Language Study Post-16

3. Practical Ideas and Activities for Sessions Which Will Address The Appropriate Standards

Rather than purely theoretical sessions, we recommend practical workshop-based activities which provide student teachers with a realistic insight into the teaching and management of English Language post-16. It is well worth the student teachers modelling what their future A-level students will have to do.

1. Starter Activity: Lectures and Demonstrations
   Student teachers volunteer to run a 30-minute lecture and/or demonstration lesson in pairs, and are filmed by a response partner who provides feedback on their performance. This activity allows the student teachers to introduce a session and they must liaise with their tutor in order to produce a cohesive session programme. In practice, it is good to pair up an ‘expert’ with a linguistic-based first degree with a language ‘novice’. 
2. Handling Data Transcripts
   Student teachers should be encouraged to look in detail at the collection, transcription and interpretation of live data and to be aware of the need for an appropriately tentative, descriptive and open-minded approach. There are plenty of very good resources for transcripts: Angela Goddard’s Researching Language: English Project Work at A Level and Beyond 2nd edition (2000) is an excellent starting point here. 
3. Mini Research Projects
   Following on from the above, another very useful exercise is to replicate the data collection and handling process which underpins a successful A-level language investigation project. One very interesting area of linguistic study (and one on which all speakers of English have an opinion) is that of accents, dialects and Standard English. Student teachers can generate their own raw data by completing questionnaires about attitudes to their own and others’ accents. The taught session itself should then model the ways in which this information can be interpreted and organised at A-level. The student teachers will gain experience of the various analytical techniques and methodological issues which surround data use in English Language study post-16. 
4. Experience of Assessment
   Student teachers need hands-on experience of marking – especially coursework – and this must be an essential component of any Initial Teacher Education course. Examination boards can provide up-to-date question papers, mark schemes, model marked scripts and examples of real coursework for the student teachers to work with. 
5. Plenary: Designing an English Language “taster lesson” for Year 11
   To assess the student teachers’ understanding of the areas of study covered, the compilation of a typical ‘taster’ lesson designed to allow Year 11 pupils a realistic insight into the AS English Language course and to point out the differences between language study at GCSE and post-16 is a very productive exercise. It also provides the student teachers with a potentially very practical resource to take into school.

References