[Lizia]

Sorry to create another thread, but I have a new question.


I've been interested in doing a Primary PGCE with a language specialism. I currently study Italian at university, but there didn't seem to be any Italian language specialisms available so I was going to go for French.

However, I've found an Italian specialism at Canterbury Christ Church. It seems to be the only one available. So doing this specialism would obviously make me more of a 'rarity' than someone with a French specialism.

My question is: would it make me a rarity in a good, 'wow, we should snap her up' kind of way? Or a rarity in an unemployable 'why would we want an Italian specialist' kind of way?

[twisty08]

It won't hurt, but I would say that French would make you more employable. I've seen very few Primaries looking for Italian. However, depending on your flexibility, if one were to come up I fancy the applications would be in single figures. I would say do the French and you will be able to add on the Italian bonus in your applications, perhaps suggesting it as an extra-curricular club you'd like start.

[JoannaMilano]

I'm considering the same issue at the moment. Shame Italian is such a rare language at school level

[myrtille]

I'm afraid I don't think an Italian specialism is going to help much with employability at the moment. I've barely come across any secondary schools that offer it, so it's going to be in even less demand in primary where MFL provision is extremely patchy anyway.

I think French or Spanish would be your best bet (and either would be easy for you since they both have a lot of similarities with Italian). I'm starting a Secondary French PGCE in September, and was asked if I would be prepared to change it to French with Spanish (and do a Spanish Subject Knowledge Enhancement thus summer) in order to boost my employment prospects.

As far as I know, in secondary schools French is staying fairly stable but declining a little, Spanish takeup has increased massively, and German has dropped a lot. Obviously secondary and primary are different, but I'd imagine the situation in secondary impacts primary, as if a secondary school switches to Spanish as the main foreign language taught, its feeder primaries might start to do a bit of Spanish too.

[JoannaMilano]

Thanks. Yeah, I realise Italian isn't a hugely in-demand language, although I would maybe guess that Christ Church has some Italian-teaching Primary schools nearby, if they offer the course.

I think the Italian specialism would be useful, since 90% of the course is just "teaching languages" as a kind of vague concept rather than methods to teach a specific language. But I guess French would be more useful, it's just getting onto the course! I have A-level French and German, so even with an Italian specialism I could probably find a Primary MFL job, I would have thought?

[myrtille]

(Original post by JoannaMilano)
Thanks. Yeah, I realise Italian isn't a hugely in-demand language, although I would maybe guess that Christ Church has some Italian-teaching Primary schools nearby, if they offer the course.

I think the Italian specialism would be useful, since 90% of the course is just "teaching languages" as a kind of vague concept rather than methods to teach a specific language. But I guess French would be more useful, it's just getting onto the course! I have A-level French and German, so even with an Italian specialism I could probably find a Primary MFL job, I would have thought?

Definitely - ultimately you can show employers that you're able to teach a range of languages depending on what they offer. So in that case I don't think it matters so much which language your official specialism is in. I think it could be an issue if somebody had a degree in Italian but hadn't studied any other languages...

I'm sure A-level French and German will be plenty for teaching primary MFL. I
I worked as an unqualified French teacher for 9.5 weeks last term (short-term sickness cover that turned into long-term and therefore turned into unqualified teaching rather than just supervising), and my Year 8 and 9 classes did one lesson of German per fortnight. I only have AS Level German but had no major difficulties teaching a bit of German at that level, so primary would certainly be fine.