Bullock (1975)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Foreword, Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part 1 Attitudes and standards
Chapter 1 Attitudes to the teaching of English
Chapter 2 Standards of reading
Chapter 3 Monitoring

Part 2 Language in the early years
Chapter 4 Language and learning
Chapter 5 Language in the early years

Part 3 Reading
Chapter 6 The reading process
Chapter 7 Reading in the early years
Chapter 8 Reading: the later stages
Chapter 9 Literature

Part 4 Language in the middle and secondary years
Chapter 10 Oral language
Chapter 11 Written language
Chapter 12 Language across the curriculum

Part 5 Organisation
Chapter 13 The primary and middle years
Chapter 14 Continuity between schools
Chapter 15 The secondary school
Chapter 16 LEA advisory services

Part 6 Reading and language difficulties
Chapter 17 Screening, diagnosis and recording
Chapter 18 Children with reading difficulties
Chapter 19 Adult literacy
Chapter 20 Children from families of overseas origin

Part 7 Resources
Chapter 21 Books
Chapter 22 Technological aids and broadcasting

Part 8 Teacher education and training
Chapter 23 Initial training
Chapter 24 In-service education

Part 9 The survey
Chapter 25: I Introduction
Chapter 25: II Primary commentary
Chapter 25: III Secondary commentary
Chapter 25: IV The questionnaire forms (not online)
Chapter 25: V Technical notes (not online)

Part 10 Sumary of conclusions and recommendations
Chapter 26 Conclusions and recommendations

Appendix A Witnesses and sources of evidence
Appendix B Visits made
Glossary
Index

Report of the Committee of Enquiry appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science under the Chairmanship of Sir Alan Bullock FBA

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1975
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Chapter 23 Initial training
[pages 331 - 346]

23.1 Our Report emerges at a critical and uncertain time in the development of teacher training. Following the James Report (1), the White Paper Education: A Framework for Expansion (2) has established the pattern for the future. This is gradually being put into effect, but aspects of it still await interpretation. The disposition of the various institutions and hence the types of course is not yet known, and such concepts as the professional tutor and the professional centre are still being discussed. This chapter, and to some extent the next, must be conditioned by this uncertainty. Our discussions and visits have taken place during what is essentially a transitional period for teacher training. The training of teachers for the future is clear in outline, but not in detail. We must therefore reach our conclusions within these limits, tempering some of our recommendations, and taking the risk that others might prove difficult to implement.

23.2 A recurring theme in the evidence we received was that colleges of education give too little attention to language in general and reading in particular. One after another of the written submissions quoted the experience of young teachers who claimed to have completed their training with only the most cursory attention to the teaching of reading. Generalisations are bound to be unfair to many individual colleges, and we acknowledge this in detailing some of the criticisms. These are summaries of general tendencies, and it would be a mistake to assume that they apply to all colleges. It would equally be a mistake to underestimate the efforts that have been and are being made to improve provision, and we shall go on to discuss some of the positive developments.

23.3 A good deal of our evidence was received from the colleges themselves, and we supplemented this by our visits and our discussions with lecturers, students, and teachers, particularly probationers. A frequent observation was that in some colleges there is still surprisingly slight attention given to the teaching of reading, with students receiving little more than a few lectures of an hour's duration. More common than this extreme is the practice of a good introduction in the first year of the course but no subsequent development. Many students have therefore lost both knowledge and confidence by the end of their third year when they are about to start their teaching life. Furthermore, there is often an uncertain relationship between theory and practice. Not only are they not interwoven but one is sometimes emphasised at the expense of the other. Thus there may be a good deal of general discussion about practice but no sound theoretical base. Conversely, students may receive a series of lectures on the theoretical aspects of reading but never have the opportunity to work with children at the relevant point in the course. Students all too rarely get the chance to study an individual child's reading and help him to improve it. Indeed, within the block teaching practice they may have little opportunity to teach reading at all, particularly in certain forms of classroom organisation. The extent to which they receive help from the teacher varies greatly, and their supervisor is sometimes not well placed to relate the practical experience to the work in college. Too much reliance is placed on unaided observation by the students, and there is no systematic feedback. Though there have been significant advances in individual colleges there is generally scant use made of technological aids, particularly videotapes, which enable students to evaluate and build upon practical experience. In most colleges the teaching of reading is the responsibility of general practitioners who are highly experienced in infant, junior or remedial work. Only comparatively rarely are they strengthened by the presence of a colleague well qualified in reading by training or experience, and this is reflected in an uncertainty about the needs of students who intend to teach in junior and secondary schools. There is little attention to aspects of reading beyond the initial stages and to remedial measures for pupils who are still having mechanical difficulties.

