Language learning

This paper considers the currently fashionable notion of language awareness: what it is, where it comes from, and how far it is pedagogically valid. Awareness (of language as grammatical code) was central to language learning in grammar-translation methodology, but was played down in both structural and communicative language teaching. A communicative approach implied, however, a need to become aware of aspects of language in contextual use, though it was not always clear what the facts were of which one needed to be aware. Now that aspects of language use and of usage have been described, it is valuable that language teachers be aware of these developments. However, whether and in what sense such awareness is of pedagogical relevance cannot be determined by linguistic discovery procedures, or by investigating native-speaker norms. Classroom learning has its own agenda, and the author affirms the need above all to be aware of this.