Principles of Language Awareness.

Dear all, I found the principles of Language Awareness in Bolitho, Carter, Hughes, Ivanic, Masuhara, & Tomlinson (2003). I will outline them first, and then comment on each of them. 1. Learners learn best whilst affectively engaged, and when they willingly invest energy and attention in the learning process. 2. Paying deliberate attention to features of language in use can help learners to notice the gap between their own performance in the target language, and the performance of proficient users of the language (Bolitho, Carter, Hughes, Ivanic, Masuhara, & Tomlinson, 2003, p. 252). In my own experience, raising learners language awareness in learners has a positive effect on L2 acquisition. Students are encouraged to discover language by themselves and take an active rather than passive role in the learning process. I believe the latter results in motivation because learners feel they are constructing their own knowledge and thus, the learning experience might become more meaningful. I think that old habits die hard. Most learners come from educational backgrounds of teachercentered approaches. Their ability to infer things by themselves might be limited as they have been told everything about language. However, teachers can start training learners how to identify features of language by themselves by implementing language awareness activities frequently in their lessons. Best Regards Luis Rosique because students feel motivated they are discovering language by themselves. They get involved in the lesson and take an active rather than passive role in the teaching-learning process.

The knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of the language that enables them to teach effectively (Thornbury, 1997: x in Andrews, 2001:76). Subject matter knowledge and its impact upon teaching (Andrews, 2001: 76) Subject matter is an important, indeed necessary, part of Teachers Language Awareness (TLA) (Andrews, 2001: 76). Analyzing language from the learner/learning perspective is clearly an important aspect of TLA (Andrews, 2001: 77). The successful application of TLA in practice does not depend solely on a sound language system knowledge base (Andrews, 2001: 77).

Of particular significance is the relationship between a teachers subject-matter knowledge and her language proficiency, or communicative language ability (CLA) in Bachmans terms (Andrews, 2001: 77).

In preparing for lessons with a grammar focus, for example, the teachers reflections on lesson content are likely to encompass both her explicit knowledge of the relevant grammar rules and her own communicative use of the grammar item. Then, once the teacher is in the classroom, anything she says about grammar during the lesson will not only draw on her subject-matter knowledge, but will also be mediated through her CLA (Andrews, 2001: 77). Content and medium of instruction are inextricably intertwined (Andrews, 2001: 77). The language knowledge/awareness of the teacher embraces both knowledge of subject matter and CLA, since it involves reflections on both and entails the mediation of the former through the latter (Andrews, 2001: 77).

The L2 teacher also needs to reflect upon that knowledge and ability, and upon her knowledge of the underlying systems of the language, in order to ensure that her students receive maximally useful input for learning (Andrews, 1999a:163 in Andrews, 2001: 78).

What is clear, however, is that it is a precondition for learning that learners should be exposed to input (Andrews, 2001: 80). There are three main sources of input for learners: materials, other learners, and the teacher (Andrews, 2001: 81). The major pre-lesson task in which TLA plays a part involves analyzing the grammatical area from the learner and learning perspective (Andrews, 2001: 81). It also affects her ability to specify the most appropriate learning objectives, and to select materials and tasks which are most likely to serve those objectives, ensuring that they are appropriate in terms of the learners age and previous learning, and that they serve the desired learning outcomes (Andrews, 2001: 81).

Within the classroom, TLA has a profound effect upon the teachers performance of a range of tasks. These tasks include:(1)mediating what is made available to learners as input; (2)making salient the key grammatical features within that input; (3) providing exemplification and clarification, as appropriate; (4) monitoring students output; (5) monitoring ones own output; (6) helping the students to make useful generalizations based upon the input; and (7) limiting the potential sources of learner confusion in the input; while all the time (8) reflecting on the potential impact of all such mediation on the learners understanding (Andrews, 2001: 81).

Pre-service training courses usually include a Language Systems component (often taught by specialists in grammar, phonology, Language Awareness semantics, etc.) and (for non-native teachers) a Language Improvement component, designed to ensure that they have the required level of prociency. But neither prociency in a language nor knowledge about Rod Bolitho that language are sufficient on their own to equip a teacher to teach it. Trainee teachers need to be able to analyze language, to apply different strategies for thinking about language (analogizing, contrasting, substituting, etc.) in order to be able to plan lessons, to predict learners difficulties, to answer their questions, and to write and evaluate materials. Only if they are able to think for themselves about language will they be able to do all this. All this implies working within a model of teacher education which promotes independent and critical thinking. Many teachers will recall the difficulty they have experienced in applying the theoretical knowledge of language systems acquired on their pre-service training course to real classroom situations. The model which has most in common with a Language Awareness approach is Reective Practice, a process which allows trainees to use their own experience of language and language learning as a starting point for questioning and reecting, thereby establishing a strong basis for learning selectively about language, and applying this learning in planning for classroom action. Language can be approached in this way, inductively, on a teacher education course, and can have an impact (this would be an interesting area to research) on the language prociency of non-native speaker trainees. The effect of all this on trainees self-esteem, as they become their own experts rather than relying on received knowledge, cannot be underestimated. Having examined and argued for basic paradigms, we now move to a more exploratory series of questions, including the key issue of affect, and attempt to establish an agenda for future practice (Bolitho, Carter, Hughes, Ivanic, Masuhara, & Tomlinson, 2003: 255).

Dear all, Carter (2003) argues that initial research has demonstrated increased motivation as a result of the application of activities that promote inductive learning of language rules. Further, Tomlinson (2003) lists some of the objectives of Language Awareness approaches such as develop cognitive skills connecting, generalizing, hypothesizing; helping learners to become independent, with positive attitudes towards the language, and to learning the language beyond the classroom (p. 252). On the other hand, Relevance of language awareness in pedagogical practice and teacher education. Dear all, Teachers Language Awareness (TLA) also plays a critical role in pedagogic instruction. Thornbury (1997) cited in Andrews (2001) defines TLA as the knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of the language that enables them to teach effectively (Thornbury, 1997: x in Andrews, 2001:76). In addition to knowledge, Communicative Language Ability is demanded (Andrews, 2001: 77). TLA has an impact on how teachers plan and develop a lesson. When planning, TLA helps teachers anticipate potential problems that learners might have when the grammar is presented and select materials that align with lesson objectives. When developing a lesson, TLA helps teachers make noticeable particular features of language input for learners, provide exemplification and clarification, monitor learners and ones own output, and help learners make useful generalizations (Andrews, 2001: 81). Bolitho (2003) supports this view by saying that trainee teachers need to be able to analyze language, to apply different strategies for thinking about language in order to be able to plan lessons, to predict learners difficulties, to answer their questions, and to write and evaluate materials (p. 255). Language awareness allows both, teachers and learners to take an analytic perspective of language and to promote independent learning. Best Regards Luis Rosique