Critical Language Awareness and Teacher Cognition in ELT

The book argues for the incorporation of Critical Language Awareness (CLA) in English language teaching and more broadly within mainstream education.

The conception of CLA draws together significant areas of recent sociolinguistic research, reflecting dramatic changes in the global environment and the consequent impacts on English language teaching. Teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and language attitudes are discussed in relation to these changing sociolinguistic conditions, seeking to address teachers’ principal concerns. English language teachers are on the front line in finding a balance between students’ expectations, institutional requirements and the needs of neo-liberal societies demanding a flexible, transmigratory, multilingual, English-speaking workforce.

To investigate the impact of these changing conditions, this book explores the diversity of English language teachers’ cognitions. Data are examined from focus groups across China, Turkey and the UK, including 63 teachers from 16 countries, speaking a total of 21 different languages. The diversity of the participants in terms of their language background, teaching experience and teaching qualifications enables identification of core factors across the groups in how they engage with challenges in their everyday teaching practices.