Language knowledge and awareness

This category of the Cambridge English Teaching Framework looks at:

• Your understanding of key terms and concepts used to describe language
• Your use of strategies to check and develop your language awareness
• Your ability to apply such knowledge to facilitate language learning

Four stages of development

Every skill is described in relation to the four stages of development: Foundation, Developing, Proficient and Expert. Below, we list some of the main competencies for each stage and provide suggestions on how to develop further.

Foundation

• Have not yet developed strategies to check and develop your own language awareness
• Aware of some key terms for describing language, and some key reference materials
• Starting to demonstrate understanding of these terms to:
  • Analyse common language points
  • Choose very simple models of language usage
  • Answer simple questions about language with the help of reference materials

Ways to develop further

Watch	English Grammar Guide & Tips video English Language Learning Tips: Tenses videos Verb tenses Present perfect tense
Read	Patterns after verbs
Do	Record your learners and identify some common errors they make
Study	Try the following professional development books: About Language, Second edition Scott Thornbury’s 101 Grammar Questions Grammar for English Language Teachers, Second edition

Developing

• Have started to develop strategies to check and develop your own language awareness
• Are aware of most key terms for describing language and of many available reference materials
• Demonstrate understanding of these terms to:
  • Analyse most language points
  • Provide accurate models of usage for many language points
  • Answer most learner questions with the help of reference materials

Ways to develop further

Watch	English Language Learning Tips – Prefixes and Suffixes video
Read	Modality
Do	Record your learners and identify the errors they make. Reflect on how many of the errors you noticed during the lesson. Read reference materials for the language points you are teaching and compare their explanations with how you exemplify language in class
Study	Try the following professional development books: About Language, Second edition Scott Thornbury’s 101 Grammar Questions Grammar for English Language Teachers, Second edition

Proficient

• Use strategies to regularly check and develop your own language awareness
• Have good knowledge of key terms and available reference materials
• Demonstrate the ability to:
  • Correctly analyse most language points
  • Provide accurate models of usage for most language points
  • Answer most learner questions with minimal use of reference materials

Ways to develop further

Watch	Explore the videos in our Learning English playlist
Do	Record your learners and reflect on the link between your language models and the accuracy of their output Read reference materials for the language points you are teaching and try out different ways of exemplifying language that you encounter. Identify the effects on your learners.
Study	Try the following professional development books: About Language, Second edition Scott Thornbury’s 101 Grammar Questions Grammar for English Language Teachers, Second edition Listening in the Language Classroom

Expert

• Consistently use strategies to check and develop your own language awareness
• Have a sophisticated knowledge of key terms and available reference materials
• Demonstrate this understanding by:
  • Correctly analysing all language points
  • Providing consistently accurate models of usage
  • Answering all learner questions with minimal use of reference materials

Ways to develop further

Watch	Explore the videos in our Learning English playlist
Read	Corpora and grammar
Do	Record your learners and reflect on the effectiveness of the language models you give in class Design workshops for other teachers on language awareness for teaching, based on the reference materials you’ve read
Study	Try the following professional development books: About Language, Second edition Scott Thornbury’s 101 Grammar Questions Grammar for English Language Teachers, Second edition

Download the Cambridge English Teaching Framework – Competency statements

Download the Cambridge English Teaching Framework – Framework components

Cambridge English teaching qualifications

Our industry-leading qualifications support you to develop your teaching skills and confidence, and prove what you can do. They are mapped to the Cambridge English Teaching Framework.

Learn more about teaching qualifications