The impact of a language education programme on the development of PGCE English student teachers' perceptions of subject identity

This article builds on work by Burley and Pomphrey, described in previous articles (2002 Burley, S and Pomphrey, C. 2002a. Intercomprehension: a move towards a new type of language teacher. Language Learning Journal, 25: 46–51. Taylor & Francis Online] Google Scholar]a, 2000 Burley S Pomphrey C From language user to language teacher 2002b www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00002356.htm  Google Scholar]b, 2003 Burley, S and Pomphrey, C. 2003. Intercomprehension in language teacher education: a dialogue between English and Modern Languages. Language Awareness, 12(3 & 4): 247–255. Taylor & Francis Online] Google Scholar]). It describes student teachers' changing perceptions of English as a subject as they experience a language education programme on their PGCE English course. What began as a programme for encouraging cross‐curricular links between the subjects of English and Modern Languages has also effected dramatic changes in English student teachers' perceptions of their subject and thus their subject identity. The focus is on English student teachers. The Modern Languages student teachers also gained from the collaboration, and this has been documented in articles by Burley and Pomphrey, and a booklet entitled ‘Language teacher education’ (2004). The data informing this article were collected over the past four years through student feedback, evaluations of individual sessions and overall evaluations.