Suchergebnisse

As demand for proficient English speakers increases worldwide, there is growing concern about the standard of English achieved by students during their schooling. With English teachers (rightly or wrongly) receiving much of the blame for a perceived decline in language standards, policy-makers are increasingly interested in the language-related competencies of English teachers: both their language proficiency (or 'communicative language ability', CLA) and their 'knowledge about language' (or Teacher Language Awareness, TLA). As a result, the assessment of English teachers' language-related competencies has become more widespread. In any attempt to measure those competencies, however, several important interrelated issues have to be confronted. Some relate to the precise nature of the knowledge/awareness that English teachers have of the language they teach, and the difficulties inherent in setting/measuring standards of Teacher Language Awareness. Others concern the language model(s) of which English teachers are expected to be aware, and about which teachers themselves feel they should be aware. The present paper examines some of these issues. It begins by exploring the nature of TLA, and some of the challenges in TLA measurement. It then considers questions relating to the varieties of English which form models for TLA, with particular reference to Hong Kong.

The crucial role language plays in constituting our reality, and in achieving political influence and control, has long been known in scholarship. However, appreciation of the role of language in understanding our social realities and power relations has not been fully translated to education or even to research beyond linguistically focussed academic strands. Bringing together well-established scholars from a range of disciplines, this book demonstrates why language awareness and discourse consciousness should be considered a key skill in business and professional life, and looks closely at language in areas such as entrepreneurship, leadership, human resource management, medical, financial, or business communication, ecology, media, and politics. The authors demonstrate how the understanding of the minutiae of language use in a variety of professional contexts leads to knowledge that will empower future generations of professionals and enable them to develop a self-reflexive, critical, and more ethical practice.

Abstract
In the didactics of the Slovenian language as the first language the term language awareness is related primarily to the identity function of standard language as the most important element of the national and cultural awareness, while the conception of language awareness, based on the functional linguistics, has been put forward only in the last decade. Therefore, the main issue is how to understand language and linguistic cultural awareness in a society which is traditionally considered "culturally monolithic", and how they should be dealt with in the first language teaching. In attempt to find the answer, first main features of both the language and linguistic cultural awareness are presented: their levels, components and emphasized language functions. It is evident that a person's linguistic activity and his/her linguistic identification are inseparable. Because of this, the development of language and cultural awareness in the context of two models of first language teaching is discussed later on. In the model aimed at the development of functional communicative competence they are developed optionally and unrelated to each other. Only the model which aims at critical communicative competence allows developing them closely related to each other and to critical thinking.

The Knowledge-based Era demands scholars to be experts in their fields. Language Awareness (LA) is L2 explicit knowledge about language. Its presence as one of the expertise qualifications for foreign language learners is inevitable. This study aims to describe the extent of LA within the qualitative case study approach. Eight TEFL master students were chosen as the subjects. The researchers collected the data from exams and interviews. The general findings showed that the students have 'adequate' LA. In a closer look, their analyzed knowledge was better than metalinguistic knowledge; it was a relatively normal condition since analyzed knowledge requires simpler cognitive process rather than metalinguistic knowledge. Additionally, it seemed that the multiple choices in the exams enlighten the cognitive process within analyzed knowledge. However, their metalinguistic knowledge had a problem with grammatical terminologies. In sum, both types of knowledge are vital but metalinguistic knowledge deserves more priority to be improved.

In recent years a growing number of researchers have urged for the adoption of critical
pedagogies for the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language (SHL) in the US (Leeman, 2012; Leeman, Rabin & Román-Mendoza, 2011). Such critical stances to SHL instruction
acknowledge the dynamic interplay between language, power, identity and ideology and aim to develop critical language awareness among students in which students gain an understanding of social hierarchies and language subordination. Merging this critical perspective with approaches that unite SHL learners and communities through service-learning programs (Martinez, 2010; Villa, 2010), the current paper examines how service-learning can accomplish critical pedagogical goals. Bridging the fields of sociolinguistics and language pedagogy, the current study examines data collected over four semesters from student journals, interviews and questionnaires in a university Spanish heritage speakers course with service-learning. Qualitative and quantitative analyses explore students' perspectives on language use, sociolinguistic variation, identity and connectedness to the Latino community. This study demonstrates how service-learning
contributes to the development of students' awareness of sociolinguistic and sociopolitical issues affecting local Latino communities and the construction of positive identities. Expanding on sociolinguistic research aimed to better meet the needs of SHL learners (see Carreira, 2003; Potowski, 2005; Martinez, 2003; Valdés, 2001), the current study makes critical pedagogical considerations for SHL instruction, with particular emphasis on how to integrate discussions of sociolinguistic variation and language ideologies into the SHL classroom and how to raise critical language awareness among SHL students through community engagement. Overall, this study addresses the complex relationship between language, power, ideology and identity in SHL
instruction.

Language awareness and language aptitude often crop up in discussion of various second language acquisition phenomena, including age-related phenomena. There is a troublesome and ongoing definitional and theoretical problem in this connection: Different researchers have different perspectives on what is to be included in the respective notions; on how do to measure language awareness, on the one hand, and language aptitude, on the other; and on how or whether to differentiate the two constructs in terms of innateness versus experience. This article begins by addressing the entire problematic of the conceptualization of language awareness and language aptitude. The language awareness/aptitude issue features in the maturational debate in connection with two claims. First, it is discussed in relation to the view that second-language (L2) learning of older individuals is explicit (whereas that of younger individuals is implicit). Second, it is referred to in regard to the notion that there are older L2 learners who appear to be able to "beat" the critical period thanks to high levels of language aptitude. The article critically explores both these propositions and concludes that neither is particularly safe, especially given the uncertain state of the relevant research context.

In a series of research projects, we have investigated how media organizations should, want to, and can contribute to public discourse. Research questions and procedures were developed in collaboration with actors in the real world: media politics, media management, journalism. Approaches combined – and reflected on combining – research frameworks ranging from Ethnography to Grounded Theory, Transdisciplinary Action Research, Realist Social Theory, and Dynamic Systems Theory. The overall findings of these projects show the crucial role of language awareness and tacit knowledge in newswriting (Perrin, 2013). In my presentation, I first outline our media linguistic research framework and general findings. Then, I illustrate their significance by explaining in detail how an experienced professional recognized a critical situation of routine text production and overcame an apparently intractable conflict with his emergent solution. Finally, I elaborate on how this "tacit knowledge" (Polanyi, 1966; Agar, 2010) – the situated, implicit and individual strategies and procedures of certain experienced players – is made available to a the Swiss public broadcaster as explicit organizational language awareness through systemic knowledge transformation. The presentation ends with a discussion of the complementary functions of the research frameworks applied. Throughout the presentation, I refer to current activities of the AILA Research Network on Media Linguistics (www.lingua-media.net), which aims at investigating the highly complex and dynamic interplay of language use in public spheres, newsrooms, and news source domains such as business or politics. Appropriate inter- and transdisciplinary theories, methodologies, and solutions to practical problems are developed and implemented. Such media linguistic research is oriented toward improving our understanding of language dynamics in an increasingly mediatized and globally connected world.