"Metalinguistic Awareness for English Language Instructors"

Research Lab Seminar 2: Metalinguistic Awareness for English Language Instructors

Metalinguistic awareness may be conceptualized as the ability to "deconstruct and analyze a language’s intricate systems, and by doing so better understand how these systems work" (Schoonmaker & Purmensky, 2015); a significant portion of such ability relates to grammar (Myhill et al., 2013). However, if the importance of grammar to any language would be hardly disputed, the discussion surrounding its formal knowledge relevance for teachers has always been a source of controversy. How much formal grammar and metalanguage should an effective teacher know, and by extension, how much grammar should be formally taught to students? Does the latter depend on the former? Research findings point to the fact that many English teachers are not as knowledgeable and comfortable in relation to grammar, and that such lack of grammar-specific preparation generates feelings of inadequacy and anxiety, in many cases casting doubts on their ability to support their students adequately. Current trends point to more informal views on language acquisition of second languages, even on controlled educational scenarios, as technology and social media heavily punctuate students' exposure to their target languages. That is a positive approach, and one that aligns with both a digital-oriented global framework as well as an endorsement of meaningful learning experiences for students who are highly motivated by technology approaches. That said, should that informality also suggest a more casual view of language teachers' grammar knowledge and their ability to provide grammar instruction to their students? The proposed seminar aims at discussing the importance of language teachers’ metalinguistic awareness in relation to grammar and its practical relevance for their students’ instruction in light of the current technology-driven educational scope.