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Following on from my state-of-the-art article onLanguage Awareness and language learning(Svalberg 2007), in this paper I will discuss specific research tasks which are centrally concerned with different aspects oflanguage awareness(LA): ‘explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use’. The overall argument is that research is needed into how LA is constructed by language learners and teachers throughengagement with language(Svalberg 2007; 2009). I will sometimes refer specifically to awareness of grammar (form-meaning) but hope the paper will stimulate ideas for research into other LA aspects of language learning and teaching. The absence of other issues and areas (such as LA and multilingualism, intercultural LA, critical LA, LA and language policy) is a function of the personal nature of the paper and the limitations of space.

Grammar ABSTRACTThis article takes the view that grammar is driven by user choices and therefore complex and dynamic. This has implications for the teaching of grammar in language teacher education and how teachers' cognitions about grammar, and hence their own grammar teaching, might change. The participants in this small, interpretative study, students on an MA programme in the UK, were being taught grammar from a functional perspective, but with mainly traditional classifications and metalanguage. They were required to negotiate solutions to grammar tasks designed to provoke 'cognitive conflict' (Tocalli-Beller 2003) when the authentic language use of the texts did not conform to the students' prior knowledge. This was assumed to stimulate a high quality of engagement with language (EWL; Svalberg 2009), thus facilitating the construction of new or enhanced knowledge about grammar.Analysis of the participants' learner diaries, interviews and workshop interaction reveal that cognitive conflict is an essential factor in the emergence of new understandings of complex grammar features and of grammar as meaning in context. The study contributes to the literature on inquiry based approaches to language learner education by the insights it provides into knowledge creation in such environments.

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The paper starts from the premise that approaches to the teaching of English can only be assessed in the particular settings where they may be used. Cultures of learning, teachers' and students' beliefs and prevailing material conditions will all have a bearing on how a particular approach is received. In the case study reported on here, four teachers implemented a Consciousness Raising (CR) approach to grammar instruction with nearly 200 students in years 7, 8 and 9 of a Lebanese Secondary School. The teachers' and students' reactions to the particular set of activities trialled were recorded in teacher diaries and reports and through interviews with the teachers and their coordinator, and discussions with the participating students. Both teachers and students were overall positive to the approach. The prevailing culture of learning, which encourages learner autonomy and an analytical approach to language seems to have contributed. It was found, however, that in order to avoid discrepancies in the use of metalanguage and classifications and to allow insights from CR to be used in language production-for-practice, CR would need to be an integral part of the regular integrated skills syllabus.

This study explored some MA students' perceptions of a Grammar Awareness course for language teachers. The aim was to understand how group tasks might help students build Grammar Awareness. Two cohorts of students were surveyed and interviewed. In this paper the survey responses are discussed in some depth. While the first cohort was left to organize their groups as they wished, the second cohort used a more structured, cooperative framework. The paper compares the two cohorts, and novice and experienced teachers, to see 1/ whether novice and experienced teachers benefitted equally or differentially and 2/ what effect the changes had. Central features of the pedagogy were the use of authentic texts and open ended group tasks. The intention was to create cognitive conflict as an impetus for engagement and in depth negotiations, leading to knowledge creation. The novice teachers on the whole found tasks and texts more difficult, and had greater problems focusing on the task. The more structured group work led to increased task focus in both groups, and more active participation by the TESOL students, and thus appeared to facilitate engagement with the language, but anxiety was high and increased for the TESOL students in the second cohort.