Linguistics as a qualification for British teacher-training courses

last changed 17 December 2003

NB This list is no longer being maintained as we have started a more recent list.

Recent update (2003)

I know that the following institutions have accepted (for secondary-English training courses) graduates of linguistics without any formal qualification in literature (though they had to demonstrate interest and ability in that area):

Bristol
Institute of Education
University of East London
University of Hertfordshire
Edge Hill College of Higher Education
Reading

Please tell me of any other such courses you know about!

Update: November 1999

In October 1999 I broadcast a query over the edling email list, asking whether any providers of secondary English PGCE courses would accept a linguistics graduate who had no university-level or even A-level qualifications in literature. The most relevant reply was from Caroline Daly, admissions tutor for PGCE English at London University Institute of Education who says good applicants with a degree in linguistics would certainly be interviewed even if they had no literature qualification, but would be quizzed hard in the interview about their personal reading of literature.

The following is a summary of a report which was produced in March 1994 by Lynne Cameron and Katharine Perera on behalf of CLIE (the Committee for Linguistics in Education, a joint committee set up by the British Association for Applied Linguistics and the Linguistics Association of Great Britain). It has been available publicly since then but does not seem to have had the publicity that it deserves. We are all very much in Lynne and Katharine's debt for carrying out this important fact-gathering exercise, and the hope is that now it is on the web we can build on the foundations they laid by keeping it up-to-date. The good news is that English-teaching is a viable career option for our graduates; this information should help them to choose PGCE courses and to present their case when applying, and it should help us when we write references for them.

This page is maintained by Dick Hudson . If you have any corrections or further information, please send them to him by email.

Introduction

The Department of Education requires that all students entering PGCE courses for secondary teachers should have followed a degree course that contains a substantial proportion of a subject that is in the National Curriculum. There are differences of opinion among admissions tutors in colleges and departments of education as to what that proportion should be and whether the study of linguistics can be considered to be the study of English language, and so count as a curriculum subject. The summary below sets out briefly the information provided by 33 colleges and departments of education. It has been carefully compiled and checked but it should be regarded as indicative rather than definitive; and of course institutions may change their entry requirements in the light of changing circumstances.

Advice for applicants

In all cases, linguistics students who want to apply for a secondary English PGCE course would be well advised to provide a detailed breakdown of the contents of their first degree course, giving the percentage constituted by each component. Where the title of a component may not be self-explanatory it should be glossed. It is clear that students who have studied linguistics will generally be viewed more favourably if they have an A level pass in English literature and if they have done some study of literature at degree level. Obviously, the responses below do not mean that the institutions will offer a place, merely that they will consider applicants; in many cases an interview will be required.

Survey question

"Would a first degree in Linguistics be acceptable for admission to your secondary English PGCE course?"

Responses by institution

Yes

(Except where indicated otherwise, the institution is the university of X. `AL' = A-level.)

Bristol: with AL English Lang or Lit, Communications or Theatre Studies. Manchester: with evidence of study of English, e.g. AL Eng Lang or Lit, or significant degree components relating to English. Manchester Metropolitan: with evidence of an ability to cope with the requirements of the English National Curriculum. Newcastle: each application considered on its merits. Oxford: with AL Eng Lit. Roehampton: as Oxford. Sheffield: with evidence of study of literature to AL and beyond and an interest in wider reading.

Almost certainly

Bretton Hall College of Higher Education

Yes, if the degree includes a depth of literary knowledge

St Martin's College Lancaster; University of East Anglia; University of London Institute of Education [see update for a more recent view]

N% of the degree must be English (Lang? Lit?)

N = 50% unless indicated otherwise.

Bath; Charlotte Mason College (66%); Christ Church College Canterbury; Keele; Leicester (50-75%); Liverpool Institute of Higher Education; Swansea UCW (60%); Warwick.

Possibly (would need to see breakdown of courses studied, with percentages)

Aberystwyth UCW, Bangor UCW, Birmingham, Cambridge, Durham, Exeter, Hull, Loughborough, Reading, Sheffield Hallam, Westminster College Oxford, York

No (because a degree in literature is required)

Sussex, West Sussex Institute of Higher Education.