23.4 These are the shortcomings brought most insistently to our attention, and they are common enough to be presented as qualified generalisations. Two principal conclusions emerge from the evidence and from our discussions and visits. First, there is a remarkably wide variation in the importance attached to reading and language development in different institutions. Secondly, colleges find it difficult to provide enough time to deal adequately with these aspects in the face of the conflicting claims of other elements of professional training. To put these conclusions in context it will be helpful to consider briefly the background of the present situation. During the past twenty years colleges have given steadily increasing status to 'academic' subjects of study in teacher training. This was in keeping with the hope expressed in the Ministry of Education pamphlet of 1957 (3) that the students' personal education should be strengthened. The result of this trend has been that these subjects, which can now be studied to degree level, have made major demands on time. In this context English as a main subject has developed largely as a study of literature, with language occupying a minor role, though in recent years some colleges have introduced major courses in linguistics. Education - which includes elements from psychology, sociology, philosophy, and the history of education - has itself developed as an 'academic' subject; and it has not necessarily been directly related to the immediate needs of the beginning teacher. In short, there has been a tendency for an emphasis on the 'academic' training of the student to emerge at the expense of the professional element. During the period in which all this has taken place the length of the course of teacher training has been increased from two years to three, and for some students it extends to four. Language and the teaching of reading did not automatically gain when the course was lengthened, nor when there were moves to restore the balance between personal and professional education. Priority often went to psychology, sociology, and child development.

23.5 In the mid-1960s, because of increasing disquiet among teachers, there was an attempt to give greater prominence to reading and language, but the structure did not make it easy to bring about the necessary changes. In the curriculum of the colleges there are sections which call for the detailed study of child development, language growth, social constraints, classroom organisation, remedial work, reading, and the practice of teaching. It is obvious that the lecturers themselves have a clear picture of the relationship between these various features, widely separated in the curriculum, and see them as adding up to a coherent preparation for the intending teacher. It is equally certain that few students, preoccupied as they are with immediate objectives, manage to achieve the same. Indeed, many consider their theory course to be irrelevant to their own specific tasks in the classroom. Some observers feel that this is because the students lack experience with children before they undertake the theory studies. This is clearly a factor of great importance and one to which we shall return, but it is not an explanation in itself. It is the fragmentation which prevents theory from being linked with practice within a coherent intellectual framework. Some colleges have attempted to overcome this by giving a member of staff the responsibility of coordination. Such a task presents formidable difficulties and we do not believe it is the solution. In our view the answer lies in constructing a new type of course.

23.6 Before considering the form it should take we must look at some of the efforts made by colleges to improve the position of language and reading within the existing framework. In our visits we found that college staffs were giving a good deal of thought to the introduction of new courses and in some cases these were in operation. In one college, for example, all students had an introduction to 'language in education' in their first year, and this was linked to a study of reading at first, middle, and secondary school levels. Students could then go on to choose from a range of options which included language and communication, language in a multiracial society, and the needs of backward children, all of which could be taken to BEd (Hons) level. In another college a foundation course, staffed by a team drawn from the Education and English departments, aimed to develop an awareness of function and variety in language, using the students' own language as a medium. This was followed by a professional course which applied the work to the classroom and gave the students practical experience with small groups of children. In their second year the students took a course entitled 'Language and Reading' at first/middle school levels or one on language across the curriculum at secondary level. There was then the possibility of a study of Language and Communication to BEd (Hons).

This course is worth reproducing in detail as an example of the productive thinking that has been taking place in some colleges:

'Aims

(i) to help the individual student meet the urgent demands for practical mastery of language in new situations (in college as well as school), and for new roles (as teacher and learner);

(ii) given some success in (i), to encourage reflection on language in use by teacher and learner for a given task; to consider beforehand the range of choices available, and to judge afterwards the effectiveness of the use of language;

(iii) given some success in the first two, to relate particular observations of language in use to theory, and to learn to apply theoretical concepts to classroom and personal problems that involve language.

