HITTING A WALL
Language experts need skills in unrelated subjects,
including the ability to do maths quickly in English
30 The Linguist Vol/58 No/4 2019
ciol.org.uk/tl
OPINION & COMMENT
Is the recruitment of language teachers for UK state
schools biased against native speakers of the languages?
REZA NAVAEI
In order to teach modern foreign language
(MFL) courses at state secondary schools in
England, which by and large means teaching
German, Italian, French or Spanish,
prospective applicants must obtain Qualified
Teaching Status (QTS). There are many routes
available to achieve this, each including a
minimum of one-year teacher training. But for
all of them, applicants must hold a GCSE in
English and maths or equivalent, and sit
literacy and numeracy skills tests in English.
Only after successful completion of the course
are they allowed to teach in state secondaries.
This one-size-fits-all approach seems to
disadvantage highly educated, highly capable
native linguists, who despite their wealth of
knowledge and expertise in their particular
language will fall at one of the many
bureaucratic hurdles imbedded in the process.
By definition, the requirement to have
English and maths GCSEs excludes native
speakers of other languages because the
majority are educated outside the UK.
Although the criteria stipulate that equivalent
qualifications are acceptable, in reality
most students who have grown up in a
non-Anglophone country have studied
English as a foreign language (EFL) at school,
which means they do not have a qualification
equivalent to a GCSE in English.
In addition, applicants with a degree in the
language of their country are required to sit
an English test that is designed to assess the
literacy of native speakers of English. This test
is timed and can be taken a maximum of
three times before penalties come into
force, preventing applicants from retrying.
Prospective MFL teachers must take this test
even if they can provide proof of their
English-language capabilities in the form of
an IELTS (or similar) certificate, which enables
them to enrol in higher education in the UK.
Applicants are also required to sit a maths
exam, which includes timed mental maths
questions read to them in audio format in
English. These are designed to measure the
maths literacy skills of native English speakers,
even though MFL applicants wish only to
teach a language.
Barred from teaching
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