Community language teaching needs expanding
The need to train more language teachers, specifically to teach community and heritage languages, was put under the spotlight by our recent report, Every language matters.
The report highlights that in 2006/07, there were only 35 trainees nationally studying to teach Arabic, Bengali, Japanese, Mandarin, Panjabi, Turkish, or Urdu with one of five initial teacher training providers, yet these subjects are taught at GCSE and A level. And, while 1,025 pupils studied Gujarati at GCSE level in 2006, no course exists to train people to teach this language.
The report recommends that more teachers need to be trained specifically to teach community and heritage languages and they should be given a higher status. This was judged particularly important as the quality of teaching by those with a post graduate certificate in education (PGCE) in community languages was consistently good.
We found that people want to learn community languages, despite the barriers existing today. We also discovered that when community language teachers were given the opportunity to gain qualified teacher status, their teaching improved. Miriam Rosen, Director, Education, Ofsted
Senior staff in schools commented that community language teachers with a PGCE qualification have better information technology skills and teaching methods. They were also better equipped to assess pupils’ progress and manage behaviour than those without the qualification. Added benefits identified by teachers with a PGCE included professional development and qualified teacher status.
Only eight providers of initial teacher training offer PGCE courses in community languages and the take up of these courses was low.
Our report found over half of the 134 community language teachers surveyed didn’t have qualified teacher status. Of those that did, half had gained their qualification in a subject other than languages.
For the full report go to:
www.ofsted.gov.uk/assets/Internet_Content/Shared_Content/Files/2008/feb/everylangmatters.pdf
