Readings for Discussion

Readings for Discussion

Preface

This section of the site includes a number of papers designed to be of interest to anyone involved in the training and education of English teachers. Each paper has links to one or more of sets of web materials elsewhere within the site, but also stands alone as a reading in its own right. The aim is to offer background information and provoke thought about different areas of English teaching. Tutors may wish to share the readings with student teachers as a starting point for group discussion. Some student teachers will find the readings offer useful background material to inform their planning, teaching, assessment and assignments as well as inviting critical response.

Some of the papers are secondary-specific; others are cross-phase. Versions of some of the cross-phase readings have already been included in another ITE English initiative: The Handbook of Primary English in Initial Teacher Education (2007) edited by Teresa Cremin and Henrietta Dombey and published by NATE/UKLA/Canterbury Christ Church University (see NATE or UKLA websites for details). They are reproduced here because they include valuable ideas about the topic, of relevance to tutors whichever phase they are working in.

In Teaching English - An Overview, Eve Bearne reminds us of the importance of giving future teachers of English time to think. The same, of course, is true for their tutors. The Readings for Discussion will, we hope, offer food for thought for tutors and, through them, for their student teachers, as well as making helpful connections between theory and practice.

Gabrielle Cliff Hodges and Ian McNeilly
ITE English Steering Group