Thus, during the basic courses there is a shifting focus for the tutors who advise individual students and small groups on the language element in their own work. How far (iii) is emphasised will depend on the tutor's judgement and the student's readiness.

YEAR II (course for primary and middle years)

23.7 Some colleges have made it a policy to spread their treatment of language and reading over three years, with substantial work on them in the third year. In a number of institutes of education university lecturers have given strong support in language work to lecturers in the colleges. During the past two years some colleges have been looking quite seriously at new course structures involving the unit or module approach, a form of organisation to which we return later in the chapter.

23.8 There has also been much discussion in colleges of the problem of giving students adequate practical experience with children, and we came across numerous experiments. One practice was to bring children into the colleges, so that students could work with small groups, with their lecturers and the children's teacher at hand for consultation and follow-up. Another was for students to work with children in the schools for, say, half a day a week for two terms, taking responsibility for individual children or for small groups. Experience of such kinds is not always easy to organise, and lecturers told us that schools were sometimes unable or unwilling to cooperate. They were sometimes able to compromise by such devices as collecting information about an actual class of children and basing simulation exercises upon it. One or two colleges used video recordings through which students could discuss with their lecturers and other students their work in schools. Some colleges relied upon sharpening the focus on reading and language work in the course of normal teaching practice. The students would be given special assignments such as keeping detailed records of a number of children and planning work to match individual needs. Another useful form of school-college contact has been the extensive collections of children's books, assembled by colleges and open for use by local teachers as well as by students. Many lecturers work in close association with teachers at Teachers' Centres and are involved in in-service education and local development work.

23.9 Few aspects of teacher training are more important than the development of profitable cooperation between colleges and schools, for upon it rests the successful integration of theory and practice. We believe that the student should have early access to practical experience, so that theory will take hold. Precisely how early will depend upon the nature of the route the student takes into teaching and the point at which he commits himself. The terms of the White Paper certainly ensure that an intending teacher can select the units of his work in such a way as to gain early practical experience, and a theoretical and conceptual framework that will prepare him for the third and fourth year. We were impressed by attempts in a few colleges and UDEs [University Departments of Education] to put the relationship on a sound footing through the appointment of a teacher-tutor. To quote from the evidence of one college:

'The person appointed has full responsibility for the entire normal curriculum of a class of twenty 11-12 year old children in a local Middle School. He is supernumerary to the school's establishment ... and the College aspects of his work require him to pay particular attention to the role of language in learning of the children in his class. His tutorial function is to help students to develop this same expertise: much of his work is done at the school and his brief is to include other members of the school staff whenever possible, thus providing an opportunity for effective individual in-service training of a cooperative kind. We think this type of post, which enables us to have a few students working in a carefully controlled situation, is unlike other Teacher/Tutor appointments ... teachers involved are not withdrawn from the school - nor is the tutor withdrawn from the teaching of children.'

23.10 We have remarked that some colleges have been considering a unit-based structure, and there is clearly a good deal of thinking in process at the present time as colleges plan to diversify their courses. It seems likely that there will be a growth in the provision of modular courses to give students more choice and provide a wider range of outcomes. Main subjects of study will be built up as units to contribute to a Diploma in Higher Education or a first Degree, and there will be some flexibility in the aggregation. The professional training element will also be influenced by this modular structure and, depending on the time at which he commits himself to teaching, a student will be able to make choices relevant to his purpose. We believe it is essential that all teachers in training, irrespective of the age range they intend to teach, should complete satisfactorily a substantial course in language and the teaching of reading. We are in no doubt of the formidable teaching task this represents and the time demands it will make. Our justification for it rests in the arguments presented in this Report. We have urged throughout that the most important single factor is the teacher, and therefore, by extension, his initial and continuing professional education. To give point to this we reproduce here some of our specific recommendations which depend for their fulfilment on a course of such substance and quality:

All children should be helped to acquire as wide a range as possible of the uses of language. In nursery and infant schools there should be planned attention to children's language development. It should be the school's conscious policy to develop in all children the ability to use increasingly complex forms.(Paras 5.4-5.10, 5.30)

As part of their professional knowledge teachers should have an explicit understanding of the processes at work in classroom discourse, and the ability to appraise the pupil's spoken language and the means of extending it. (Paras 10.2-10.7)

