Cultivating teacher language awareness using picturebooks in the English language classroom

Language awareness is a multidimensional concept centring on engagement with language. It involves three core dimensions: cognitive, affective and social. Teacher language awareness (TLA) encompasses these dimensions but additionally involves: the language user, the language analyst and the language teacher. In Norway, language awareness is seamlessly integrated into the national English subject curriculum. Moreover, the latest revision in 2020 explicitly demands the use of authentic English picturebooks with young learners. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the ways in which English teachers can enhance their TLA by using picturebooks as a teaching resource in language work. This study employs the methodology of action research, including two action cycles. Four teachers, two at beginner level and two in upper primary, collaborated in pairs to carry out a teaching scheme focusing on vocabulary and collocations. The data were primarily collected from interviews, which were coded and analysed in line with qualitative content analysis. This study reveals three notable areas in which teachers experience enhancement of their TLA:Exploring the potential of picturebooks, Creating consciousness-raising tasks and Identifying opportunities for language talk. The teachers participating in the study state that using picturebooks as the main textual resource for language work has enriched their understanding of language awareness and motivated them to adopt a more holistic approach to teaching English.