Teacher Cognition and Language Education

S. Borg

Continuum 2008, 320 pp., £24.99

isbn 978 1 8470 6333 5

While second language acquisition (SLA) has beenthoroughly researched, much less research hasbeen conducted into what second language teaching(SLT) involves. There is no ‘SLT’ to match SLA.Simon Borg’s book on teacher cognition is animportant contribution to our knowledge of what

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goes on inside teachers’ heads. It is, however, a bookthat also reminds us of how what goes on insideteachers’ heads is inextricably tied to what goes onoutside their heads, in the social and educationalcontext in which teaching takes place. It isa fascinating, if somewhat demanding, read.

Teacher Cognition and Language Education bringstogether research into teacher cognition from ELT

and beyond. The book, a substantial volume of over300 pages, will be an invaluable handbook forresearchers in the field, teacher educators, andcurriculum designers. Although not specificallytargeted at classroom teachers, it is a mine ofinformation for those seeking to enhance theirknowledge of classroom practice.

The term ‘teacher cognition’ refers to what teachersknow and think and how this affects their behaviour,especially insofar as it relates to what happens in theclassroom. Much of what we think we ‘know’ aboutlanguage teaching is based on anecdotal evidence orthe work of inspirational educators. In ELT, if not ingeneral education, very little empirical work has beendone on how teachers think and behave. The work ofSchon (1983), Richards and Lockhart (1994), andWallace (1991) has encouraged a more reflectiveapproach to teacher education.A small but importantbody of empirical work has also now accumulated onteacher cognition, though scattered as this work is inacademic journals it is difficult for non-specialists toget access to it. Indeed, Borg’s book is not the easiestof texts, but it has abundant insights for theclassroom practitioner; in this review, I will focus onthis practical aspect of the book.

In Teacher Cognition and Language Education, SimonBorg does three things: first, he provides anexhaustive summary of the research into teachercognition, with a particular focus on languageeducation; second, he analyses the significance of thisresearch to language teaching; and third, he describesand evaluates the various research methods whichhave been applied to studies of teacher cognition.

Thus, in Part 1 of the book, Borg reviews, inimpressive detail, the research into the cognition ofpre-service, novice, and experienced teachers, withseparate chapters on the teaching of grammar,reading, and writing. Some of this work refers to theteaching of English as a second or foreign languagebut much of it is drawn from teaching and teachereducation in general.

In Part 2, Borg describes—again in great detail—avariety of researchmethods which have been appliedin the investigation of teacher cognition.

The book concludes with a very useful summary ofthe main insights uncovered in the main body of thebookand thedescriptionof a framework for the futurestudyof teacher cognition. Thebookhas awide scopeand, apart from the specific insights into foreignlanguage teaching it reports on, it helps put ELT intoa broader context of teacher education across thecurriculum. I will now go on to give a summary of thecontents of the book, chapter-by-chapter, and roundoff with an example of what I personally found mostuseful in the book.

Chapter 1 puts the study of language teachercognition in its historical context by describing theorigins of teacher cognition research in generaleducation. The research brings out the two-wayinteractionbetween teacher thinking and practice butalso the importance of context in shaping whatteachers think, feel, and do. For example, Borgdescribes research which foregrounds theimportance to teacher effectiveness of the knowledgewe have of our students (such as their classroombehaviour, ability, and background) in combinationwith the teacher’s practical pedagogic knowledge(pp.11–13). The evidence suggests that teacherstransform the knowledge they acquire in pre-serviceeducation programmes through a combination ofinformation processing, practical knowledge, andinteraction with pedagogical content. Teachercognition is, thus, described as an often tacit,personally held practical system of mentalconstructions, resulting from a complex, interactiveprocess involving subjective and objective factors. It isa dynamic, interactive process, which is defined andrefined on the basis of educational and professionalexperiences throughout teachers’ lives (p. 35).

