In language learning contexts, the role of the language teacher is a particularly crucial one: it is the teacher who, through and with their use of (the foreign) language, has a significant influence on the extent to which language learners are linguistically/cognitively activated, and thus determines whether processes of language learning are initiated and promoted, or perhaps even impeded or prevented. Thus, it is of utmost importance for language teachers to acquire a high level of classroom discourse competence (CDC) - a professional competence that goes far beyond the notions of FL proficiency and communicative competence. Located at the intersection of theory, classroom research and practical approaches to (E)FL teacher education, Classroom Discourse Competence: Current Issues in Language Teaching and Teacher Education offers university students, trainee teachers, in-service teachers and teacher educators a comprehensive conceptualization of CDC (Part I). Furthermore, the chapters in this book explore facets of CDC (Part II) and present good-practice examples of CDC development in the context of pre-service teacher education (Part III).

Dr. phil. Katrin Thomson ist seit 2017 als Akad. Rätin am Lehrstuhl für Didaktik des Englischen an der Universität Augsburg tätig. Ihre Promotion schloss sie an der Universität Jena ab, und nach dem Referendariat arbeitete sie an den Universitäten Münster und Wuppertal. Von 2020 bis 2021 vertrat sie die Professur für Fachdidaktik Englisch an der Universität Regensburg.