Language diversification and Initital Teacher Education: a flexible PGCE in Arabic, Mandarin, Panjabi and Urdu, Goldsmiths College

This innovative PGCE in Community Languages has made a highly significant contribution to broadening the language curriculum available to young people in the UK. The aim is to provide high quality initial teacher education for specialists in Arabic, Mandarin, Panjabi and Urdu and thereby supporting the teaching and learning of these languages.

There is a strong emphasis on intercultural and cross-curricular dimensions on the PGCE course. Students are encouraged to adapt the syllabus they teach in order to draw on their shared knowledge of the language and culture with the pupils. They are aware that, as teachers of community languages, they have a particular role to engage and help their bilingual/bicultural learners feel proud and comfortable with their mixed identity and to create a vital link between home and the classroom. 

The department of educational studies at GoldsmithsCollege has a long-standing, high reputation for its success in preparing teachers for working in ethnically diverse London schools. Its research work in the field of bilingualism is internationally renowned.

Language(s): Arabic, Mandarin, Panjabi and Urdu