Chapter 2 focuses on research conducted in thecontext of pre-service teacher education. It examinesthe impact of pre-service education programmes onteachers’ thoughts and beliefs but also on whatteachers actually do in the classroom. Thecontradiction between what, on the one hand,teachers say they do in class orwhat they believe aboutteaching, and on the other hand, what they actually dois a commonplace amongst teacher trainers. Borgdescribes research which reveals the importance ofpre-service teachers’ own previous learningexperiences on their cognition (p. 52). An analysisof pre-service teachers’ diaries reveals intriguinginsights, such as the central place of classroommanagement factors in teachers’ hierarchy ofpriorities, but also the enduring importance in theirthinking of teaching grammar effectively (p. 56). Themotif of the two-way interaction between cognitive

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systems and experience, between beliefs andpractice, reappears in this chapter.

Chapter 3 is particularly rich in insights. In thischapter, Borg looks at teacher cognition researchwithreference to in-service teachers. The chapter focuseson how teachers’ beliefs and knowledge shape theirclassroom practice and how in turn these beliefs areshaped by contextual constraints. The beliefs ofteachers regarding mainstream approaches, such asthe communicative approach, are explored throughteacher narratives; these narratives highlight thedegree to which teacher cognition is sociallysituated—it is influenced by the emotions arousedwhen teachers reflect on the relationship betweenwhat they believe in principle and what is feasible inpractice. ‘Almost all teachers reported usingcommunicative activities such as role-play games,survey, group-work, simulations; unfortunately, thesethings were rarely observed’ (p. 97: quoted from Satoand Kleinsasser 1999: 509–10). Teacher narrativesalso bring out the influence of teachers’ earlyexperiences on what they believe and how theybehave in the classroom. The outcome of allthese factors is the contradiction identified earlierbetween what teachers say they do and what theyactually do.

Chapters 4 and 5 review the literature on two subjectsin the curriculum which have received particularattention in teacher cognition research: the teachingofgrammar and the teachingof literacy skills (readingand writing). Interestingly, as Borg points out,research into teachers’ beliefs regarding grammarteaching emanates mostly from EFL/ESL contextswhile research into teacher cognition and reading hasbeen conducted in the context of mother tongueteaching.

In the chapter on the teaching of grammar, wediscover that research suggests that ‘non-nativeteachers’ do significantly better on explicit grammarawareness than their ‘native-speaker counterparts’(p. 112). Another fascinating piece of data is theincongruence between students’ beliefs andteachers’ beliefs regarding the need to correct errors:while 94 per cent of learners believe teachers shouldcorrect their errors in class, only 48 per cent ofteachers agreed with them that errors should becorrected. A similar discrepancy in the views oflearners and teachers is reported in the case of the‘formal teaching of grammar’, with the students onceagain more strongly in favour of traditional grammarteaching than their more communicatively orientedteachers. ‘These mismatches between teacher andstudent views about the role of formal instruction anderror correction’, speculates Borg, ‘may impinge

negatively on student motivation’ (p. 115). Inresponse to this danger of demotivation, someteachers may engage in grammar teaching ‘notbecause they think it enhances language acquisitionbut because they feel it is something their studentsexpect’ (p. 124). The way context shapes teacherattitudes and actions is clearly complex and full ofcontradictions. Another example of the constrainingpower of the classroom environment on teachercognition is the way the teaching of writing skills hasbeen influenced by an apparently unrelated issuesuch as discipline and classroom management(p. 151). A process approach to writing, for example,is desirable in theory but often makes prohibitivedemands on the teacher in terms of classroomcontrol and the ability to motivate learners. Thisinsight has profound implications for the feasibility ofmany forward-looking and learner-centredmethodologies which are not often fully explored inteacher training courses or optimistic teachers’handbooks!

Chapters 6–9 change gear as Borg looks at researchmethodologies rather than the outcome of theresearch, though in these chapters the readerwill finda large number of insights into the rationale andeffectiveness of classroom practice. Borg examinesthe following research methods: self-reportinstruments (questionnaires, scenario rating,tests), verbal commentaries (interviews, think-aloud protocols), observation, and reflectivewriting (journals, autobiographical accounts,retrospective accounts, and concept mapping).He points out what these methods have achieved,what they have neglected, and what they stillhave to offer the ongoing exploration of teachercognition.

