Teacher Language Awareness

As the language teaching industry becomes increasingly professionalized, it is expected that the language teacher will have a holistic understanding of the language being taught in terms of its components, cultural nuances, and general use. However, whether or not this is usually the case is a relevant topic of further investigation, and Stephen Andrews in Teacher Language Awareness (hereafter TLA) provides the reader with a strong start in this direction. As Andrews explores the importance of what it means for a teacher to be aware of language, he draws upon a working definition of TLA as ‘the knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of the language that enables them to teach effectively’ (p. ix). Based on 30 years of experience, and on research conducted in secondary school teaching contexts in Hong Kong, Andrews asserts that ‘the possession of an adequate level of TLA is an essential attribute of...