Introduction

In the earlier chapters of this book, we explored the nature of the content knowledge required by L2 teachers and the potential impact of that knowledge on pedagogical practice. In the previous chapter, we considered the relationship between subject-matter knowledge (together with other aspects of TLA) and students' learning outcomes. In all of these chapters, the arguments put forward have generally lent support to the assertion of Wright and Bolitho (1993:292), cited in Chapter 1, that: ‘the more aware a teacher is of language and how it works, the better’, although, as we saw in Chapter 8, further research is needed before we can claim with any degree of certainty that TLA has a demonstrable impact on students' learning.

In a number of the previous chapters, we have looked at snapshots of the TLA of various teachers. These snapshots appeared in the context of discussions of TLA in pedagogical practice; TLA and teachers' subject-matter cognitions; the TLA of expert and novice teachers; and the TLA of NS and NNS teachers. However, we have devoted little or no attention so far to the development of TLA, i.e. to the specific matter of teachers' own learning. In this case, the key question is how we can help teachers – whether they are novices on pre-service courses or experienced practitioners taking part in in-service programmes – to develop the knowledge, skills and sensitivity required to be ‘language-aware’.