In his final chapter, Borg revisits the salient issueswhich his book has described: the nature of languageteacher cognition, the relationship betweenlanguage teachers’ cognition and classroompractices, the impact of context on languageteachers’ cognitions and practices, and the natureof expertise in teaching.

Borg ends the book with a consideration of thedivergence between SLA studies and teachercognition. He argues for the need to bring these twolines of inquiry closer together so that SLA and ‘SLT’can inform each other. SLA needs to show a greaterawareness of the complexities of what teachers doand the impact of teacher cognition on learningoutcomes: ‘rather than calling for either SLAresearchers or teacher cognition researchers tochange their perspectives on researching languageeducation . . . it is perhaps more realistic and

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ultimately more productive to combine the expertiseof both parties’ (p. 288).

One of the most intriguing of the themes developedin the book is the nature of expertise in languageteaching. I would like to endmy review by drawing ontheuseful topic index provided at the backof the bookin order to trace the insights into teacher expertiserunning throughout the book.

What doesBorg’smeticulous account of the researchtell us about the nature of effective teaching? Expertteachers:

n possess knowledge derived from the classroom

n are familiar with typical student behaviours

n use their knowledge to make predictions aboutwhat might happen in the classroom

n havemore fully developed schemata of teaching onwhich to base their practical classroom decisions:‘they know a lot about their students even beforethey meet them’ (p. 40)

n pay more attention to language issues than noviceteachers (who worry more about classroommanagement)

n learn to automatize the routines associated withmanaging the class; this skill leaves them free tofocus on content

n improvise more than novice teachers—they makegreater use of interactive decision-making asa source of their ‘improvisational performance’(p. 102)

n build on students’ difficulties

n notice errors and classify them

n maintain active student involvement

n have a clear language learning focus

n integrate skills

n are able to articulate their pedagogic principles andmake conscious decisions

n internalize theory and link theory to practice.

It emerges from this summary of the research thatexpertise in language teaching is a complex, dynamicprocess, involving constant engagement,exploration, and experimentation. It is an integrationof formal and experiential knowledge which enablesthe expert practitioner to envisage the learningpotential of students in context; an expert teacher isboth technically skilled and emotionally intelligent.Expertise is certainly not synonymous withexperience.

These insights into expertise in language teachingare what this reviewer found most useful in SimonBorg’s book. But the book as a whole will offermuchmore to different readers; it is a rich source ofwhat we know, empirically, about what teachersthink and do.

ReferencesRichards, J. C. and C. Lockhart. 1994. ReflectiveTeaching in Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Sato, K. and R. C. Kleinsasser. 1999. ‘Communicativelanguage teaching (CLT): practical understandings’.Modern Language Journal 83/4: 494–517.Schon, D. 1983. The Reflective Practitioner: HowProfessionals Think in Action. New York:Basic Books.Wallace, M. 1991. Training Foreign Language Teachers:A Reflective Approach. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

The reviewerLuke Prodromou is a freelance teacher, teachertrainer, and materials writer based in Greece. He hasworked for the British Council and a variety of privateinstitutions in Greece, Spain, and the UK. He haswritten Dealing with Difficulties (Delta, with L.Clandfield), winner of the Ben Warren Prize, anEnglish-Speaking Union award, and nominated fora British Council Elton Award for Innovation inEnglish Language Teaching for 2007. He is also co-author of Attitude (for adults) and Smash (for younglearners—both Macmillan). He has an MA inShakespeare Studies (Birmingham University),a Diploma in TESL (Leeds University), and a PhDfrom the University of Nottingham.His book, Englishas a Lingua Franca: A Corpus-based Analysis, waspublished in 2008 by Continuum. He is currentlyteaching young learners.Email: lukep@otenet.grdoi:10.1093/elt/ccp011

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