Differences in Teachers’ Knowledge of Language

Teachers need to expand their understanding of language in order to meet the di-verse language and literacy needs of their students. Students may demonstrate defic its in the domains of language form (phonology, morphology, syntax), con-tent (semantics), and use (pragmatics). However, existing studies have only investigated teachers’ knowledge of language form. The refore, this study investi-gated 236 preservice and inservice teachers’ knowledge of language form, content, and use as well as the teacher characteristics that may influe nce this knowledge. Both preservice and inservice teachers were found to have low levels of language knowledge. Experienced teachers, inservice teachers, and inservice teachers taking graduate level courses at a university tended to perform bett er than preservice teachers with no teaching experience on all three subscales. The se find ings have implications for teacher training programs and for profes-sionals providing support services to classroom teachers. ISSN 1918-5227 Pages 24- 37