 57.1, 87–118.Google Scholar
Lee, S. & Huang, H. (2008). Visual input enhancement and grammar learning. A meta-analytic review. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30, 307–331.Google Scholar
Lockhardt, C. & Ng, P. (1995). Analyzing talk in ESL peer response groups: Stances, functions, and content. Language Learning 45, 605–655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, P. D. & Gardner, R. C. (1991a). Language anxiety: Its relation to other anxieties and to processing in native and second languages. Language Learning 41, 513–534.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, P. D. & Gardner, R. C. (1991b). Methods and results in the study of anxiety and language learning: A review of the literature. Language Learning 41, 85–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, P. D. & Gardner, R. C. (1994).The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning 44, 283–305.Google Scholar
Mullock, B. (2006). The pedagogical knowledge base of four TESOL teachers. The Modern Language Journal 90.1, 48–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohata, K. (2005). Language anxiety from the teacher's perspective: Interviews with seven experienced ESL/EFL teachers. Journal of Language and Learning 3.1, 133–155.Google Scholar
Oxford, R. (1999). Anxiety and the language learner. In Arnold, J. (ed.), Affect in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 58–67.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. W. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics 11.2, 129–158.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. W. & Frota, S. N. (1986). Developing basic conversational ability in a second language: A case study of an adult learner of Portuguese. In Day, R. (ed.), Talking to learn: Conversation in second language acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 237–326.Google Scholar
Schultz, R. A. (2001). Cultural differences in student and teacher perceptions concerning the role of grammar teaching and corrective feedback: USA-Colombia. The Modern Language Journal 85, 244–258.Google Scholar
Sharwood-Smith, M. (1981). Consciousness-raising and the second language learner. Applied Linguistics 17, 38–62.Google Scholar
Simard, D. (2009). Differential effects of textual enhancement formats on intake. System 37, 124–135.Google Scholar
Spielmann, G. & Radnofsky, M. L. (2001). Learning language under tension: New directions from a qualitative study. The Modern Language Journal 85.2, 259–278.Google Scholar
Svalberg, A. M.-L. (2005). Consciousness raising activities in some Lebanese English language classrooms: Teacher perceptions and learner engagement. Language Awareness 14.2–3, 170–190.Google Scholar
Svalberg, A. M.-L. (2007). Language awareness and language learning. Language Teaching 40.4, 287–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svalberg, A. M.-L. (2009). Engagement with language: Developing a construct. Language Awareness 18.3–4, 242–258.Google Scholar
Swain, M. (1995). Three functions of output in second language learning. In Cook, G. & Seidlhofer, B. (eds.), Principle and practice in applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 125–144.Google Scholar
Swain, M. (2006). Languaging, agency and collaboration in advanced language proficiency. In Byrnes, H. (ed.), Advanced language learning: The contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky. London: Continuum, 95–108.Google Scholar
Swain, M., Lapkin, S., Knouzi, I., Suzuki, W. & Brooks, L. (2009). Languaging: University students learn the grammatical concepts in French. The Modern Language Journal 93, 5–29.Google Scholar
Takimoto, M. (2006). The effects of explicit feedback and form–meaning processing on the development of pragmatic proficiency in consciousness-raising tasks. System 34, 601–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornbury, S. (1997). About language. Tasks for teachers of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tocalli-Beller, A. (2003). Cognitive conflict, disagreement and repetition in collaborative groups: Affective and social dimensions from an insider's perspective. Canadian Modern Language Review 60.2, 143–172.Google Scholar
Tocalli-Beller, A. & Swain, M. (2005). Reformulation: The cognitive conflict and L2 learning it generates. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 15.1, 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Lier, L. (2004). The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective. Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
van Lier, L. & Corson, D. (eds.) (1997). Encyclopedia of language and education, vol. 6: Knowledge about language. Amsterdam: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. & Hardman, F. (1995). Time for refilling the bath? A study of primary student-teachers’ grammatical knowledge. Language and Education 9, 117–134.Google Scholar
Wray, D. (1993). Student-teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about language. In Bennet, N. & Carré, C. (eds.), Learning to teach. London: Routledge, 51–72.Google Scholar
Wright, T. (1994). Investigating English. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Wright, T. (2002). Doing language awareness: Issues for language study in language teacher education. In Trappes-Lomax, H. & Ferguson, G. (eds.), Language in language teacher education. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, 113–130.Google Scholar