This volume explores the defining element in the work of language teacher educators: language itself. The book is in two parts. The first part holds up to scrutiny concepts of language that underlie much practice in language teacher education yet too frequently remain under-examined. These include language as social institution, language as verbal practice, language as reflexive practice, language as school subject and language as medium of language learning.The chapters in the second part are written by language teacher educators working in a range of institutional contexts and on a variety of types of program including both long and short courses, both pre-service and in-service courses, and teacher education practice focusing variously on metalinguistic awareness for teachers, language improvement, and classroom communication. The unifying factor is that collectively they illuminate how language teacher educators research their practice and reflect on underlying principles. Table of ContentsIntroduction: Language in language teacher education • A discourse perspectiveLanguage in language teacher education • A discourse perspective Hugh Trappes-Lomax 1 Part 1 Concepts of language in language teacher education 23 Is language a verb? Conceptual change in linguistics and language teaching John E. Joseph 29 The social component of language teacher education Alan Davies 49 Language teaching: Defining the subject Henry G. Widdowson 67 Reflexive language in language teacher education Peter Grundy 83 Training in instructional conversation Scott Thornbury 95 Part 2 Working with language in language teacher education 107 Doing language awareness:issues for language study in language teacher education Tony Wright 113 Language awareness in the preparation of teachers of English for specific purposes Gibson Ferguson 131 Examining classroom discourse frames: An approach to raising language teachers ’ awareness of and planning for language use Martha C. Pennington 149 What was that you said?: Trainee generated language awareness Clare O'Donoghue and Tom Hales 173 Developing language awareness and error detection: What can we expect of novice trainees? Heather Murray 187 Maintaining language skills in pre-service training for foreign language teachers Ann Barnes 199 The use of lesson transcripts for developing teachers’ classroom language Richard M. Cullen 219 Towards a framework for language improvement within short in-service teacher development programmes Susan Lavender 237 Bionotes 251 Index 255