Autobiography, talk and the power of the personal in the teaching of English

Abstract

This article looks at three examples of using language autobiographies in English Education. The first example comes from using this approach when teaching in inner London to unlock the cultural and linguistic knowledge of secondary school children. The second example looks at how this approach was adapted in the training of secondary English teachers in the Graduate Teacher Programme of the West London partnership at Kingston University. The third example considers how it was utilised in an MA (Education) English Language Teaching programme to reflect on the learning of both our native language and the learning of a second or third language. Using samples of pupils’ work, student and lecturer reflections and discussions in seminars as evidence, I suggest not only that spoken language is valuable in learning but also that our personal experience and community identity are central to our engagement with the subject of English.