This paper reports preliminary findings from a 1988 Hampshire (England) schools research project in which primary and secondary school teachers with special responsibility for language teaching were interviewed to discover their views on the place of explicit knowledge about language (KAL) in the school language curriculum and on possible rationales and strategies for developing such knowledge. An hour-long discussion with seven secondary chairpersons (Heads) of English and a similar number of chairpersons of Modern Languages reviewed their aims in teaching language and the place within these aims of the development of explicit KAL; goals and strategies for teaching particular age groups were also reviewed. English teachers were found to be much less aware of the "language awareness" movement than Modern Language teachers. English teachers showed more concern for sociolinguistic aspects of language than Modern Language teachers. Missing from the discussions in both groups were key topics in contemporary expert models of language, such as the structure of discourse beyond the level of the individual sentence, the spoken language in all its aspects, and first/second language acquisition and development. Findings demonstrate the limited conscious commitment by ordinary language teachers to the systematic development of pupils' KAL. (Contains 15 references.) (NAV)