This text contains a collection of more than 20 state-of-the-art overviews of a variety of aspects of language awareness and the role of metalinguistic knowledge in language development and education. The contributions come from more than a dozen countries and offer a balanced perspective on a range of topics, including first and second language acquisition, classroom talk, language use in the multicultural work place, translation, Esperanto, whole language, historical perspectives from the UK and the Netherlands, critical pedagogy, the education of language teachers, the teaching of grammar, phonology, and writing, and others. In all, the book offers a comprehensive perspective on metalinguistic knowledge and processes, and presents a coherent argument for building an element of language awareness into the language curriculum at all educational levels.