Teaching language and teaching with languages is what is called for in contemporary classrooms, be they language classrooms or otherwise. When the learners’ plurilingualism and societies’ multilingualism have social, cultural or political implications, becoming aware of language matters is a necessity both for non-specialist teachers and language teachers alike. This book thus presents a variety of research-based perspectives on the cultural-political and social-educational domains of language awareness. Context, both historical, socio-economic, political and cultural has an undeniable impact on language attitudes and awareness, and the variety of different contexts contained in this volume – the Basque County, Catalonia (Spain), England (UK), Finland, Germany, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Portugal, Scotland (UK), and Turkey – testifies to this. As each chapter outlines the specificities and the impact of context upon language policies, attitudes and beliefs, the authors in this book focus on language awareness as a multi-faceted concept fit to play a major role in the reform processes of teacher education in the 21st century.

Stephan Breidbach is Professor for English Language Education at Humboldt-University Berlin. Daniela Elsner is Professor for Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies at the University Frankfurt am Main. Andrea Young is currently a Lecturer in primary language education at the IUFM d’Alsace / Université de Strasbourg.