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This year I have been invited by one of my local universities
to help out recruiting PGCE candidates for Modern Languages. The process has
been really interesting to reflect on the reputation of teaching as a career in
general and of language teachers in particular.
Throughout the process, I have been amazed at the range of
backgrounds prospective candidates can come from. From native speakers straight
from college to mature students and “career switchers” and every possible other
set of personal and professional circumstances in between.
So, the first thing you would need to show is your personal
motivation to train as a language teacher. There is really nothing surprising
here but the challenge is to address both sides of the role-the teacher bit AND
the language specialist bit.
Everybody has got an opinion about what a good teacher
should be like, but the teaching role seen through the eyes of a student-or
ex-student-can be really far from the truth. The only point of reference any
non-teacher has is always their own experience of education, which will be
either seen through rose-tinted glasses or at best-gasp-outdated. Even if you
left school only 6 years ago as a student in the UK, I am sorry to say, but the
vast majority of your experience as a student might be obsolete already. Yes, really.
Whether you were educated or not in the UK, you will have to
show that you have done your homework and you do know what the current
situation is. Please do not mention motivational problems due to compulsory
language learning at KS4 as this would now affect only a very small minority of
schools.
So, what makes a good MFL lesson? Your only way to find out
is really to see one so ask your local school if you can come in to observe. A
bit of reading might help too and there are plenty of pointers available online
on the Times Educational Supplement and Guardian websites as well as many resources for language lessons. So, how would you teach a Y9 class about transport in France? Just have
a look at what practising teachers did. You just need to register to have free
access to the site and be able to download any resources from it. Who knows, if
you do get onto that PGCE course, you should be able to return the favour too…
What else would you need to keep in mind? Showing an
awareness of the qualities needed to
teach children and the wider demands of the role is useful too.
You also need to show that you have thought about specific
challenges like dealing with parents, teaching children with a wide range of
needs and backgrounds as well as considered some strategies to deal with
classroom management issues. No, you will not be expected to know it all but if
you are aware of possible issues, you will be able to develop strategies more
effectively to cope with them.
Then, there are specific issues linked with native speakers.
As a native speaker myself, my best advice would be to be honest and
humble. Yes, being a native speaker can
be an advantage but you will also have to show that you can adapt to a
different educational context and that you can empathise with your students and
provide them with the appropriate support non-native speakers need to develop
their own linguistic skills. I wrote about this back in 1997 at the beginning
of my teaching career and many of the points I made then on p54, I would still make now…
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