The teacher should take deliberate measures to improve his pupils' ability to handle language. They should be led to a greater control over their writing, with a growing knowledge of how to vary its effects. (Paras 11.5, 11.8-11.9, 11.15, 11.22-11.23, 11.25)

A stimulating classroom environment will not necessarily of itself develop the children's ability to use language as an instrument of learning. The teacher has a vital part to play and his role should be one of planned intervention. (Paras 10.10-10.11)

In the secondary school subject teachers need to be aware of:

(i) the linguistic processes by which the pupils acquire information and understanding, and the implications for the teacher's own use of language. (Paras 12.1-12.2, 12.4-12.10)

(ii) the reading demands of their own subjects and ways in which the pupils can be helped to meet them. (Paras 8.9-8.19, 12.10-12.11)

An improvement in the teaching of reading can come only from a comprehensive study of all the factors at work and the influence that can be exerted upon them. The teacher should be able to organise a detailed reading programme based upon this knowledge and upon his skilled diagnosis of each child's needs. (Paras 6.1-6.3, 7.30-7.32, 17.16-17.22, 18.14)

23.12 To indicate what we believe the basic module should contain we have chosen to present two examples as an annex to this chapter. They are not offered as blueprints and they do not pretend to have explored all the possibilities. For that reason they differ intentionally in emphasis and approach. It is not for us to be prescriptive but to offer starting points for discussion among teacher trainers. We have set out what we think should be the scope but the precise nature of the course and the way in which it is organised must rest with the colleges themselves. We would only add that the value of such a course to the teacher will depend upon the success with which theory and practice are successfully integrated. It is therefore assumed in both examples that the theoretical aspects are being closely related to the student's classroom experience.

23.13 A form of teacher training which has shown a considerable expansion in recent years is the one year course for graduates, leading to a postgraduate certificate of education. The numbers entering teaching by this route have grown steadily, and this trend is expected to continue. In 1963, 3,883 students started their postgraduate year of training; ten years later, in 1973, they totalled 10,759; current thinking is that by 1980 their numbers may have risen a considerable way beyond this. In other words, in view of the planned reduction in recruitment to three and four year courses of training in the colleges, the total annual intake of students to training may by 1980 be about equally divided between the two sources.

23.14 It is therefore clearly necessary to give consideration to the kind of language study which would be appropriate for graduates taking the one year PGCE form of training, and important to bear in mind that this takes different forms and is provided in different kinds of institutions. Rather more than half the graduate students now opt to take their professional course in a college of education rather than in a university department of education. Traditionally, the PGCE has trained specialist teachers for grammar schools, and it is still true that intending specialists for the various kinds of secondary school form a majority. However, increasing numbers are following PGCE courses which equip them for other kinds of teaching - in primary or middle schools, for non-specialist teaching in secondary schools, and for teaching in the overlapping area of upper secondary and further education. No one form of language provision can be suitable for all of them, though obviously there will be important common elements.

23.15 At present the post-graduate certificate of education courses vary considerably from institution to institution, but all are comparatively brief, lasting three terms, and up to a third of the time is normally given to school-based teaching practice. The period left for academic work is therefore strictly limited. Existing courses make varied provision for teaching students something about language in relation to education. Some offer a series of lectures on 'Language' or 'Language in Schools', and electives such as 'English as a Second Language'. Others offer - if only implicitly, through the theoretical core in educational philosophy, psychology and sociology - insights into the operation of language. These might include, for example, the role language plays in determining the social awareness of children, or the developmental stages through which they progress towards conceptual understanding. And, of course, all PGCE courses include work on approaches to teaching. Where this deals with the principles as well as the methods of teaching there is a major opportunity for considering both the communicative and the heuristic aspects of language.

23.16 In our discussions we gave much thought to the position of the PGCE, since we were reluctant to compromise on the principle that every teacher entering the profession should have had a course of equal substance in language and reading. However, it is obvious that since the time available in the one year PGCE course is so limited, a language component conceived simply as an addition could cause severe strain. It follows that a course of the scope we have exemplified in the annex must be modified in the case of the PGCE student, but we have produced what we consider should be regarded as minimum specifications. With varying emphases, according to the age level for which the student is preparing, we would expect language work in a PGCE course to include the following:

(i) Some knowledge of the nature of language: the implications of language as a system of rules governing relationships; modifications brought about by social and geographical features as well as by subject matter; varieties and dialects.

