Inquiring Language Awareness of TEFL Master Students in Advanced Grammar Exams

The Knowledge-based Era demands scholars to be experts in their fields. Language Awareness (LA) is L2 explicit knowledge about language. Its presence as one of the expertise qualifications for foreign language learners is inevitable. This study aims to describe the extent of LA within the qualitative case study approach. Eight TEFL master students were chosen as the subjects. The researchers collected the data from exams and interviews. The general findings showed that the students have ‘adequate’ LA. In a closer look, their analyzed knowledge was better than metalinguistic knowledge; it was a relatively normal condition since analyzed knowledge requires simpler cognitive process rather than metalinguistic knowledge. Additionally, it seemed that the multiple choices in the exams enlighten the cognitive process within analyzed knowledge. However, their metalinguistic knowledge had a problem with grammatical terminologies. In sum, both types of knowledge are vital but metalinguistic knowledge deserves more priority to be improved.