Acceso usuarios
Tim Parke
This paper initially assesses the essentially sociolinguistic position on Language awareness taken in Bhatt & Martin‐Jones (1991). There is a discussion of the strengths of the case they make there for a study of language that would be both critical, and grounded in social realities, especially those of bilingual pupils in the UK school system, rather than as an abstraction from the life of the pupils on whom the study would be targeted. Their view is then analysed for the consequences it might have if applied to the majority population, with a brief following discussion of whether the bilingual experience is fundamentally a linguistic or a social phenomenon. The notion of Language Awareness is then extended by setting considerations of language acquisition and grammar alongside Bhatt & Martin‐Jones’ more socially based concerns, and the case is made for including these areas in Language Awareness teaching. Finally, the connection is made between these suggestions and the teaching of languages.
