Languages in primary classrooms: a study of new teacher capability and practice

Abstract

This study explored the language capability of two groups of new teachers in a multilingual city: the first in their initial teacher education year, and the second near the end of their induction year. Almost all teachers in the city face the challenge of teaching English as an additional language in classrooms characterised by super-diversity and many also teach French. Language capability surveys were completed by 175 respondents (103 trainees, 72 new teachers) and five interviews were conducted. Results revealed high levels of language capability with up to a third of new teachers and 15% of trainees using a heritage language. Of the respondents, 80% had an identifiable language capability often described as school French, now largely forgotten. The classrooms in which both trainees and new teachers worked were often characterised by great diversity of languages. Some participants engaged in learning about language and even a little of the languages spoken by children they taught. The study concludes that there are opportunities to develop language capability in schools but research about existing capability is essential.

Keywords:

• diversity
• multilingual classrooms
• newly qualified teachers (NQTs)
• language capability

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all PGCE and NQT participants in this study for their thoughtful feedback and often detailed responses. Also, we thank Nicola Davies of NALDIC and the TDA for guidance about the training of teachers. For further details about the research and the capability survey, please contact Wasyl Cajkler.