‫اﻟﻌدد‬ ‫اﻷزﻫر،‬ ‫ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ‬ ‫اﻟﺗرﺑﯾﺔ،‬ ‫ﻛﻠﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻣﺟﻠﺔ‬ ) : ١٧٤ ‫اﻟﺛﺎﻟث‬ ‫اﻟﺟزء‬ ، ( ‫ﻟﺳﻧﺔ‬ ‫ﯾوﻟﯾو‬ ٢٠١٧ ‫م‬ -٧٨٣ - Awareness of Cognitive load theory among expert and novice language teachers Abstract: This study investigated the awareness of the concept of cognitive load among a group of 194 language teachers of Arabic, English and French in Egypt. It tried to investigate the teachers' knowledge of the Cognitive Load Theory, their practices linked to that concept ; their attitudes towards it and

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... ther gender, type of language and experience make any difference in the teachers' awareness. By using an online scale and interviews, teachers showed limited knowledge of the theory of cognitive load and that language type, experience or gender made no difference in their actual practices in class. Despite that, teachers' levels of attitudes towards the concept and its related activities came high. The study ended with some conclusions and suggestions for further research. ‫اﻟﻌدد‬ ‫اﻷزﻫر،‬ ‫ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ‬ ‫اﻟﺗرﺑﯾﺔ،‬ ‫ﻛﻠﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻣﺟﻠﺔ‬ ٧٨٤ - language procedures and possession of sufficient theoretical professional knowledge or cognition that helps taking appropriate decisions about using those procedures. TLA has obvious connections with all of these competences and not just subject matter cognition about the language systems. This is due to the fact that "the variety of activities and loads related to language awareness has made it increasingly difficult to pin down the concept" (Andrews, 2007). However, in most cases, language awareness (LA) has been viewed, then, as teachers' knowledge about language or as expressed by Thornbury (1997: x) "the knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of the language that enables them to teach effectively". Brog (2003) and Lindahl (2013) detailed the conceptualisation of Thornbury about TLA by asserting that each construct, named as domain, is a composite of elements and features that are not distinctive of their own and have overlapping features. They added that the declarative, procedural and strategic knowledge about the language, the teachers' past school experience, the professional coursework they completed, the contextual loads affecting their practices and their students' performances, and the actual classroom practices have all constructed their awareness and cognition of their teaching practices. Cognitive load theory (CLT), as proposed by Sweller (1988), is such a theory that can help analysing and illuminating that kind of linguistics, professional and procedural domains imposed on teachers. It is a cognitive as well as an instructional theory derived from the field of cognitive psychology and has become one of the most influential theories in guiding instructional designs and implementation. It enables professionals to discuss teaching approaches based on the knowledge of human cognitive architecture. This cognitive architecture as explained by Torcasio & Sweller, 2010, is composed of a natural information processing system, which collects information provided by the sensory memory, creates novel information, stores it, and is able to disseminate it over a long distance and time. The cognitive load theory pays attention to that cognitive structure and place unusual emphasis on the role of working memory (WM) in creating and storing information to be transferred to and stored in long-term memory (LTM) for following use. WM is severely limited in terms of capacity and duration that we can only deal with two or three pieces of information at the same time (Sweller, VanMerrienboer & Paas, 1998). Consequently, if the complexity of the instructional materials is not properly considered, either by teachers or students, in terms of size and schemata, this surely yields in a ‫اﻟﻌدد‬ ‫اﻷزﻫر،‬ ‫ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ‬ ‫اﻟﺗرﺑﯾﺔ،‬ ‫ﻛﻠﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻣﺟﻠﺔ‬ ) : ١٧٤ ‫اﻟﺛﺎﻟث‬ ‫اﻟﺟزء‬ ، ( ‫ﻟﺳﻧﺔ‬ ‫ﯾوﻟﯾو‬ ٢٠١٧ ‫م‬