Wallace, Catherine; (1998) Critical language awareness in the foreign language classroom. Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.

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Abstract

ABSTRACT The thesis exammes the concept of critical language awareness both in principle and practice. It begins with an exploration of the key principles which inform CLA and concludes with an account of a particular study of a foreign language classroom. CL~ as presented in the thesis, is seen as an essentially practical, classroom based enterprise which is indebted in various ways to particular understandings about the nature of texts and interpretative processes. Early chapters locate CLA within studies of text and discourse, the reading process and classroom interaction respectively. The first chapter presents the view that CLA takes its theoretical bearings largely from critical discourse analysis. Discussion centres around major points of departure between critical and conventional kinds of discourse analysis. Chapter two focuses on the role of the reader in text analysis, arguing for the need to locate critical reading within the wider concept of critical literacy. Chapter three proposes the need to develop a model of critical pedagogy which has the potential to enhance awareness of texts and readings within the context of the classroom community. Chapter four offers a bridge between the conceptual underpinnings of the study and the subsequent chapters which present the empirical part of the thesis. It describes the research methodology which informs the classroom study. Chapters five, six and seven respectively, provide an account of the rationale for the particular course at the centre of the study, in terms of the texts and classroom procedures which were selected; they also present an analysis of key features of selected classroom episodes. Chapter eight assesses the students' own views about the manner in which their critical judgements of texts and practices have evolved during the CLA course. The thesis concludes by drawing some lessons for future explorations of both the principles and practice of critical language awareness.

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