(ii) the functions of language: a study of the wide range of purposes of language; language as a fundamental instrument in the personal growth of the individual; the classification of language from various viewpoints.

(iii) The relationship of language to thought: the way in which language is said to structure reality, both in the young child's view of his universe and in the adult's culturally determined view of phenomena.

(iv) The relationship of language to learning, which is the central problem for the teacher: the role of exploratory language and the influence upon it of classroom organisation; how language offers and develops concepts; the technical vocabularies of subjects and their characteristic ways of expressing things; how the language of the teacher promotes or interferes with learning; language across the curriculum.

(v) The acquisition of language: the general stages of early language growth; the nature of the child-adult dialogue in the acquisition of language; the influence of family structure.

(vi) The development of language: the variation of language performance from situation to situation, and between speaking and writing; the effect of teaching children abstract grammatical categories.

(vii) Reading: reading in the context of other linguistic skills; the general factors affecting the acquisition of reading; approaches to the teaching of initial reading; the reading demands of subjects; study skills.

'Sociological or psychological approaches to the study of language are valuable, but only if language as well as social structure is studied, if language as well as developmental psychology is studied.'

23.18 We have weighted this discussion of the PGCE towards the UDE, its traditional provider. This emphasis is intentional, since we are anxious to establish the importance of language in the training of the large numbers of teachers who will continue to enter teaching by this route. We have already pointed out that a substantial proportion of graduates take their professional training at colleges of education, and that increasing numbers are preparing to teach in primary schools. We regard the seven specifications we listed as a minimum requirement for all post-graduate education students, and we hope that the language component will be more substantial for all who are training to teach in primary schools or as English specialists in secondary schools.

23.19 At this stage it is not possible to predict with precision how many students will enter teaching with only one year of professional training after taking a Diploma in Higher Education (DipHE) which has had no education content. It is not part of our brief to comment generally on future plans for teacher training, but speaking purely for our own area of concern we are disturbed at the possible implications of that particular method of entry. We have presented in the form of two examples what we believe should be the language/reading component of a teacher training course. It would be very difficult for this to be covered in a one year post-Diploma course of this kind. We are aware of the significance of the induction year as the fourth year of training and have taken account of that in drawing up our models. It will not do, therefore, to argue that for our particular purpose the induction year will make good what could not be included in the third year. A course of the kind we envisage could not be provided within a one year professional training course, where the pressure upon time will be acute. Either the language/reading course would have to be drastically reduced or something else would have to go. We have admitted the case of a modified language/reading element in the postgraduate certificate of education, while acknowledging that it is less than our ideal. However, to make the same recommendation for post-Diploma students - many of whom are likely to teach in primary schools - would leave us with a sense of having compromised too far.

23.20 There is an obvious dilemma here, and one for which in the present state of knowledge there is no obvious solution. A great deal depends on the extent to which this route into teaching is taken up, and the kind of provision colleges make for it. For example, we have heard of some colleges which are proposing that DipHE students should opt into teaching at the end of their first year rather than on the completion of their diploma. This extension of the professionalising period would, of course, change the situation. On the other hand, there may be some institutions which will provide a straight one year teacher training course for students who have obtained the DipHE there or in another college. An influencing factor here will be whether a general study of language was one of the subjects which made up the Diploma. We believe that language should become a well-established option in DipHE courses and that institutions selecting for a professionalising year should look upon it as an important qualification for acceptance. In the event, it may be that relatively few students will choose to enter teaching with no more than one year of professional education following a DipHE without a language component. It is, however, our considered view that if this should prove a popular route the time available will be inadequate for the kind of professional preparation we think necessary. In doing so we reflect the unease of several of our witnesses and many people with whom we discussed teacher training in our visits to schools and colleges.

