Unravelling upper-secondary school teachers’ beliefs about language awareness: from conflicts to challenges in the EFL context

Abstract

This study presents an in-depth inquiry into teachers’ beliefs about a language awareness approach to secondary school foreign language education. The study aims to deepen our insight into (the differences in) teachers’ beliefs about language awareness and facilitate the discussion about including language awareness in foreign language curricula. Ten EFL teachers were interviewed about their beliefs about language awareness. Analysis of the interviews revealed that teachers do not have a shared understanding of the concept of language awareness as related to the five domains of language awareness set out. Furthermore, several beliefs could be characterised as conflicting. These conflicts were found in the context of student learning, teacher collaboration, the curriculum and the link with other languages. The results suggest a number of challenges that need to be addressed when including language awareness in foreign language education. These challenges could serve as a point of departure for a dialogue with and between teachers. Furthermore, they could support teachers to find out how language awareness fits best within the existing EFL curricula.