An Investigation On Language Awareness Of Senior High School English Teachers In Shanxi Province

In the 1970 s,with the popularity of Communicative Language Approach(CLA),form-focused instruction and subject-matter knowledge relating to grammar were ignored and even abandoned in language teaching.In this case,a group of English linguists initiated Language Awareness Movement in educational field.Teacher Language Awareness(TLA)was defined by Thornbury(19997:x)as the knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of the language that enables them to teach effectively.According to Andrews' model,TLA consists of four components,that is,strategic competence,language competence,subject-matter knowledge,and knowledge of learners(1996b).Subject-matter knowledge is the core of the TLA,and grammar is seen as the core of subject-matter knowledge.There are two levels of TLA,declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge.Declarative knowledge is explicit knowledge,which is stored in brain in the way of proposition.Procedural knowledge refers to how to effectively impart knowledge to students in teaching practice.Studying teacher language awareness will be conducive to improving English teaching quality and teachers' professional development.TLA plays an important role in helping teachers to enhance classroom efficiency and promote teaching reflection.The study aims at making an investigation into senior high school teachers' subject-matter knowledge relating to grammar to examine the current level of teacher language awareness in Shanxi Province.Use the test(Appendix A)borrowed from Stephen Andrews to test 262 senior high school teachers chosen from the eleven cities in Shanxi Province.The test consists of two sections,Section I is grammatical terms including selecting grammatical terms,identifying sentence constituents,and describing grammatical terms,and Section II is error identification and error correction.From the findings of the test,we know that the subjects have trouble with grammatical terms.It indicates that and the current level of senior high school teachers' language awareness of Shanxi Province is a bit low.TLA has a great impact on pedagogical practice,teachers should pay much attention to teacher language awareness.On the one hand,it is the duty of pre-service teachers to attach great importance to develop teacher language awareness.They should receive systemic courses and be well-equipped with metalanguage knowledge inuniversity.On the other hand,it is the responsibility of in-service teachers to raise teacher language awareness.They had better design detailed lesson plans,use various teaching methods and language skills to give excellent lessons,take part in training programs,and go in for research activities or seminar together with other colleagues.