A Study on the Cognition of Foreign Language Teachers in Argentina

SUSANA SILVIA FERNÁNDEZ; MARÍA ISABEL POZZO

ALFA

UNESP, INSTITUTO DE LETRAS, CIENCIAS SOCIAIS E EDUCACAO

Lugar: San Pablo; Año: 2021 vol. 65 p. 1 - 31

0002-5216

In this article we discuss how the field of research called Teacher Cognition can contribute to our understanding of the role of the language teacher in the classroom and at the same time help to qualify teacher training, providing reflection tools. We present some results taken from a case study based on a one-day seminar in which a group of Argentine foreign language teachers, both in service and in training, had the opportunity to get in touch with this area of study and reflect and discuss their knowledge, beliefs and feelings from a series of individual and group exercises. Our analysis gives an account of the opinions and reflections that arose in the answers to the exercises and in the group discussions that were generated during the day, since these reflect the aspects of foreign language learning and teaching that are most crucial for these teachers. In addition, we make a detailed presentation of the structure of the seminar, since our intention is to propose the benefits of including a focus on teacher cognition in training and improvement courses for language teachers.