ABSTRACT
Many students come into teacher training with little or no formal training in language study. This partly reflects the relatively low priority which was placed on this area during their own school years; priorities have now changed, especially since the advent of the present pupils’ National Curriculum, and Standard English and Language Study is now an element in each profile component (speaking and listening, reading and writing) at each key stage. Even among English graduates knowledge about language is often limited because their prime interest lies in the study of literature and they do not choose language or linguistics options. The ITT National Curriculum for secondary English notes that
For some [students] the narrowness of their background subject knowledge may mean that they do not feel confident about, or competent in, all the English which they are required to teach. All trainees need to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses in their own subject knowledge, to analyse it against the pupils’ National Curriculum and examination syllabuses, and to be aware of the gaps they will need to fill during their training.
(DfEE, 1998, p. 99)