23.21 Our recommendations in this chapter have clear implications for staffing and resources. The most evident of these is that teacher training will require more people qualified in language in education, including reading. In the last four or five years there has been some expansion in the provision by universities and polytechnics of courses in linguistics, socio- and psycho-linguistics, and reading studies, and more appropriately trained specialists are becoming available as a result. However, the position in colleges of education is still very uneven, and present provision would not be sufficient to meet the demands our recommendations would create. We believe that lecturers appropriately qualified by experience and specialist training have an essential contribution to make to the courses we have recommended and that the staffing of teacher training institutions should take full account of that fact. We believe also that experienced lecturers already in colleges of education should be given ample opportunities to take advanced courses in language and reading, a point to which there is further reference in paragraph 24.14.

23.22 From our discussions and our visits to colleges we became aware of marked differences in the quality and quantity of resources made available for work in language and reading. We welcome the initiative of those colleges which have established reading centres, some of which have been developed to the point where they are providing students and local teachers alike with an excellent resource. Such distinguished exceptions aside, however, we are left with the impression that facilities for work in language and reading are inadequate. In many cases they do not begin to compare with those of main subject areas, particularly in terms of ancillary help and specially equipped rooms. Rarely do they have their own accommodation, properly fitted out for practical work, and all too often the work is timetabled wherever a room is available. We believe it extremely important that language courses of the kind we are advocating should start on a sound footing, and we recommend that they should have their own properly equipped accommodation and ancillary help.

23.23 Before passing on to the induction stage of the teacher's training we must consider a question which was of some concern to many of our witnesses: the language ability of the students themselves and their competence in study skills. In Chapter 1 we referred to evidence which complained of the standards of written English of some college of education students. Heads of schools have written to make similar observations about some young teachers who have taken up their first appointments with them. The position should not be exaggerated, and generalisations are certainly out of the question. Nevertheless, we find it disturbing that there should be any cause for disquiet of this kind. In our view the teacher's competence in all aspects of language should be beyond question. We hope that as entry requirements become more stringent this competence will be more exactingly taken into account. In the meantime what can be done by colleges for those of their students whose English needs to be improved? The measure that appeals to us least is what its advocates called a 'remedial' course, where the students would have formal practice in writing essays, revising punctuation and spelling etc. This has overtones of the 'freshman composition' courses in some American colleges. We believe that the students' own language should receive serious attention in college but that a separate 'remedial' course is not the best means. It is unlikely that such a course would bring about any lasting improvement which would survive transfer from the narrow context in which it took place. In our view a better way is to use the students' own spoken and written language as a starting point in the course on language. In learning about the nature and operation of language, students should become more explicitly aware of their own practices. This is a sound principle in any circumstances, but it is of particular relevance for those students whose own use of language is uncertain.

23.24 We can sum up our basic recommendation by saying that during their pre-service training all teachers should acquire a more complete understanding of language in education than has ever been required of them in the past. However, we must emphasise that we regard this as only the first stage in a continuing process, the next phase of which - the induction year - opens our discussion of in-service education.

23.25 TWO EXAMPLES OF A BASIC LANGUAGE COURSE (see 23.12)

Example 1

(1) THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE
(based on (a) the students' own language and (b) the language of school children).

Language as rule-governed behaviour: reference to phonology, grammar, lexis.
Accents, dialect, standards.
Spoken and written media.
The functions of language - some theoretical models.

(2) LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Pre-speech behaviour in the family.
'Speech for oneself' and the regulative role of language.
Speech and the development of higher mental processes (Piaget, Vygotsky).
Creativity and language (Chomsky).
The development of syntax; transitional grammars.

(3) SPEAKING AND WRITING AS SOCIAL PROCESSES

The context of situation.
Language and role relations.
Language and social control.
Language and the presentation of self.
Conversation and the validation of social reality.

(4) THE PROCESSING OF CODED INFORMATION

Stages in data-processing (a) perceptual, (b) encoded in speech, (c) encoded in writing.
'Ear language' and 'Eye language'.
'Linguistic awareness' and reading.
Storage and retrieval of information.

(5) LEARNING TO READ

The initial stages: sight vocabulary, phonics, reading for meaning, context cues, the role of expectations.
Reading and the internalisation of written language forms.
Reading and the purposes of the curriculum.
Developmental reading: suiting the skill to the purpose.
Diagnosis, testing, observational techniques.
The role of fiction in developing reading.
Children's literature and patterns of individual reading.

