ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses linguistics as an academic discipline which plays a critical role in developing both teachers' subject and pedagogical knowledge. It provides an overview of grammar and language teaching in English schools. It develops the ideas by debating the characteristics of different models of grammar, and introducing some basic principles from cognitive linguistics to the reader. The book outlines some suitable areas of study from a cognitive linguistic perspective, in each case describing its theoretical concerns and its place within the cognitive model of language study. It argues that debates about language study have been dominated by political and ideological stances rather than pedagogical ones, and suggest that advances in cognitive linguistics present an opportunity to illuminate teacher and student knowledge about how language operates.
