The authors, both linguists and directors of Centers for Teaching and Learning, address how many pedagogical issues can be more effectively addressed by a language-aware faculty. Effective teaching benefits from an explicit understanding of the workings of linguistic systems, that is, the ability to use language to talk about language. They discuss the reasons for instructors in higher education to gain such metalinguistic knowledge, including the distinguishing traits of academic discourse, issues of language variation, and many inaccurate yet common assumptions about language. They argue for making metalinguistic knowledge more prevalent in college teaching.