(6) LANGUAGE IN SCHOOL

The language behaviour of the teacher (the language of instruction, of questioning, of control; the teacher as listener).
The language of textbooks.
The heuristic function of language - talking and writing as ways of learning.
The development of expressive, transactional, and poetic writing.
Literature as language.
Language across the curriculum - a language policy for a school.
Organisation: class organisation for talk, for writing, for reading.
  organisation of resources.
  diagnosis and recording.
Evaluation: educational aims and the uses of language in school.

23.26 Example 2

(1) INTRODUCTION

(a) An historical introduction to language change and stability.
(b) A sketch of linguistic theory, with psychological and sociological links.

(2) COMMUNICATION IN THE CONTEXT OF COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT

(a) Goals of communication in speech and writing: Information needs; negotiation processes; control processes; thinking; forms of self-expression.
(b) Sociological and psychological factors affecting communication
  (i) accents and dialects; styles of print and writing; conventions of presentation; linguistic constraints in a multi-cultural society; attitudes and preconceptions; knowledge structures; motivations.
  (ii) social context and style; comparative study of a range of texts; the kinds of writing required of children at school; the kinds of writing relevant to a teacher's professional role.

(3) THE COMMUNICATIVE EVENT

  (i) Strategies and tactics used in accomplishing communication goals.
  (ii) Receptive organisation - information access and selection procedures.

(4) SKILLS AND STRUCTURES

(a) Primary skills - Language substance.
  (i) the sound system of English, with an emphasis on intonation, auditory perception and discrimination.
  (ii) the graphic system of English, including punctuation, visual perception of letter shapes and groupings.
  (iii) correspondences and anomalies in the sound and graphic systems. Auditory and visual association.

(b) Intermediate skills - Language form.
  (i) Syntactic structures in speech and writing.
  (ii) semantic structure: words and collocations semantic relationships.
  (iii) inter-sentential structures in speech and writing; the paragraph and beyond.
  (iv) redundancy as a feature of natural language: context cues in reading and listening, writing and speaking, arising from redundancy; stochastic processes.

(c) Comprehension skills - Language function.
  (i) kinds of comprehension - literal, interpretative, reorganisation, inferential, evaluative, appreciative, applicative.
  (ii) factors affecting comprehension.
    (a) reader/listener preconceptions; reader/listener goals.
    (b) behaviour of speaker/writer: language variation (e.g. restricted codes); sensitivity to situations (e.g. registers, language for special purposes); awareness of audience - aiming at target groups of listeners/readers.
  (iii) Aids to comprehension: questions; note-taking techniques, models and diagrams.

(5) SELF-DEVELOPMENT, SKILLS AND STRATEGIES

(a) Developmental analysis and evaluation.
(b) Learning to use verbal skills in communication; self-evaluation, recording techniques and personal resource management.
(c) Interdependence of resources and skills: the limiting effect of deficiencies in either; techniques for overcoming transitory and developmental deficiencies.

(6) ORGANISATION OF LANGUAGE AND READING IN THE CURRICULUM

(a) Varieties of media for learning.
  A. Reading: reading schemes and workshops
    subject-area textbooks and materials
    other types of printed media
  B. Speech: the language of the teacher
    verbal styles and strategies
    recorded and broadcast speech
    other varieties of spoken language
    language interaction in group learning situations.

(b) Evaluation of media for learning.
  A. intelligibility, legibility, readability of media.
  B. analysis of content: logical and ideological.

(c) Language across the curriculum.
  (i) activities for developing the full range of language/reading behaviour in each curriculum area.
  (ii) organisation of learning situations within the normal curriculum.

(7) TEACHING THE INDIVIDUAL CHILD

(i) Assessment of individual language and reading performance; record keeping.
  Creative analysis of the child's idiolect, using the skills acquired earlier in the course.
(ii) Devising of individual learning activities based on the assessment of analysis.
  Assessment and selection of appropriate materials to match individual needs.
(iii) Special individual problems in language and reading; an awareness of the various influencing factors.

(8) DEVELOPMENT OF THE LANGUAGE CURRICULUM

(a) Evaluation of teaching materials and procedures in use.
(b) Resource development.
  (i) storage and retrieval systems for the teacher.
  (ii) management of audio-visual resources.

References

1. Teacher Education and Training HMSO: 1972.

2. Education: A Framework for Expansion HMSO: 1972.

3. Ministry of Education pamphlet No. 34 The Training of Teachers HMSO: 1957.